Ha ha complete revisionism. Yeah I remember Lescott just belting it long all the time and Ciry thinking 'we'll pay 26 mill for that', I also remember Baines just absolutely leathering long diagonals to all those massive forwards we had like McFadden Yakubu Osman so much so that everyone raved about Pienaar and Baines' chemistry and started calling him the best LB in the league. Pure football dinosaurs the lot of them. Felt sorry for Arteta Pienaar Fellaini Cahill, they all must have had rubbish careers here never seeing the ball because we just launched it over their heads at the first opportunity. Awful football, amazing that we made the top 5/6 quite s few times playing that sort of Sunday league stuff.
What on earth are you talking about mate?
So Lescott was a ball-playing CB? No, he was a threat in the oppositions box, he was a good age and defended brilliantly. Mark Hughes was only manager. All that +10million "English Premium" = £26million. If you think Lescott was actually worth the same sort of money as Rio Ferdinand (30mil) then fair play to you, I think otherwise.
Under
Moyes we were never in charge of a game. Sure we'd get good results against some big teams, but generally speaking it was about not losing first. And that meant Yobo, Stubbs, Weir, Jagielka, Lescott launching the ball to a target man and then from their we built attacks. Get the ball to Pienaar. Jink inside. Leave space on the left. Pienaar to Baines. Baines cross.
Sure, we played some nice stuff at times - built on that one single tactic. It was pretty obvious to all that even in those later years when the football improved, if you shut down Baines you shut down Everton. Evidence? Martinez's Wigan, FA Cup. He stuck Ryo Myiachi on Baines. Myiachi barely touched the ball, but he made the pass to Baines difficult after the Fellaini knock-down. What score did that finish mate? We were completely out-foxed that day because
Moyes was out-foxed.
Tim Cahill? Playmaker? Or did he brilliantly get on the end of (Baines' crosses)?
Tim Cahill:
TIM CAHILL has described Leighton Baines as “priceless” after the Everton full-back delivered his NINTH assist of the season at Wigan on Saturday.
Baines’ corner was superbly headed in by Cahill to extend Everton’s unbeaten run to nine Premier League matches – including a third successive victory – and the little Australian admitted he thrives on Baines’ expertise from open play and set pieces.
“Leighton is first class,” he said.
“His assists this year have been unbelievable.
“For me, players like that are priceless and I thrive on his quality.
"I’m very lucky to have someone like that in the team.
“I practice in training with a lot of the lads but whenever there’s a free-kick, I do appreciate it when Leighton is on them.”
Baines is way out in front at the top of Everton’s goal assists chart, with more expected contributors like Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (seven) and Yakubu, Louis Saha and Johnny Heitinga (all five) trailing the defender.
No-one is doubting that Arteta and Pienaar were good buys or good players, but at various times we were completely reliant on a player or 2 to provide an attacking threat. Moyes was a 'don't lose' kind of fella rather than a 'take the game to the opposition' kind.
I liked Moyes, I think he was brilliant for us and exactly what we needed. I also think however that what we saw of him was the very peak of what he could offer us. Martinez's exciting Everton team of his first season should be the aim on a consistent basis, and it's a far superior team to anything Moyes produced in 11 years at the club.
