GK (1 of 3)
Nash, Howard, Ruddy
Left Back (1 of 2)
Baines, Distin
Centre Backs (2 of 7)
Distin, Yobo, Jagielka, Heitenga, Mustafi, Neville, Rodwell
Right Back (1 of 6)
Hibbert, Neville, Jagielka, Heitenga, Coleman, Gosling
Left Midfield (1 of 3)
Bilyaletdinov, Pienaar, Arteta,
Defensive Midfield (1 of 5)
Rodwell, Neville, Peterlin, Fellaini , Heitenga
Central/Attacking Midfield (1 of 8)
Rodwell, Fellaini, Osman, Cahill, Arteta, Pienaar, Bilyaletdinov, Baxter
Right Midfield (1 of 6)
Osman, Arteta, Pienaar, Bilyaletdinov, Gosling, Wallace,
Strikers (2 of 10)
Arnoux, Saha, Jo, Yakubu, Baxter, Cahill, Fellaini, Vaughan, Anichebe, Agard
Right. Now I know some are injured, and some are young. But we have a squad there where we can blood youth in Carling Cup games, bring players on to give others a rest.
I am also aware that we won't always play one up front. But surely we can see from that snapshot of the squad that we have strength in depth. Forget about the finances of the club, there is an underlying situation going on, which I expect to be resolved sooner rather than later.
Fact of the matter is we have a team and squad who are capable of beating any team outside of the top 4, and can certainly do some damage on the top 4.
If you don't believe that, then your in for a disappointing season and your Karma is not something I envy for you.
I don't think Moyes is being let down by Kenwright, I know for a fact that they are closer than any other manager/chairman - and that a contract was signed by Moyes with some conditions to do with Kenwright remaining as Chairman, come what may.
Also out of that list of players we have:
12 have been represented at senior international level
With a further 4 at youth level.
Now the dust has settled im really happy and admittedly excited by the squad, this could be a really big year for us.
I honestly feel during the window we take our existing players for granted.
(1) Yak is capable of scoring of scoring 20 goals a season - not many teams can boast that.
(2) Cahill is our fox in the box capable of getting anything between 8 -12 goals- not only that he is our unoffical captain - a driving force in our team - in many ways he dictates the pace our team plays with.
(3) Fellaini - Again capable of chipping in with 8-10 goals, his impact on the team is superb and gives a physical presence through the centre, making it more difficult for teams to break us down, Pele famously said that "football is a simple game" Mo fro does the simple things well while in pocession - a strong possibility his game can develop even more this year.
(4) Neville our very own Mr Taken for grantesd his expierence and drive is immense and in so many ways sets the tone or Evertons squad, hes been fantastic the past couple of seasons for me and so willing and versatile his place in the team is vitlal and rightly gauernteed.
(5) Pienaar playing his best football for Everton in the past six months, has developed consistencey in his play and a great balance between defence and creative play. A superb attacking outlet.
(6) Arteta what can you say about Miky, Evertons catylist in so many ways our x factor, play maker and a match winner - he doesnt only play immensely indivdualy, he makes it so easy for those he plays with to - beyond that he carries the burden of creativity on his shoulder like a true great. Hopefully this season we may have additional outlets in Billy and Pienaar, maybe even Jo.
(7) Jags - The lads game has come on leaps and bounds since he came to us, seems just to get better and better - he has the ability and the will to be as good as say John Terry if he keeps improving at his rate of prgression.
Then we have the maybes the ones who have the ability as any of the above to be standout performers for us and who possibly could be this season:
1) Rodwell limitless talent really, this lad was simply put together with one goal in mind and that was simply to play football. Vision, range of passing, athethism, has a goal in him - he reminds me of a young Gerrard but better, i have no doubht he will hit that standard - hopefully at Everton. He needs to show for the ball more, make a greater impact on games and work on his game when not in pocession - but that will come with expierence. Could be an ace in the hole this season.
2) Jo undouthed ability - for me not an out and out striker - i think he could play an important role in home games behind a frontman and working with Billy, Arteta and Pieannr in front of defence as he did in his better games for us last season. He has a good footballing brain, movement and can pick out a pass i see him more as a traditional number 10 sitting behind a striker. Could chip in with 8-10 goals.
3) Saha, probably the most gifted striker in our team. The question remains does he do enough in terms of his overall link up play and holding up the ball to be Evertons Alpha striker over the Yak?
Moyes also seems to have an obsession to want to protect him - which may mean we see the Yak more then we see Saha, he has started the season suberbly the question is with the Yak fit will he get oppurtunities.
4) Billy the winger we have craved for for such a long time and the hope is he can give us another creative outlet apart from Arteta and Pienaar. Nothing is certain when it comes to new signings and adjustment but lets see if he can give us all what we hope for. With Arteta, Pienaar and Billy we may have a three pronged method of penetration left, right and centre - modern day Kendall, Ball and Harvey.
The Worry.
Prsonally im a little worried about the defence, regardless of how we feel about him now Lescott is a major loss. We need Joey to show all his expierence now and mould a cohesive defence with Distin and Heitinger untill Jags is back, hopefully it wont take us to long to adjust.
Midfeild as has been stated already we dont have magician cover for Arteta and untill his return we will be forced to use tenacity and working hard to shore up the midfeild and use Pienaar and Billy effectively wheather this will be enough to hang on to the top places untill Artetas return - lets see.
So a lot to look forward to from established players and those who could kick on, personally i think this our strongest squad in a long long time in terms of depth and quality.
If we can keep the likes of City, Liverpool, Villa and Spurs in sight untill the end of November i expect us to be competitive for the top four. Generally as a team it takes us 4-5 games to build up a head of steam hopefully we are there now - let the fun commence.
