Heavens 11

Labels: Benfica

Labels: manchester united, premiership

Sunday 15th May 2005, Everton have just lost 3-2 away to Bolton Wanderers after being 1 up at half-time. Referee Neale Barry blows the final whistle to signal the end of the 04/05 campaign. Rapturous cheers fill the stadium (following a bit of handbags between Jaaskelainen and some Everton players), but the cheers are not those of the Bolton fans. Today the cheers are those of the Toffees. Today Everton have finished 4th in the table, sandwiched between Arsenal and Liverpool. Today Everton have qualified for the Champions League.

Sunday 25th October 2009. Everton have just lost 3-2 away to Bolton and currently sit 14th in the table.

There can be no denying that the blue half of Merseyside are struggling this year. All signs pointed to a decline when on the opening day of the season they lost 6-1 to Arsenal, with a team still boasting Lescott at the heart of their defence. Opening day fixtures can often be discounted as flukes, or slight blips in the graph, yet this was something greater and much more ominous.

Last season, Everton finished in 5th as they had done in 07/08. They had the 5th best defensive record in the country, and were runners up in the FA Cup. Overall they won 45% of all their matches with an excellent away record. Cahill, Fellaini and Saha all netting 7+ goals and Lescott contributing 5 from defence. It truly had been an excellent season, more so when one considered the late surge from Tottenham, the consistency of Fulham and the millions of Manchester City.

This season though it's all falling apart. Only last week an Everton side shorn of 10 starting players were torn apart by a magnificent Benfica. They conceded 5 goals, and have since conceded another 5 in games against Bolton and Spurs. In the league alone they have lost 3 quarters of their away games.

The first port of call in these situations is often the same; injuries. At the time of writing, the Toffee's injury list reads like Steve Bruce's shortlist. No less than 10 players are injured, 8 of whom are arguable starters for the club. Players such as Jagielka, Pienaar, Neville, Osman, Yobo and worst of all Arteta. Those players alone account for 27 of Everton's goals last season.

Which brings us to the question of depth.

Everton are not a rich club, they do not have the deep pockets of their red neighbours, nor the sound financial nous of their direct rivals; Tottenham. They have had to work hard to get where they are, and are lucky in that Moyes famously shares an excellent relationship with their owner, Bill Kenwright. This summer they spent quite big by their own standards and brought in Heitinga, Distin and Bilyaletdinov at a combined cost of £20 million. Compare that to the money spent by Manchester City on Adebayor alone.

Heitinga was a rush buy to compensate for the loss of Joleon Lescott, a player who won't be having a testimonial for former employers Atletico Madrid. The loss of Lescott cannot be underestimated. Moyes did everything in his power to keep him, turning away bid after bid from potential suitors, and even publicly turning down a transfer request from the player himself. Eventually the £24 million offered by City was too good to turn down, and once again in late August Everton found themselves missing a vital piece of the jigsaw.

"There is not a chance we will sell this close to the end of the window, the offers were not big enough. We think the world of him, as a centre-half and a left-back. He gives us two players in one."

They have lost a rock at the heart of their team, in both the dressing room and on the field he was a leader, a goal scorer and seemingly irreplaceable. The numbers don't lie, they have conceded 15 goals this year compared the 37 they conceded all of last season.

The contribution from the forwards is also telling; they failed to bring in a striker and so are making do with the services of Saha, Yakubu and Jo. On his day Saha is up there with the best, however his day seems to come around as often as wins for Ipswich. Yakubu is permanently crocked and Jo although having decent technique just doesn't cut the mustard. They rely far too heavily on their midfielders, and with the absence of Pienaar, Osman and Arteta, have left Cahill carrying too heavy a burden. Bilyaletdinov has contributed with one goal, yet he has come half-way through the Russian season and cannot be relied upon to pick up the slack. Fellaini has made a decent contribution, although in my opinion has struggled to live up the record-price-tag paid for him.

In the end the buck has to stop with the people who run this club. In my opinion Moyes did not do enough to strengthen his squad, especially with the likes of Man City, Tottenham, Fulham and Villa swarming all around. In his defence, the sale of Lescott ended up forcing his hand, and he played it poorly -- Heitinga may well be the answer, but it's too soon to tell. Lucas Neill's recent arrival could also provide the solidity and leadership so desperately lacking.

Hopefully by the time the winter transfer window opens, Neill, Heitinga, Distin and Bilyaletdinov will have settled and a few first teamers will have returned. Either way, it may be too late to relive that feeling of Sunday 15th May 2005.

