The Men Between The Sticks

Everton FC - The View From My Seat

The Men Between The Sticks

Is Tim Howard just about done at the top level? Is Joel Robles ready for regular top flight football?

For me Tim Howard has been one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League for the last 5 or 6 years. The amount of times he's acted as a one man defence is incredible. Left exposed on far too many occasions he has performed some heroics over the years for Everton. He's a big character, speaks well and organises his defence.

Sometimes I'd go as far as saying he has been taken for granted. There are many teams that can't quite find that consistent performer and as we all know, all successful teams need a top keeper and that's what Howard has provided us with since he joined us. With all my respect and admiration for our current No.1 however, it has been in my mind for probably the last 12-18 months that due mainly to age, he can't go on forever. These thoughts have been springing to the front of my mind rather than being shoved right to the back via denial since the start of this season.

Is it a bad patch or are all the signs now there that Howard really is coming to end of his career at Premier League level. A couple of years in the MLS to finish off may be on the horizon and then back to Everton as a coach? For me the biggest sign has been the lack of commanding his area, not just the 18 yard box, his 6 yard box!! We must have conceded at least 3 goals already this season from headers inside our 6 yard box. For me anything in the air that close to the goal has to be the keepers ball doesn't it? Howard has always been an athletic keeper, is his body starting to not quite recover in time between games or is there a lack of confidence in his game at the moment. I'm sure time will tell through the course of the season but his form suggests he's not quite at the level we've become accustomed to from our Captain America.

Image:RedBubble.com

Despite a few downfalls creeping into Howard's game, he has still made a few quality saves, I don't want any of my comments to suggest doom and gloom and that he's gone from great to garbage over night, Tim Howard is still a quality goalkeeper, just a keeper that is making a couple more errors than we'd expect and if we are to push on we can't afford any extra errors.

Talking of moving on, our next generation. We look around our youthful squad and have the likes of Stones, Galloway, Browning, Barkley, Deulofeu and Lukaku, are we ready for a change in goal too? If we are is Joel Robles the man to step up?

My opinion of Joel since he first donned the Everton goalkeeper shirt has been that not only did I believe he is NOT our man moving forward but I was unsure as to how he's actually a professional goalkeeper that's found his way to the Premier League. Harsh statement I know. I remember Robles playing for Wigan in the cup final, a man of the match performance against Man City. I thought 'he looks half decent'. Then he played for Everton and his whole demeanour looked awfully strange. The way he moved, ran, kicked, came rushing off his line, all looked like a tall slim gangly non-player! I have made the statement before that nobody could convince me that Joel Robles is anywhere near good enough to play for Everton Football Club. Nobody apart from Joel Robles that is. The performance this week against Norwich in the Capital One Cup has admittedly made an impression, a dent if you like into my unwaivering feelings for him. I know he played OK for about 4 matches last season whilst Howard was injured but last season was all a blur and the whole team had a strange time all season. Those performances though were just OK, nothing extraordinary.

Image:Zimbio.com

Looking at the bigger picture and putting myself in Roberto Martinez's brown shoes, do I call time to Howard's first choice status, do I put Robles in and give him time to prove himself.... Or do I look to bring in a new face? Well for me I'd be making a few enquiries into the availability of a new face, Jack Butland, England's future No.1 you'd expect went to Stoke for approx £5M, that's a bargain! Can we prise him away? Does Ruddy want to come back? What's happening with Asmir Begovic... Are these few mentioned better than Robles, can Robles show once given a good decent fair run of games he is in fact a credible No.1?

The way he kicked the ball, palmed Norwich efforts away from the danger area, commanded his area, released the ball quickly to begin counter attacks and saved a penalty, all go some way to proving that Martinez's comments were true, that Joel Robles has been working harder than ever behind the scenes to improve all aspects of his game. For a goalkeeper he's still young, still has a lot to learn, he's at our club, he seems a good lad, do we give him a chance, if so when?

I can't decide, I'm a fan of Howard and unsure of Robles, but a believer in youth and chances. Go on Bobby stick him in let's see what's what, if it doesn't work out then we know where to put our money in the summer.

I'd love to know your thoughts, Howard or Robles for the remainder of the season?

