I personally think Jelavic gets a really hard time about the quality of his link-up play: one of the things that made him so exciting in those first few games for me was seeing how much of a complete footballer he seemed to be (sounds ludicrous if you say it after some of the real mares he had this season). I remember watching the West Brom game the season before last and it was mostly a nothing game with some deflected bobbler and a forgettable Anichebe goal, but the one thing that stood out for me was the performance of Jelavic. He was always making the best runs at the best times, just expertedly peeling off his marker for the through ball but he wasn't satisfied with just hanging around the goal-line like he ended up doing last year, he was dropping deep, picking up the ball, bringing others into play with great vision. Him and Pienaar linked up superbly, it's a shame to think they are now the two players I reckon most would deem replaceable.
Anyway, I saw an intelligent and capable footballer not just a tap-in goalscorer. And throughout the rest of that season he led the line superbly and apart from barely missing a chance, barely gave the ball away either. I can only think that having poor old Tim Cahill doing the battering-ram donkey work to challenge the centre halves and knock down those famous
Moyes hoofs was a great help to him.
I think the change in partnership must've been the catalyst for his downward spiral in form. I mean he scored a lovely goal against Villa and then an even better one against Southampton, that finish was sublime and I think he was fast on his way to becoming cult Everton hero. I mean, I loved the man and considered him a proper centre forward in every respect - but I think everyone sensed a noticeable dip in his performance and influence. Obviously one-touch finishes for 7 or 8 games in a row wasn't going to be the norm, but that's fine, that will do, because you've still got his great link up play and vision... but that was completely extinguished. I wouldn't like to say it was solely down to the tactical changes but they had to play a huge part in his decline because they stunted the influence he could have on games. He went from dropping deep and playing quickfire intricate passes with Pienaar or Osman to being left as an 'on-the-shoulder' option against the entire backline whilst the game was bogged down in a middle of the park battle. I do wonder if it's even unique to Jelavic, given the popular belief that "
Moyes ruins strikers" I have to admit there's something of a pattern: dropping off, picking up the ball, linking up with midfielders probably suits alot of strikers but Moyes was adamant that leading the line should be their role first and foremost.
Marcus Bent was probably the best at it, he understood and was exceptionally well-suited to it, and he really was a perfect Moyes player: appreciating the tactical value he could offer performing a specified task was greater than the footballing value he'd offer given the freedom to play. How many players can you say would behave like Bent? We certainly never coaxed that out of Beattie. Andy Johnson, good lad that he is, tried his best but just wasn't made for such a role. Yakubu was as we all know a class act and a genuine all-rounder who could do Bent's role because he had enough pace, very good awareness, brilliant tehcnical ability and incredible balance, just couldn't be knocked off the ball. But you could see him not wanting to chase long balls and push defensive lines back, he wanted to get involved with play as well as hold it up on his own. He pretty much paid no atttention to Moyes' demands but he was talented enough to pull it off. You could tell that probably rankled Moyes immensely, and it showed in the rather fractious relationship they had with his dodgy flight times and so on. Evidently something really did bother Moyes because we shipped him off at an enormous loss in a season he scored 17 league goals which was even better than he'd done for us and a tally that hadn't been matched at Everton since Kanchelskis. Moyes going to war on his personal notion of what was required of a centre forward in his team ended up costing not only Yakubu but more importantly the club. I mean as soon as Yakubu stopped being immediatly useful by getting himself injured, he became dispensable and Moyes didn't hesitate to turn his back on him. Saha scored plenty of goals at first and when the rest of the team was set up right (Arteta, Pienaar, Osman, Donovan. Not Rodwell, Neville, Fellaini, Bily) he always looked a threat, but he followed the same pattern - he'd separate from the midfield, be totally isolated upfront and spending time challenging for headers he'd rarely win to suit this system. I reckon he peservered with Anichebe for so long because he was both physically and tactically capable of pulling off the perfect 'Bent role'. I think Moyes persisted with his annoying antics and frequent 'injuries' because he was so well suited to that system. If you want to really clutch at straws, it was overexbuerantly trying to do what was asked of him that may well have contributed to Vaughan's injuries... he was too brave, and leaping into challenges with massive centre half just to challenge for a 50/50 was not kind on his body. And we arrive here: Jelavic comes in on a great run and immediatly has a goalscoring impact. Because he has the confidence to just pop up everywhere asking for the ball, and because he is scoring the goals regardless, there isn't really a way for Moyes to stamp his own authority. But I reckon just like how he made Yakubu a squad player and then shipped him out on the cheap, he was waiting for the same opportunity with Jelavic. I remember some pretty specific quotes about the goalscoring targets he needed to deliver and what was 'expected' of him and so forth. I think once that golden patch dried up early on last season, Moyes finally 'got his man' and we saw a Saha-clone stumbling about the opposition's backline in complete befuddlement and having to challenge centre halves for headers or waiting on the last shoulder for a through ball that never comes. I almost forgot to mention Jermaine Beckford - 10 goals was a great return considerin his two steps up the divisions but I don't think Moyes was prepared for a lower league striker who didn't want to run around aimlessly for the cause. I rememeber again some rather public fallings out near the end of the Season, I think even an argument at Wolves away - a game where we 3-0 up at halftime with Beckford having scored and Moyes accused him of being lazy. Whatever the actual events, it was clearly another disagreement beacause he'd barely seen out the season before we sold him for what felt like no reason, at a stage when he was beginning to show real improvement.
So with Jelavic I think it snowballed. He never won headers so he stopped challenging for them, just lingering around without much purpose. He never really got flick ons, so there was no point being as close to Fellaini as he was to Cahill without a similar approach to a partnership. That left waiting for the hardest passes to make, defence-splitting through balls, and without alot of pace thats a run Jelavic has to time perfectly. I think it stopped being easy to anticipate the more isolated he was because he had to prepare for a much greater number of potential passes from a wider area. It wasn't looking for Pienaar to get hold of it and knowing you'd better get running for that return pass, it was watching full backs and centre mids in the mix and not knowing when how or even if it was coming to you. And then a few offsides rolled into a huge sequence of them.
By now Jelavic is so out of the game for such long periods he looks even worse whenever he does manager to get hold of it, and the pressure of knowing he now has no margin for error meant everything was overthought and without the instinctive confidence he first posssesed. You can see self-doubt has been a big problem, and the few goals he did score (Man City, Spurs) were all the more wonderful for seeing his passionate reaction, the unshackling of chains that it must have felt like to him. That wasn't the Jelavic who arrived. The Jelavic who arrived saw himself as the focal point of the attack and went about with total confidence in himself to fulfill that role, who scored all but one of his 10 goals with one touch.
Maybe, just maybe, Martinez can help bring that Jela back.
