PeterMeter
Player Valuation: £1m
Sitting in the office, monday morning being what it is, after another let down of a result from the boys in blue I just had a thought that's been going on loop since I sat down in front of the computer. It started off as a short tweet but after that initial burst of frustration I've been trying to analyze why we are where we're at, and if there's any chance of us ever being something else. Something more.
From the first time I started following Everton back in the early 90's the charm of the toffees (ugh) were their all-consuming dark and gloomy underdog status. My dad had been a closet-blue for several years but being what we are, and were, you were left to the occassional airing vs one of the bigger teams of that era. In Sweden Glenn Hyséns influence from his Liverpool-days in the late 80's to early 90's can still be felt as he created a connection to one of the great teams of that era, and being one of the foremost commentators in swedish television you'll hear his pro-liverpool tirades still. And I'm certain it's influenced other media associates as well.
Naturally you'd choose the very opposite of a media-darling if given the choice.
Since that early (in my supporting career) FA Cup winner with Limpar, Rideout and in-house favorite Big Nev there's not been much else to celebrate. There is a sequence in that game where Southall plucks a deep longball one-handed as it looks to be going over him that me and my dad still talk about to this day though.
It would take until the fated day in march when David Moyes was appointed manager (well, actually one or two years into his reign) before you started to feel a bit confident in the team again.
David Moyes has been a steady builder of consistent performers, with work ethic and a strong team emphasis in his squads, and from day one we were always going to be dubbed underdogs were it then simply steering clear of relegation or as it seems now; finishing in a Europa placing. With a small squad, and neighbours enjoying considerable infatuation from worldwide press and arm-chair support (I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing since they've been reaping the benefits for decades now) we were always going to be underdogs.
But in more recent times, with David Moyes capable of building genuinely decent footballing sides on a shoe-string budget, we've taken a huge step out from under the red shadow of the Anfield gang, and as has been the case in the two past years we've frog-leaped them both in performances as well as in the league.
The thing we've been struggling the most with in the years following our shock-grab of 4th in the -04 season has always seemed to be the 'inferior' sides where we struggle to either motivate the team enought to see them off, or heavily struggling with breaking them down as we've lacked the final touch to unlock tightly wound defenses.
This, too, seems to have changed in the most present incarnation of St Domingo's though. We now have the European leader in creating chances as our left back, we have a class poacher in our main striker and several trickier players who have also shown a capability of putting in a decent shift.
Where once we struggled to create the chances and to unlock the tight defenses of teams coming to Goodison to 'park the bus' we now create a wealth of chances and have directed a flurry of shots towards the opposition goal, so much so that we've been leading the European charts as the team in the european major leagues to have the most shots toward opposition goals in recent weeks, with the chasing pack being headed by old adversaries Bayern Munich. But still we struggle to finish off teams like Fulham, Reading and Norwich because of our inability to convert chances. For those who haven't been watching most of the games this season we've been playing some fantastic football, though lately we've tended to dip performance-wise toward the end of games (sometimes starting as soon as after the half-time whistle).
I find it very hard to believe that the players who've dominated the first halfs with very positive performances could be so fatigued or run down that they'd give up advantages as easily as they have.
I actually believe that with our inability to finish opponents off a dread has crept in, whether consciously or sub-consciously, and with it a self-doubt that hampers the performances of many of the players. The longer a run of negative results continue, with the points we're losing, the more the players will doubt their ability to finish opposition teams off and put ourselves in a comfortable lead before the now seemingly resurgence of any team we play. Norwich had a good run when they came to Goodison but that game was more open, Reading were due a win but in no way showed themselves capable of taking the game to us in the first half. But with our inability to score and see games out opposition teams will look at our string of bad results and fancy a point or fight-back there for the taking. You can't give any team in the League that possibility because every single team has at least one or two players willing to fully grasp that last straw of hope. And we've continually conceded it.
My conclusion is that while we were the ones bringing the heart and graft for many years, we have in a slow transition now become the ones responsible for dominating games against weaker opposition. We cannot rightly call ourselves underdogs when playing anyone outside the top 3 or 4 and even then we'll always fancy our chances for an upset. We need to re-affirm our self-belief in the possibility to get results, and somehow find that winning mentality that lets us be comfortable in a lead, or as was the case with our come-back results the belief in our ability to get back in the game if we go one down.
We've certainly overtaken the reds both in performances and results, as our League position shows, but they are still far beyond us in their self-belief which is what might just see them clear this lower table crisis. While their squad certainly isn't inspiring any confidence in their claiming a top 8 position their history and belief, DELUSION if you will, just might get them there.
In -04 we had a different set-up and the ability wasn't there to dominate games as we have recently but instead we grafted and worked like no other team to get results from any game. Similar to what West Brom are doing this year, even if they have a much stronger frontline then we had back then.