Labels: Everton

Sporting Lisbon are 10 points off the pace after only 8 games in the Portuguese Superliga trailing the seemingly unstoppable force of Benfica. Benfica's strength, which shall be explored in this blog in the coming days, is of course one part of the situation but Sporting seem to be in a gradual state of decline since their last league title in 2002. That team was built around the colossus that was Mario Jardel who managed to bang in 42 goals in 30 league appearances and scooped up the golden boot for his troubles. However, Sporting create enough talent through their youth system to consistently challenge effectively for the title every season as well as improve on their record of 2 titles in the last 27 years.

Over the last 15 years Sporting have produced players of genuine world class that have been sold to foreign clubs for good money. Luis Figo, Simao Sabrosa, Ricardo Quaresma, Hugo Viana and Nani have been nurtured by the Sporting Academy's loving arms and sold for a combined total of €80 million. Some still remain in the form of Joao Moutinho and Miguel Veloso (who incidentally is nowhere near as good as he is in FM 2009, but talented nonetheless) so where is the crisis?

Apart from the general decline of the Portuguese league dating back to the early nineties Sporting suffers from the nuisance that is debt, estimated to be in the region of €200 million, which means that Sporting can only use 20% of their transfer income. Ironically this debt was only a third of what it was in 1995, and apart from the hefty income generated through sales, Sporting have benefited from Champions League revenue, the astronomical rise of TV revenue, increased merchandise sales and very, very frugal transfer spending with Rodrigo Tello representing their record signing for a grandiose fee of €7 million. Fingers have been pointed at their management which is suspected of dipping their fingers in the financial coffers (something rather acceptable throughout Portuguese football clubs).

Sporting's current manager, Paulo Bento, has ditched the team's traditional use of width, which had effectively made use of the quality wingers being churned out of their academy, and put his faith in a diamond formation. Consequently they have found it harder to unlock defences with less being created for their leading front man Liedson. Where they should have been picking up 3 points they are ending up with one as happened against Vitoria Guimaraes on Tuesday. The signing of Matias (Matigol) Fernandez was seen as the creative spark of the diamond but he is yet to settle in and perform to his potential.

Sporting's squad needs serious investment and this can't happen while they are burdened with such astronomical debts. The other two signings this season were Caicedo on loan from Manchester City and the 32 year old Angulo on a free transfer, hardly mouthwatering prospects. It has become a selling club that cannot replace the talent they sell with a much maligned manager trying to adapt to the squad available to him rather than a genuine title contender. Nurturing young talent is the key, but its not enough when grubby paws are bogarting funds from the kitty.

World football may not have quaked, or even trembled, at the news that Sweden are not going to South Africa next year. Sweden have struggled to reach the highs achieved in USA those 15 years ago and whimpered out of the last World Cup against a superior Germany.

Failure to qualify has seen the resignation of long serving coach Lars Lagerback who has managed to qualify for every major tournament since 2000, which considering Sweden's population, and paltry league, is an impressive feat. Sweden's ageing squad has been found out and despite having strength and depth in attack, their major failing has been to score goals. Sweden's problem is ingrained in its very culture. Stability and consistency are prized traits, as are players who have tactical awareness and a willingness to perform their duties to the letter. It has been Sweden's strength too. On their day they are the bane of creative teams, one of the most difficult teams to break down with a midfield that is hard working and able to cover for positional errors and a defence that dominates both aerially and that can mark a potent strikeforce out of the game. However, times change, and a strong defence is not enough when you can't score goals.

The Swedish Football Federation needs to ditch the Nordic values that may have made IKEA the flagship of modest, minimalist efficiency and hire someone who is willing to display some minerals when it comes to team selection. As much respect as I have for Niclas Alexandersson, Daniel Andersson and Anders Svensson, these are players I was watching when Jurassic Park came out and young Swedish players are not given a chance. Where is Toivonen, Elm or Berg? Players that were so unfairly knocked out of the U21 European Championship semi finals?

Sven has already said no, Hodgson is still on the cards, but as much respect as I have for them both I think its time to think young and fresh. Give some of the young Swedes a chance and build a team round Zlatan while he still has some playing life left in him. Otherwise where the hell are we going to find our new Tomas Brolins?

When Real Madrid raided their Scrooge McDuck coffers this summer for some transfer kitty they had done something which hitherto had not been the case.

There have been endless articles, blogs and podcasts espousing shock and bewilderment at Liverpool's lack of form this season. But why?