What's missing for Everton this season? Osman?! OSMAN?!

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Brownie, you have absolutely nailed it there mate - as far as what our main shortfall is at the moment -
Osman unfortunately is way past his prime and Pienaar has reached his sell by date -
we urgently need some new blood in the engine room to do what a good flyhalf does to a good rugby team -
we urgently need someone who can create and distribute to give spark to the Everton engine -
well motivated post there - enjoyed reading it
 
100% agree. I've been banging on for ages that we are going to miss Pienaar and Osman when they're gone. Performances would "mysteriously" go downhill and people would be scratching their heads why we can't keep possession in the opposition half. Seems like that future has arrived.
 
I don't rate Osman at all & it's obvious Pienaar's legs have gone but I 100% agree with what he's saying. The full backs aren't as effective because there's nobody in front of them to link up with. Everything is too narrow which is leaving them unprotected. Because there's nobody high up the pitch to look after the ball (Barkley should do this but he's having a 'mare ATM) it means Lukaku coming deep which takes away his presence in the box.

Getting 1 of these types of players & another winger will help us

The likes of Bojan & Tadic would've been ideal in the summer
 

Top post Brownie couldn't agree more.

It's clear for all to see that we're a better side with either Pienaar or Osman in it, the talk of replacing Howard before finding Pienaars or Osmans replacement really baffles me. If we want to play passing progressive attacking football we need passing progressive attacking players in the team which is what both of these bring to our play.

We don't have an endless budget like some clubs and our priority should be identifying their replacements as well as Distin and Alcaraz.
 
What's missing for Everton this season? Osman?! OSMAN?!


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Ask any Evertonian what our biggest problem has been this season and you're likely to get a variety of answers. Howard's post-World Cup downturn in form, fullbacks not getting forward, Lukaku's first touch, defenders forgetting how to defend, too many forwards shoehorned into the wrong positions, injuries to key players, Gareth Barry being slightly older, Europa League strain. It seems reasonable to accept that there would be a myriad of reasons for such a significant drop in results from one season to the next, given that it's the same manager and the squad has remained largely unchanged. For me though, all these potential culprits are second to the conundrum that Martinez has yet to solve – how to be the team he wants us to be.


Recently, a lot's been made of our style of play, particularly the tendency to play sideways and backwards too often. Taking the safe option. I think there is a little bit of that, many of our players don't have the imagination to play penetrative forward passes, but much of the time it's a more fundamental problem. They simply don't have anyone to pass to. If you go through a list of the attacking players in the Everton squad picking out the ones that are good at finding pockets of space in which to receive the ball, there are only two that stand out: Steven Pienaar and Leon Osman. Lukaku and Naismith try to get involved but don't have the technical ability to turn or dribble away from an opponent, Mirallas, Barkley and McGeady all prefer to be direct runners, and Eto'o can do anything with the ball but doesn't have the legs to start the majority of games. For reference, this season Pienaar and Osman have eight starts between them in the Premier League, with none of those starts coming together. Of those eight games, we've won three, drawn three and lost two. When neither of them have started, we've won two, drawn three and lost five. You can digest the stats for yourself below, but the quickly drawn conclusion is that we suffer without them. Or, this season at least, we suffer without Osman, managing a win percentage of just 17% when he's not in the starting line-up.


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Everton Premier League Matches Season 2014/15


Now I'm not trying to make a case for either of these players being some kind of mercurial talent that we simply can't do without, but the job they do for the team is often underplayed and their contribution undervalued. They find space. They create the possibility of a forward pass. They protect the ball, or turn with it and dribble around in a little circle, allowing time for the fullbacks to get forward and strikers to make runs in behind. In short, they give you controlled possession in the attacking third. Without them, you get Leighton Baines throwing his hands up in the air, going backwards to Distin, and then either Distin giving it away or going further back to Howard and “BOOOOOOOOO!”. Think back to last season, and many of the seasons before, when we used to spend almost the entirety of every game at Goodison camped in the opposition half. How many times would a move start with Baines playing a short pass inside to one of Pienaar or Osman and then sprinting down the line because he knows they won't give it away? It's been the staple of Everton's play for years, and, with equivalent players, the staple of many other top sides, too.


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Last season, Leon Osman appeared in every single Premier League match that Everton played. He started twenty-seven and came on as a substitute in the other eleven. We won sixteen of the matches he started, drew six and lost five. The games he didn't start, we won five, drew three and lost three. That's a 60% win rate with Osman down to 45% without. As for Steven Pienaar, interestingly, we won a far greater proportion of games without him than with, winning only 37% when he started, compared to 74% when he was not named in the initial line-up. Pienaar in particularly has struggled with injuries this season and last, so it's perhaps a little unfair to assess so few games when he's rarely been in the side on a consistent basis, but having double the chance of winning a game when a player doesn't play is fairly damning evidence of a significant loss of form.