My concern though is that this squad, and this club, needs to redefine itself if we are to genuinely push on.
From the first time I started following Everton back in the early 90's the charm of the toffees (ugh) were their all-consuming dark and gloomy underdog status. My dad had been a closet-blue for several years but being what we are, and were, you were left to the occassional airing vs one of the bigger teams of that era. In Sweden Glenn Hyséns influence from his Liverpool-days in the late 80's to early 90's can still be felt as he created a connection to one of the great teams of that era, and being one of the foremost commentators in swedish television you'll hear his pro-liverpool tirades still. And I'm certain it's influenced other media associates as well.
Naturally you'd choose the very opposite of a media-darling if given the choice.
Since that early (in my supporting career) FA Cup winner with Limpar, Rideout and in-house favorite Big Nev there's not been much else to celebrate. There is a sequence in that game where Southall plucks a deep longball one-handed as it looks to be going over him that me and my dad still talk about to this day though.
It would take until the fated day in march when David Moyes was appointed manager (well, actually one or two years into his reign) before you started to feel a bit confident in the team again.
David Moyes has been a steady builder of consistent performers, with work ethic and a strong team emphasis in his squads, and from day one we were always going to be dubbed underdogs were it then simply steering clear of relegation or as it seems now; finishing in a Europa placing. With a small squad, and neighbours enjoying considerable infatuation from worldwide press and arm-chair support (I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing since they've been reaping the benefits for decades now) we were always going to be underdogs.
But in more recent times, with David Moyes capable of building genuinely decent footballing sides on a shoe-string budget, we've taken a huge step out from under the red shadow of the Anfield gang, and as has been the case in the two past years we've frog-leaped them both in performances as well as in the league.
The thing we've been struggling the most with in the years following our shock-grab of 4th in the -04 season has always seemed to be the 'inferior' sides where we struggle to either motivate the team enought to see them off, or heavily struggling with breaking them down as we've lacked the final touch to unlock tightly wound defenses.
This, too, seems to have changed in the most present incarnation of St Domingo's though. We now have the European leader in creating chances as our left back, we have a class poacher in our main striker and several trickier players who have also shown a capability of putting in a decent shift.
Where once we struggled to create the chances and to unlock the tight defenses of teams coming to Goodison to 'park the bus' we now create a wealth of chances and have directed a flurry of shots towards the opposition goal, so much so that we've been leading the European charts as the team in the european major leagues to have the most shots toward opposition goals in recent weeks, with the chasing pack being headed by old adversaries Bayern Munich. But still we struggle to finish off teams like Fulham, Reading and Norwich because of our inability to convert chances. For those who haven't been watching most of the games this season we've been playing some fantastic football, though lately we've tended to dip performance-wise toward the end of games (sometimes starting as soon as after the half-time whistle).
I find it very hard to believe that the players who've dominated the first halfs with very positive performances could be so fatigued or run down that they'd give up advantages as easily as they have.
I actually believe that with our inability to finish opponents off a dread has crept in, whether consciously or sub-consciously, and with it a self-doubt that hampers the performances of many of the players. The longer a run of negative results continue, with the points we're losing, the more the players will doubt their ability to finish opposition teams off and put ourselves in a comfortable lead before the now seemingly resurgence of any team we play. Norwich had a good run when they came to Goodison but that game was more open, Reading were due a win but in no way showed themselves capable of taking the game to us in the first half. But with our inability to score and see games out opposition teams will look at our string of bad results and fancy a point or fight-back there for the taking. You can't give any team in the League that possibility because every single team has at least one or two players willing to fully grasp that last straw of hope. And we've continually conceded it.
My conclusion is that while we were the ones bringing the heart and graft for many years, we have in a slow transition now become the ones responsible for dominating games against weaker opposition. We cannot rightly call ourselves underdogs when playing anyone outside the top 3 or 4 and even then we'll always fancy our chances for an upset. We need to re-affirm our self-belief in the possibility to get results, and somehow find that winning mentality that lets us be comfortable in a lead, or as was the case with our come-back results the belief in our ability to get back in the game if we go one down.
We've certainly overtaken the reds both in performances and results, as our League position shows, but they are still far beyond us in their self-belief which is what might just see them clear this lower table crisis. While their squad certainly isn't inspiring any confidence in their claiming a top 8 position their history and belief, DELUSION if you will, just might get them there.
In -04 we had a different set-up and the ability wasn't there to dominate games as we have recently but instead we grafted and worked like no other team to get results from any game. Similar to what West Brom are doing this year, even if they have a much stronger frontline then we had back then.
My concern though is that this squad, and this club, needs to redefine itself if we are to genuinely push on.
