Rodwell: Poise, Maturity & Culture

It wasn’t the strongest or most organ­ised of Euro­pean oppo­si­tion but that wasn’t the fault of Everton.

The rather con­vo­luted route to a Europa League final derided with an exper­i­men­tal over­pop­u­la­tion of match offi­cials has some­times brought the valid­ity of the event into ques­tion.  I’m not sure if the sham­bolic way that AEK Athens defended set piece cor­ners has helped to stem the ridicule.  Still, there were a few Ever­ton moments to make you smile.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8255003.stm

It was finally nice to start with a bal­anced Ever­ton team which we haven’t seen for ages, if ever.  Aside for the injury-enforced rede­ploy­ment of Dan Gosling at left back, David Moyes selected every player in their recog­nised posi­tion.  Hav­ing two left footed play­ers play­ing on the left really brings that illu­sive bal­ance to the team shape.  Pien­aar does a won­der­ful job of hold­ing down that left mid­field, but he does so out of neces­sity rather than pref­er­ence.  With Dini­yar ‘Bily’ Bilyalet­di­nov look­ing every bit the class act that we were promised, the left flank looks strong and now opens up pos­si­bil­i­ties for Pien­aar to influ­ence the game from other, more vital areas.

I was impressed with the indi­vid­ual per­for­mance from both Bily and Pien­aar on the left and right of mid­field, but I was even more impressed with the group tac­tics of the col­lec­tive mid­field unit.  Fre­quently the wide mid­dies were tucked very nar­row cre­at­ing options and pen­e­tra­tion through the mid­dle for the short range pass­ing game that, when at its best, is the sig­na­ture of the true Ever­ton phi­los­o­phy.  The good times are here again.  Now we shouldn’t get too car­ried away given the char­ity of the oppo­nents but the matu­rity of the foot­ball avail­able now looks to be grad­u­at­ing to a new ech­e­lon given the per­son­nel available.

Per­haps one nig­gling rid­dle is the cur­rent form and for­ma­tion of Tim Cahill.  I think Moyes has just about worked out that Cahill and Fel­laini shouldn’t really play together.  It didn’t much mat­ter in this game, but I sus­pect that dur­ing Pre­mier­ship matches they won’t both be in the team.  They seem to want to per­form the same task for the team and too often that results in a dupli­ca­tion of move­ment or an absence of depth.  Moyes now might just find him­self in the rare and priv­i­leged posi­tion of hav­ing to rest and rotate his squad, Cahill and Fel­laini will surely be each oth­ers understudy.

Tim Cahill is a won­der­ful tal­ent and a true ser­vant to Ever­ton and I hope he can regain that mag­i­cal form that, when ripe, marks him as an unplayable attack­ing mid­fielder.  At the minute he looks a lit­tle out of sorts and his rather petu­lant book­ing in this game was a frus­trated punc­tu­a­tion of his erratic form so far this sea­son.  Pien­aar has raised his game over the last year and Bily has that pheromone of poten­tial that excites the ter­races, I hope that Cahill can rein­vent or relo­cate his form for the next phase of the Ever­ton advancement.

My favourite part about the game was the con­tin­ued emer­gence of Jack Rod­well.  Moyes has elected to start the young­ster in many games this sea­son and he really does bring a craft to the mid­field which has pre­vi­ously been reliant on expe­ri­ence and destruc­tion.  Rod­well patrolled the deep-lying mid­field berth with a calm­ing man­ner and with a clar­ity of deci­sion mak­ing that bodes very well for the Ever­ton prog­no­sis.  Rod­well rou­tinely changed the point of the Ever­ton attack with inel­e­gant passes and a tech­nique to lean on when mid­field seren­ity will not be given with such con­sent.  There were times dur­ing the Athens games when his recep­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion of the ball resem­bled that of Paul Scholes, and if Rod­well can get any­where near to the inspi­ra­tion of Eng­lish foot­balls most cul­tured mid­fielder then he will be quite the influence.

Rod­well seems to float along the ground with a clas­sic ease; in con­trast to Fel­laini who looks like he’s tow­ing a car­a­van, Rod­well glides with an ele­gance.  This mar­ries very well with a com­po­sure that has Rod­well tar­geted for the future Ever­ton cap­taincy and cer­tain inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion.  For now he fits very well into the cru­cial role at the cen­tre of the Ever­ton mid­field.  And long may that continue.

So with the bal­ance of the team more organ­ised and with the pat­tern of play for­ever mov­ing beyond the attri­tion of past per­for­mances and closer to the true sen­ti­ment of foot­ball, the prospect looks good.  Even if the cur­rent assem­bly of Pre­mier­ship vic­to­ries does not.  The depth of the entire squad pro­vides gen­uine cover in all posi­tions and the blend will result in other, bet­ter play­ers being attracted to the club dur­ing the next trans­fer win­dow and more.  Though the most sem­i­nal com­po­nent of the cur­rent regime is that while Russ­ian inter­na­tion­als and Cham­pi­ons League reg­u­lars are being brought in, there is still room and oppor­tu­nity for young, local tal­ent to rise up through the club struc­ture and blos­som in the first team.

Jack Rod­well is fast becom­ing the heart­beat of the Ever­ton mid­field and I fully endorse that decision.

From The Writ­ings Of Jonny Carter

www.JonnyCarter.com