Everton just love late season anxiety. If it’s not years of relegation and existential threat anxiety then its FOMO induced European qualification anxiety. You get to choose which one perturbs more, dear reader.
The stakes are particularly high this season because a combination of Everton being ahead of schedule and the league being really competitive has flattened the curve to European football somewhat. The benefits are notable in attracting better players, another potential four million fans to Lille and increased revenues which in the case of nabbing a Champions League place would be absolutely transformational to where Everton are right now. It almost allows one to dream.
However there’s a particularly spiteful part of this universe which feeds off Evertonian hope. A dynamic that science has yet to understand yet proven without any element of doubt that it does exist. Evertonians, long scorched by this process, employ a number of coping mechanisms wherever Everton seem on the cusp of anything good, including fatalism, acute stoicism, dismissiveness and as above, anxiety.
The 3-0 pumping of Chelsea caused all of the above really as it was a performance that absolutely reeked of aspirational Everton. Front foot, aggressive, occasionally silky soccer that overwhelmed a team currently in a Champions League place and gave a glimpse of how life could be in the new arena, and area, that Everton call home. The league opened up and a pathway to better times opened, well as long as you can anticipate “better times” in a modern footballing sense. Season by season will do Everton just fine now from the low bar of existence they’ve been used to. But someone put an order in for the glory years please and pay the extra for quick delivery, you minge.
With Chelsea being dispatched it’s time to move onto two more rivals for places around us in the forthcoming two games, Brentford and Big Red. We will focus on Big Red next week so this is all about Brentford who are having quite the season themselves in their apocalyptic post Frank stage, which has turned out quite splendid under Keith Andrews. We won’t need any reminder of the capability of Brentford after done Everton in a January fixture at the HD, which was probably the lowest point of the season for Everton in retrospect. Further proof of how quickly fortunes can change in Premier League football as a heavily under pressure Moyes has turned it around since then. Could it be that fan patience is a competitive edge in a league that has now normalised three different managers in one season?
There’s no malice towards Brentford from me which makes the writing of this preview difficult. They’re in that sweet spot of working class parochial fans representative of their locale. Since their promotion a couple of seasons ago they’ve employed a savvy business model that’s seen them establish themselves as a dynamic addition to the league and, most importantly, their fans are alright. Whilst noting that complete disdain is only ever one minor transgression away its nice to type that about another club’s fans, as we’re subject to all manner of thick, unwashed, entitled try hards polluting our shared stadium space on a regular basis in this modern hellhole of a league. There’s a space for fans just wanting to go the game and either get behind or deride their own team, whilst being in it primarily for a catch up with mates or getting an escape out of the house for a few hours every week or two. It’s why I’m f**king delighted to see Leicester on the verge of a relegation to the third rudder of English football because we’ve had to tolerate fans from somewhere we’re not arsed about behaving like bad bad Texans both in stadia and online without any real reason. Just shut up and watch the game, lads. We’re not after another rivalry, you can’t tell us how s***e we are when its us who have to suffer Everton every weekend, and we’re not particular enthused for signing for a couple of hours so you validate us by absence of “is this a library” songs. Just be sound. You have to try harder to be a tit, which just makes you the tit. What I’m saying Brentford is well in and don’t turn into tits so we feel somehow less alone in this league.
Admittedly the last few seasons I was bristling at Brentford being proposed as a model for Everton to follow but that’s just a combo of my pride and ego being unprepared to accept Everton being the almighty burning bag of s**t the first half of this decade presented. Clubs, teams, should always be an object of their identity and relatable to the fans who hold that identity dear. I referenced it above with Everton’s style of football being aspirational against Chelsea. The brown shoes project showed that Evertonians just don’t have the patience or lust for tippy tappy patience football, and just watch what happens to our crowd when a player is perceived to not fancy a 40/60 tackle. Too often that club’s identity on the pitch is superseded by modern managers obsessed with their project rather than being in tandem with the fans. Which is the fault of the owners and execs really. It’s self harming too as when the hard times come, and the hard times always come, you’ve got less goodwill and patience from fans if the current style of the pitch is the antitheses of how they want to be perceived. Which means we’re back again to the advent of fan patience being an undervalued tool in achieving sustained stability, and chasing it into success.
No need to go too deep into their players or tactics as quite frankly I’m s***e at that type of stuff. I only want to mention that van der Berg at the back could do with s**thousing from one ours as he’s a bit of snide. Other than that they’re all clear to play ball.
There’s likewise no point in going too deep into who Moyes May play or what formation when you know it will be exactly the same as the team that started against Chelsea. Everton have been really good away from home so should carry that confidence through into this, although a ridiculous three week break from our last game will create an undetermined effect on any momentum Everton would have liked to retain. Still, Manager and team know exactly what is at stake and what is expected so should Everton fall short in those pivotal few games then it will hopefully mark very clearly what needs to be addressed this summer. The league is that tightly packed that subtracting four points takes Everton down to 13th, which would be an almighty disappointment of a finish come season end. Hence the anxiety.
Beto will start up front and hopefully continue his annual vein of goal scoring form as Everton have little chance of getting over the line without regular goals from their forwards. This is will be a first major test of the all new singing and dancing recruitment structure this summer in remedying this.
Dewsbury-Hall fits Everton like your favourite jeans. He’s the benchmark for the aforementioned requirement team to replicate, and not just his performance and consistency, but his mindset and character. Build around him. Behind him will be England star James Garner, the Wirral love a bit of three lions, and an Idrissa Gueye who’s played himself into some form. Everton’s relative riches in the middle of the park is going to cause some decision to be made in the summer as should Gueye remain then one could be sold to generate P&L headway needed to stay the right side of the law. Guessing that would Iroegbunam – a man who’s impossible to discuss with other Evertonians without saying “there’s a player in there” so on that basis I’d like to see him given a little more than cameos to make a decision in good faith come summer. There’s the genesis of a really good f**king midfield happening at Everton right now, feeding it in house will open up immediate funds for other areas. Well, full backs and a striker or two.
Ndiaye makes Everton exciting to watch and gives Everton a real top class footballing threat in tight games. I spent a good 90 seconds or so over a splendid pint in the Bridewell pondering if he’s the best dribbler I’ve seen at Everton and only Trevor Steven was in that equation. You can see him levelling up month by month, so there’s another reason to get European football to give him a path of progression and retain whilst the leadership try to build around him. McNeil will start on the right and that’s sound, he’s been putting a real shift in on top of his requisite quality. There’s no losers here as Everton benefit for now and any potential suitor will see he won’t be too cheap. Which makes Tyrone George and Tyler Dibling not getting any game time a bit weird as a decision will have top be made on at least one of them in summer, with very little game time data leading that choice. Moyes’ natural aversion to youth must be the envy of the American establishment right now.
The only change might happen at the back where Moyes has the Keane v Branthwaite decision to make. The latter helps Everton play 10 yards further up the field so would be my preference, without throwing any shade at M.V. Kegger who’s been really good this season. Whoever plays there will be joined by Tarkowski, with Mykolenko and O’Brien to the side of them, and 100 clean sheets Pickford behind.
@TomChitty
It’s really all to play for. The optimism of now can swiftly be turned into bitter disappointment by Sunday evening next week. Moyes is talking of Europe. The players are talking of Europe. The fans are talking about Europe. So there’s the a very clear objective. Is this Everton squad capable of that? Tune in to find out.
Nice to be talking of Europe against isn’t it though.
What’s our name?