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The Positives Wearing Royal Blue

Everton FC - The View From My Seat

The Positives Wearing Royal Blue

Moving on from the matches and the league table what about some MASSIVE positives I see before me at our fantastic club, John Stones, Ross Barkley, Gerard Deulofeu, Tyias Browning and Brendan Galloway.

In my playing days albeit at no level whatsoever I was a centre half and until you've played that position competitively I don't think you can really appreciate the true arts of defending. John Stones for me is the best centre half in Europe for his age and length of experience. He's 21 and has played only (At time of this blog) 52 Premier League matches. To be at the level he's at already really is unbelievable. He makes defending look so easy in some games it's embarrassing for the opposition strikers. Diego Costa has troubled legally or illegally most centre halves in the premier league over the last 12+ months and John Stones neatly put him in his pocket as the referee blew the whistle for kick off and then kindly returned him back to his owner, Jose at the final whistle. He was immense that day in particular. It's of no surprise to me that people are likening him to Rio Ferdinand. Defending in style whilst also becoming the base for most attacks. It's fantastic to watch and all involved in keeping him at Everton deserve a massive pat on the back! Just to finish, how calm cool and collected was this young man during the entire summer transfer fiasco? Berahino threatening to quit West Brom and other players in the past kicking up a fuss, Stones was quietly going about his business showing class both on and off the pitch. I do hope we keep him to take over the captaincy from Jags when the time comes.

"We've got a diamond called Ross Barkley" We certainly have haven't we Blues! This lad is a midfield monster. With maturity I believe Ross could play anywhere in central midfield, infront of the back 4, sticking in the middle or behind the striker. His physicality, strength, pace, power, technique and ability is at the level where he really could do what he wants on a football pitch. At 21 years old I've not seen a player of that age have the confidence and ability to stand with the ball hold out his arm to shield and fend off any player applying pressure then put his head up and wait until he's ready to pass the ball. Someone name me another Englishman at that age or even any age really that does this. It's almost as if he's toying with the opposition at times, like a boxer when they lean in and use their body to push the other back just to show they've got more strength and power than the other. His quick feet and dribbling ability is also great, sometimes like a wide player in the middle of the park, only instead of running at their opposing full back he runs directly at the heart of the opposing defence. It's great to have such a talent born and bread a Blue! At the risk of sounding as though I have Barkley tinted glasses on, he does still have a way to go before he's the finished diamond, currently rough around the edges in regards to decision making. Knowing when to dribble and when to pass along with which pass to choose are still areas which can improve, an improvement I've already seen during the opening 10 games.

Coleman and Baines, arguably the most potent attacking threats within our ranks despite being "defenders". I'd say the best full back pairing in the country and at times we've been without both this season! This however is where the phrase "every cloud has a silver lining" is relevant. Losing the pair meant we were introduced to just how good Tyias Browning and Brendan Galloway really are. The youngsters have been brilliant. Galloway has shown a couple of times he does posses the credentials to be an attacking wing back however I'd say that's the one area they can't fill the void Coleman and Baines leave, the attacking threat. In large probably because they are actually both centre halves! They both see themselves in the middle moving forward in their careers, all the more impressive that they've faced some of the best attacking forwards and wingers in the league this season and have not let themselves down at all against anyone in front of them.


                             


So far that's 4 young Englishmen we've discussed and they say there's a lack of young English talent. Moving away from our home grown talent onto our young Spanish match winner. Big statement to make without any facts to back it up but what I've seen each time Geri plays, he has all the makings of a match winning talent. Lightening quick, can dribble and once his final delivery improves with maturity and better decision making he will be the real deal. As with all these youngsters I think it's only a matter of time before they get better and better. At 19-21 in any walk of life were you making all the right choices and decisions? No, me either and it's the same with football. As you gain experience you pick things up and learn and become better at making decisions. All the ingredients are there with these players mentioned, we need to support them, expect mistakes and reap the rewards once they do develop, I hope we keep hold of these valuable assets.

I have picked out these guys as I've been extremely impressed with them in parts during the opening months of the season. Their lack of experience on the big stage is why I've focused on them as opposed to Romelu Lukaku, easy to forget Rom is only 22 but has played a lot more matches than the others.

