Definitely mate- lets get him going again.
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Definitely mate- lets get him going again.
TheFinnFan
Finners
ofcourse players can be critisiced mate
I think it is just a mental block with Jelly and showing extra support might be in place
I think it is just a mental block with Jelly and showing extra support might be in place
Elong
The fire rises
Totally agree. Nice to debate strengths/weaknesses on here, and I'm sure everyone is supportive anyway.
Little Ralphy
Player Valuation: £15m
Reaching a bit there with 3 assists. The first one obviously is, the second one is a bad ball from Felli and I'd say an own goal even, because it's going wide before the defender puts it in and the 3rd one Felli doesn't even head it the defender does.
Players will always link up from time to time. There is no doubt that Felli's more advanced role has played a part in Jelavic's season. Whereas last season Felli may have been pushed up there or drifted in parts of games, you can see from a lot of those goals that Jela is by far the furthest man forward and is the player the midfield are looking for early when they have the ball. This season with Felli in a more advanced role, almost acting like a second striker/target man when we have possession, he is occupying some of Jela’s space, and Felli doesn’t use great forward movement to create space for others, he offers an easy target for our players to play an out ball. Jelavic would drop off the last man and the ball would be played back to him, often this season he can’t drop off the same because that’s where Felli is.
Fellaini was in great form early season and he suddenly became the ball everyone looked for. Anyone who has played football will know that you know who your best player is, and will look to them when you need something from the game. Zidane talked about it at Madrid, when (Luis) Ronaldo was injured Madrid struggled for a bit and he said the team had become too reliant on Ronaldo’s abilities and the players needed to step up and take more responsibility in games. At times, some of the Everton players can be really lazy with this and will look to loft the ball to Fellaini’s chest at every opportunity, rather than passing and moving to work out from the back. As a striker Jelavic suffered from Felli’s status as the better player, certainly in games, I remember a few early games this season when Jelavic was in good positions and someone like Pienaar would hang on the ball to look for Fellaini instead. You could see his frustration.
There could also be a mental aspect to this, because as a striker you want to be the most important player in the team, and Jela was certainly enjoying that status last season when he was in great form. You enter the field of play with an expectation that if your team wants to win, it’s going to be you who scores/assists the important goals. Obviously it’s not always the case in reality, but that is part of the mindset for some players. That expectation gives you a confidence and an important role in the side, or even the club. Some players thrive off that, especially strikers. With Jelavic this season playing second fiddle to Fellaini, I wonder if that’s had a mental affect on his game, as if you look at those goals a lot of them are the ball played to his feet and him stroking it into the corner, at times lately he’s not even making contact with the ball and it’s hitting his standing leg. He’s really struggling with confidence.
There could also be other factors such as last year he’d just joined a new club, and was playing hard for a starting place for Croatia in the Euros (a la Beattie when he thought he was getting an England call up). Highly motivated. He has certainly been told to come wide to provide an option as well. We saw the same with Saha, he was banging the goals in one year and then appearing out wide the next, and being the one who is trying to play the ball in for midfielders. Perhaps the manager has changed the system slightly for the best chances to fall for Fellaini. A striker to hold the ball up and play the ball in for on-rushing midfielders perhaps?
Also I do agree to an extent that this season players are more aware of the movement he tries to make and at times are making sure they don’t give him the space. But we did see the other night without Fellaini up top, he was making some good runs into good positions in and around the box, he was fouled twice, a few bad balls and a few airs shots. But he was getting there. I’d be more worried when he doesn’t get into the space and stops showing. He’s certainly not hiding in games, he just doesn’t seem to be getting the bounce of the ball, but I put that down to confidence.
Or maybe he just hurt his knee more than we know, and has come back without being fully fit or having the full strength of movement in it.
davek
Player Valuation: £150m
It seems the bulk of your argument there is that Jelavic might be suffering psychologically from not being the out and out attacker we look to get goals from...that he's inhibited by not being looked at as our primary goal-getter. I do think that would affect him, yes. But that's a bit after the fact. Everyone looked to him at the beginning of the season to follow up his performances of last season and he was given that mantle of being our main attacking threat. He just didn't carry momentum through and it could be argued that Fellaini filled the vacuum.
Generally though, I think the identification of other players' ability to perform well for the downturn in form of an individual cant be sustained. Jelavic has played 31 games this season and if there's an inability for him to acclimatise himself to a different way of attacking (if it is that different, that is) or the greater attention of opposition defences, then that isn't a good sign.
kenada_blue
Welcome to Barcelonaton FC
But that's the questioned answered. Jelavic's of this world are not on the same level as Rush etc as those players guaranteed a sack load of goals even when their form dipped.
For example, Rickie Lambert is this year's Grant Holt. Someone else next season will turn into that seasons Lambert when Lambert struggles because his game has been sussed. It happens to every striker - just check the goalscorer charts each season. You'll have the class, then the new players, then the ones that struggle with consistency
They'll have that good season. The hard work comes the following season
Elong
The fire rises
I think we could feed him better, and more often, it would help him, we're very slow at getting the ball into the box. I'd like to think he's a step above the Holts and Lamberts of this world providing we persevere.
kenada_blue
Welcome to Barcelonaton FC
Little Ralphy
Player Valuation: £15m
But Jelavic got injured in only our 4th game of the season. He was doing ok until then. Fellaini filled the void when Jelavic was out injured, and by then Jelavic's status had already gone. Jelavic scored a few when he came back but the damage was already done, the team's focus had changed to trying to get the ball to Fellaini at almost every opportunity. The chances for Jelavic began to dry up, he becomes frustrated and slowly but surely his confidence drains away.