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Everton Premier League Matches Season 2013/14


So we won a lot of games last season when at least one of Osman or Pienaar played. That's fairly self-apparent. What's more enlightening is to examine those games from last season that we won when neither of them started the game. Nominally, there are only two, with another bonus game that is worth mentioning in its own right. Firstly, Swansea at home, which we won 3-2. If you recall, we went 3-1 up through goals from Baines, Lukaku and Barkley before Williams nodded in a last minute consolation. All in all a decent performance and a comfortable victory. Can you remember how we played though? We pretty much sat in our own half the entire game, waiting for a Swansea attack to break down and then hit them on the counter. They had 59% possession and, to be honest, played far prettier football than we did. But we won at a canter because we had Lukaku, Barkley, Mirallas and McGeady sprinting at them every time we nicked the ball. The 2-0 win against Manchester United towards the end of last season was eerily similar. No place for Osman or Pienaar from the start, Naismith in for McGeady and Lukaku moved out wide to make space for the Scot. Again, the opposition had the vast majority of the ball (61%), gave the impression of being technically superior without being able to penetrate a resolute defence, before being ruthlessly picked apart by our pace on the break. The other game that clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of this style of play was the 3-0 demolition of Arsenal. Osman actually started that game but went off after six minutes, with Barkley taking his place. Same drill. Sit deep, defend as a unit and then sit back and relax as a big Belgian lad steamrolls everything with half a pitch to run into. We have an explosion of counter-attacking ability up front and those games showcased how to use it. The same ploy's worked against Wolfsburg this season.


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But it doesn't always work, because sometimes you crumble and make a mistake before you get to counter. Sometimes the opposition is so good at keeping the ball they don't give it away. Sometimes you concede the first goal. Sometimes the opposition doesn't want the ball either and the game becomes a battle of who can manage not to slice the ball out of play for a throw-in. Traditionally, the only times a manager would deliberately favour a defensive, counter attack set up is if they were facing a side superior to their own, playing an important away fixture against a title rival, or trying to gain a favourable result in the away leg of a cup competition. It's seen as a cowardly strategy, almost an admission of inferiority before the game has even begun. In truth, there is no right or wrong way of playing, and, as a general rule, whichever team plays the best, wins.


Our manager, though, believes in possession. If you want to control possession and you're to averse to playing long ball, players that can find space in attacking areas are absolutely vital to getting your side up the pitch. They put pressure on the opposition by enticing them out of their defensive shape. They make defenders make decisions, often baiting them into reckless challenges. These challenges lead to freekicks in dangerous areas, with the net result being either a goal direct from the set piece, or at least a further opportunity to push men forward and sustain the attack. The crowd gets involved because things are happening. It's exciting to watch. If you're insistent on playing a short passing game based on possession and keeping the ball, having at least one player like Osman or Pienaar in your side is an absolute must. They're the difference between the 72 points of last season and the 21 points of this. They're the difference between passing it around the back line, going nowhere, getting nervous, making mistakes, conceding sloppy goals, and methodically working your way up the pitch, moving the opposition around, testing their fitness and concentration until an opening appears. The latter is how Martinez purports to want his teams to play, but this season the teams he's picking seemingly aren't capable of it. It simply doesn't make sense to try to play possession football with players that aren't particularly good at playing possession football. That's why, for me, barring a complete sea-change in his approach to football, finding a replacement for Osman and Pienaar should be the manager's number one priority at this moment. If he gets the right one, signing a new little magician could be the first step to regaining the confidence of both the players, and, perhaps more importantly, the fans.
Totally agree! Been saying this all season. Osman allows Coleman to be effective with his passes picking out his runs likewise Pienaar for Baines . So underrated and doesn't deserve stick he gets
 
Bang on. Players who can take theball under pressure, turn, then release a team mate into space are priceless. Thats why Spain and Barcelona were so good, ever player in the team could do it. We're trying to copy that system with a lineup where not one of our players can do that.

Our best football in the premier league came when we played a midfield of Pienaar Arteta Osman and Donovan. Not one holding mid in there, not one 6 footer, barely a yard of pace, just four naturally gifted true footballers who understood the principles of pass and move, how to manipulate space, how to orchestrate attacks with rhythmic penetrative passing, and how to defend positionally rather than running around like headless chickens fouling people.

You might occassionally get done by a team of grocks but more often than not you'll win. For some reason though managers seem to value physical defensive players Rodwell/ Fellaini, Barry/McCarthy in a bid to not lose the game rather than trying to win it by playing attacking creative players in the centre of the park.
 

Ultimately the key thing to focus on is that we need to sign someone. The window opens soon and if Martinez doesn't address the problem, then I say we get BrOwnZ in.
 
Good analysis there Brownie. I'm not sure I'd have thrown Osman into it, but Pienaar is someone we do desperately miss. He, unlike Osman, is almost guaranteed to receive the ball and make it stick. The game he played against Krasnador demonstrated perfectly what you highlight: he controlled the ball that night and we had ample time and opportunity to get people like Garbutt forward and supporting the attack, getting the opposition backpeddling and in discomfort even against a team full of kids.

I also think the amount of misplaced passes goes dramatically up in the middle of the park when we have Pienaar absent. I highlight Naismith each week because he's the worst offender (an average of 1 in 4 passes going astray in a dangerous part of the pitch every single game). But his imprecision is almost matched by one or two others around him each game. It's been absolutely toxic to our season so far. We cough up the ball way too many times for anything like a good rhythm to get going.

There's a lot of work needs to be done all over this squad in the next two windows.
 

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