I can do a piece on Rom separately if people want my views on him, let me know as always any feedback or questions are more than welcome!



Thanks again for reading, let me know what your highlights are of the season so far....?

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The Season So Far - Played 10

Everton FC - The View From My Seat

The Season So Far - Played 10

Usually we hear managers and pundits suggesting we judge what start to the season we've had after 10 matches. Well 10 games in we sit in 11th spot having won 3, drawn 4 and lost 3. The stats tell us that we're a mixed bag, no consistency and for a team of our calibre have had a very below average start.

#	Team	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1	Man City	10	7	1	2	24	8	16	22
2	Arsenal	10	7	1	2	18	8	10	22
3	West Ham	10	6	2	2	22	13	9	20
4	Man United	10	6	2	2	15	8	7	20
5	Leicester City	10	5	4	1	20	17	3	19
6	Tottenham	10	4	5	1	16	8	8	17
7	Crystal Palace	10	5	0	5	12	11	1	15
8	Southampton	10	3	5	2	16	13	3	14
9	Liverpool	10	3	5	2	9	11	-2	14
10	West Brom	10	4	2	4	8	11	-3	14
11	Everton	10	3	4	3	13	13	0	13
12	Swansea City	10	3	4	3	12	12	0	13
13	Watford	10	3	4	3	8	10	-2	13
14	Stoke City	10	3	3	4	9	12	-3	12
15	Chelsea	10	3	2	5	15	19	-4	11
16	Norwich City	10	2	3	5	14	21	-7	9
17	Bournemouth	10	2	2	6	12	22	-10	8
18	Sunderland	10	1	3	6	11	19	-8	6
19	Newcastle	10	1	3	6	12	22	-10	6
20	Aston Villa	10	1	1	8	9	17	-8	4

I like to think of myself as a realist and like to not lean towards being biased, however, I'm having non of that! I'll tell you why.... In our first 10 fixtures we've played last years top 7 teams. That's the toughest start you could have isn't it? I will agree that we should be beating Watford especially at home, but I will say that playing a newly promoted team on the opening day isn't as easy as you'd think. They still have the buzz of being promoted and the opening day on the premier league where most of the players haven't played before who all have something to prove is tough to compete against and shouldn't be snubbed at.

Away at Swansea 0-0 was also a game I would like us to have won. If we have targets of qualifying for European football I think you have to beat Swansea, even away. I believe there are no easy games anymore in the Premier League, even the likes of Stoke have ex Barca, PSV and Milan players in their ranks and where other teams lack credible footballers the tactics nowadays mean you can get results working as a team even against the big teams.

So other than the Watford and Swansea matches looking at it realistically what were we expecting from this period of fixtures? We hammered Southampton who were excellent last season, we beat Chelsea convincingly, whether everyone else is now or not is irrelevant, it's still a massive 3 points. A draw at White Hart Lane is a good result and I'd say most teams would take that. We showed some steel against West Brom and got a well deserved victory. For me we can't include the Derby game against "That lot", form is out of the window and some mental block seems to gloom over us whenever we meet them, I can though see a turn in the tides, our city is BLUE! 

That leaves us with the L's we've accumulated already. Man City, Man Utd and Arsenal. This is where my realist side rears it's ugly opinion. Do we honestly "Expect" to beat these teams, on a regular basis I mean. Don't get me wrong I'm more and more confident every year during the last few that we can more than hold our own against these teams but if you ask yourself honestly, given the spending power these teams have can we really "Expect" to beat these teams other than on the odd occasion? I've highlighted the word "Expect" because when I'm talking to other football fans we all have teams we "Expect" our team to beat, for example, Watford, Bournemouth, Sunderland etc... Without offending anyone I "Expect" us to beat these teams but surely we don't feel the same way about City, Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea? 

I feel justified in my opinion on that due to the fact out of the 4 games against the usual top 4, we have got a win against Chelsea but couldn't manage it against the other 3, hence the odd win I mention. It shows we are capable of beating them but it's a big ask to beat all of them within the opening 8 weeks or so of the season. 

My conclusion is that we could and maybe should be 4/5 points better off. Wins against Watford and Swansea and change 1 of the losses for a draw. 

Let me know what you think..... My next blog will be the positives so far who are wearing Royal Blue.

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