As I said before there are obviously many factors which contribute, but for me, I think the focus of the team changed from trying to create chances for Jelavic, to trying to get the ball to Fellaini and I think he's suffered massively because of it. I actually think the team suffered from that as well because when Fellaini couldn't sustain the form, the team struggled as a result.
Was it Kevin Campbell when he was playing for Everton, who said how much he enjoyed being the main striker here, and how he thrived on people creating the chances for him. Whereas At Arsenal he had played second fiddle to Ian Wright and his game had suffered/stagnated as a result, because people would always look to pass to Wrighty before him.
All of that is spot on for me.
The concern is that if we continue to play in a way that doesn't suit him, we may have a "Torres at Chelsea" situation on our hands.
It's pretty obvious that the attacking approach play has shifted since Fellaini moved up top and that's definitely going to have an impact on those around him.
For me, Jelavic had a much better overall game against Oldham because the style of play was different, so it'll be interesting to see if Moyes keeps with that system for the next game when Fellaini is fit, or whether Fellaini drops straight into the attacking role as the primary target man.
Jelavic is doing most things well,apart from the most important,scoring.
His work rate,his effort,his link up play is as good,if not better,than last year.However ,last year his touch was sublime whereas this year we have seen him miss simple opportunities and with each missed chance his confidence gets lower and his touch gets worse.
He doesn't need psychoananysis,he needs to score a goal break the logjam get his confidence back up and we will almost instantly have a dangerous forward back.
His work rate,his effort,his link up play is as good,if not better,than last year.However ,last year his touch was sublime whereas this year we have seen him miss simple opportunities and with each missed chance his confidence gets lower and his touch gets worse.
He doesn't need psychoananysis,he needs to score a goal break the logjam get his confidence back up and we will almost instantly have a dangerous forward back.
You'd think that, but it's not true. In fact, the opposite is true.
His form has actually gotten consistently worse after every goal he scores. Scores, goes 4 games without scoring. Scores again, goes 5 games without scoring. Then his most recent goal against Cheltenham, he's now gone 9 games without scoring.
I really don't think it's a confidence issue.
steken1
Player Valuation: £70m
Confidence is massive for strikers. They all have an ego.
He just needs one boss game where everything he tries comes off, crowd give his tune a good airing and he runs off to a round of applause. Then he can build from there.
if his chance conversion was better he'd have scored 12+ imo which would be a decent return for this point. That's why I don't think it's style of play that's doing him in.
He just needs one boss game where everything he tries comes off, crowd give his tune a good airing and he runs off to a round of applause. Then he can build from there.
if his chance conversion was better he'd have scored 12+ imo which would be a decent return for this point. That's why I don't think it's style of play that's doing him in.
davek
Player Valuation: £150m
I dont know mate, it sounds a bit unreal the way last season is being portrayed as Jelavic doing it all up front and everything being fundamentally different. He formed what was considered to be a very good understanding with Cahill last season and he thrived. Fellaini is a marvelous player with great touch and there's no reason a partnership couldn't be forged there too. Even if the focus of the team has changed then it doesn't explain poorly timed runs trying to knock him into space behind defences (something he timed well last season) and nor does it explain being front and centre of the goal and hitting the Park End/Gwladys Street stands.
We play different with Fellaini than we did with Cahill in our attack approach play.
With Cahill, it was worked into wide areas for delivery on an angle; Jelavic benefited because we'd then mix that up by working it inside from wide areas, whilst the opposition had to commit men to stopping that supply route. Look at a video of his goals and you'll notice that nearly all of them come from wide play first.
With Fellaini, we're hitting the big man early through the middle. Jelavic's supply is now knockdowns at best if central, or he's hitting the channels because Felli is attaching himself to the centre half, so we need the option for the out ball out wide. Jelavic is no long constantly looking for the yard of space off the defender in the box, so the quality of his chances have dropped to trying to get snap shots away under pressure.
Against Oldham, we were back to doing things the way we did when Cahill played - most notably because of the partnership of Mirallas and Coleman down the right which was VERY effective in the first half particularly. If we play that way again next time out, the odds on Jelavic scoring increase dramatically IMO.
With Cahill, it was worked into wide areas for delivery on an angle; Jelavic benefited because we'd then mix that up by working it inside from wide areas, whilst the opposition had to commit men to stopping that supply route. Look at a video of his goals and you'll notice that nearly all of them come from wide play first.
With Fellaini, we're hitting the big man early through the middle. Jelavic's supply is now knockdowns at best if central, or he's hitting the channels because Felli is attaching himself to the centre half, so we need the option for the out ball out wide. Jelavic is no long constantly looking for the yard of space off the defender in the box, so the quality of his chances have dropped to trying to get snap shots away under pressure.
Against Oldham, we were back to doing things the way we did when Cahill played - most notably because of the partnership of Mirallas and Coleman down the right which was VERY effective in the first half particularly. If we play that way again next time out, the odds on Jelavic scoring increase dramatically IMO.
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