Michael Ball tackles the big issues at Hill Dickinson Stadium in the final week of the international break
Jonathan Nsangou scored his first goal for Everton aged 16 in the behind closed doors friendly against Blackburn Rovers
Jonathan Nsangou scored his first goal for Everton aged 16 in the behind closed doors friendly against Blackburn Rovers
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The 3-3 draw against Blackburn Rovers in a behind closed doors game gave those Everton players that stayed at Finch Farm during the international break the opportunity to maintain their match rhythm because that’s the hardest thing in football if you’re not playing.
We talk about how important the recruitment is at Everton but so is the academy and bringing players through. It seems to be a lot more difficult now to have a pathway for young, emerging talent.
Back in the day, I was training with my youth team at Bellefield and Jimmy Gabriel gave me the opportunity to play in the reserves. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t seem like a big thing as a kid it was brilliant. In those days, I’d be playing alongside the likes of Andrei Kanchelskis and Anders Limpar, top, seasoned players who were coming back from injuries and building their fitness back up.
You’d get the belief of “I belong here.” Jonathan Nsangou, who is just 16, has been given the opportunity to play a game at Hill Dickinson Stadium with Jack Grealish alongside him, providing him with the assist for his goal.
He has to be a sponge and take it all in. You’ve got to convince yourself that you deserve the opportunity.
The academy staff and coaches have obviously told David Moyes that he deserves a chance. I remember training with the senior squad for the first time, thinking: “Wow,” it was so fast.
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Trying to get the ball off Limpar, Vinny Samways and Tony Grant, they were unbelievable. One touch, two touch, it was really sharp.
With that, you knew where you needed to be at, level wise. Jonathan must have been doing really well in his age group but stepping up and putting a performance in like that, scoring a goal, will have given him a huge vote of confidence.
That can only be good for the football group because we want to bring the youth through. The Evertonians want to see that and we’re getting the benefits now of Harrison Armstrong who has been given the opportunity.
When you get that, you’ve got to grab it with both hands and Jonathan has done that, playing alongside some of his heroes. The buzz he’ll have will be brilliant and hopefully there are many more opportunities for him in the future.
That’s what let Everton down last season and resulted in both David Moyes and the players getting some stick. The manager gave an opportunity to some of his squad players in a Carabao Cup tie at Wolverhampton Wanderers and they never took it.
It killed our season a little bit. Wolves made nine changes while we made seven and our starting line-up should have done better.
They let David Moyes down. Their argument might have been that they hadn’t been given enough minutes prior to that and went from zero to a full game but football careers are all about moments, taking your opportunities and not making excuses.
This season, the squad is smaller, but when different players have been given opportunities, they have taken them. The likes of Tyler Dibling have stepped up to the plate when given a chance.
David Moyes wants to have a selection headache. He doesn’t want a situation where he can just go: “There’s my starting line-up and it doesn’t change,” he wants to be able to bring people in while still winning football matches.
The manager wants to be posed a question where he thinks that an alternative option can do a job for him. You want competition for places in every position on the pitch, I’ve been saying that for years, but we’re not there.
So, you have to make the best of the situation. That seems to be having players who are fitter and ready to fill in.
You’re not always going to have a perfect game, but you want to have someone ready on the bench who the manager thinks: “I can bring this guy on and trust him to win us the match.”
Norgaard can now become a key player
Because of the World Cup, pre-season was a bit iffy for all clubs, but our transfer window went to the wire with several players leaving on deadline day and that’s left us playing catch-up. While this international break has been tedious for Evertonians and with the new, extended format, it feels like it’s dragged on, the positive is that we went into it unbeaten.
We’d like to improve upon our performances but at the end of the day, results are the most important thing. David Moyes has spoken to the team before about short-term targets as he splits the season up into chunks and tells the players what their aims should be for these segments.
We’ve now got another six matches (five in the Premier League and a Carabao Cup tie) with three at home and three away before the next international break. The focus will be on how many points we can get in this period and whether we can keep the unbeaten run going while developing our performances.
Christian Norgaard is one of our summer arrivals, but we haven’t seen him yet, so this break has given him a few more weeks to get back towards fitness as we want to see what he can deliver for us. It’s an important position for us but Harrison Armstrong and James Garner have been doing well but we really need that type of player to sit and protect the back four who can start dictating the play.
We haven’t been doing that in possession, but Norgaard is the type of guy who can do that.
I think the break will help us in the long run because we know our squad is small and those players who are playing catch-up will have taken advantage of these last few weeks.
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