What The Papers Say - 01 December

The views on this page are taken from the local and national media and do not necessarily reflect the views of Everton.
 

 

 

A campaign which was supposed to herald their ascension to genuine Champions League contenders after two successive fifth-placed finishes and an FA Cup final appearance has been destroyed by a string of injuries, the loss of Joleon Lescott to Manchester City and a run of just one win in 11 games.

After Sunday's cruel loss in the Merseyside derby, Everton lie 16th, just three points above the relegation zone. "We are in a lot of trouble," said Tim Cahill.
 
There is little prospect of respite. Tottenham visit Goodison Park next week, before Everton travel to runaway Premier League leaders Chelsea. In-form Birmingham, Burnley and Steve Bruce's impressive Sunderland complete a difficult Christmas fixture list, but Pienaar is adamant they have no choice but to start winning games if they are to extricate themselves from the black hole of the relegation scrap.

"We did not even consider that we might be dragged into a relegation fight at the start of the season," said the South African international. "You just do not think about it like that. But sometimes you can go on a bad run, and that is what is happening to us now.

"There are still plenty of games to go, especially over the Christmas period, so if we can win two games in a row then we will be back up the table. It is nothing to panic about. It will take a while, but it is important for me to play in every game and try to get the team out of the mess that we find ourselves in."

It is a situation which Cahill insists does not befit a club of Everton's status and abilities. "The only way we can get out of it is by working. We are too good to be in this position, but nothing is going to fix it apart from our mental attitude as individuals and as a team. We will keep fighting," the Australian said.

That task would be made easier by the return of several of Everton's injured stars, but Moyes knows that he will remain without Phil Jagielka and Phil Neville in the short term - neither are likely to feature until late January at the earliest - and Mikel Arteta for much of the rest of the season.

Leon Osman, Victor Anichebe, James Vaughan are also missing. Even the substitutes' substitutes are injured.

If they were not absentees enough, Moyes travelled to Greeceon Monday with a squad deprived of Joseph Yobo, victim of a groin injury against Liverpool, and with John Heitinga and Lucas Neill ineligible for the fixture with AEK Athens.

Pienaar believes the game with the Greeks - dispatched 4-0 at Goodison Park in the first game of the group stage - is a chance to "put things right". That may be easier said than done.

 

 

TIM CAHILL believes Everton are too good to be relegated despite admitting they are in “a lot of trouble” in the Premier League.

The Goodison outfit stand just three points and two places above the drop after taking a miserly six points from their last eight Premier League matches.

Liverpool were the latest team to profit from their woes by snatching a scarcely-deserved 2-0 win in Sunday’s Merseyside derby at Goodison.

But Cahill believes David Moyes’s side can take heart from their performance despite admitting life is not going to get any easier in the coming weeks.

“I think that's the best we've played in a while,” said the Australian. “Our passing was good, we made lots of space with our movement and had two disallowed goals.

“We were strong from corners too. It's hard to take but at this stage it's not going to get any easier.

“We're in a lot of trouble – the only way we can get out of it is by playing and working our way out of it. We're too good to be in this position.”

Everton have won only one of their last 11 matches in all competitions – a fortuitous 2-1 triumph at West Ham United last month - and have netted just nine goals during that period.

Cahill accepts the team are having trouble scoring goals, not helped by continued fitness concerns over Yakubu and Louis Saha that prevented either from starting on Sunday.

But the 29-year-old believes the improved performance against Liverpool, which came four days after a demoralising 3-2 defeat at fellow strugglers Hull City when Everton were 3-0 down at half-time, was a major positive.

“It's just one of those things and nothing's going to fix it except our mental attitude as individuals and a team,” he said.

“I'm a lot more positive though - we played better football and had a much better attitude.

“We couldn't hit a barn door at the minute but I'm much happier with our approach.

“It's the overall attitude and mental toughness that counts. The attitude against Hull wasn't good enough but against Liverpool it was a lot better and we will keep fighting.”

The problems with Yakubu and Saha persuaded Moyes to start with on-loan Brazilian Jo as the lone striker.

And Moyes defended the decision to continue with just one up front until late on, when he sent on Yakubu to partner fellow substitute Saha.

“I thought we were worse in the last 10 minutes when we went to two up front,” said the manager.

“People talk about systems and styles but I thought it was more to do with the energy and commitment.

“The last 10 minutes we really didn't show a great deal.”

 

 

TONY HIBBERT is preparing to write his name in Everton’s history books by helping the blues quest for Europa league progress.

The right-back, who enjoyed an impressive return to the first team during Sunday’s derby, is in line to equal the Toffees’ European appearance record currently held jointly by Colin Harvey and Brian Labone.

Hibbert has played 18 times in European competition for the Blues, and needs just one more game to see his name added alongside those two legends.

The Huyton-born 28-year-old is expected to start in an Everton defence which will be without John Heitinga and Lucas Neill.

Neither were registered in time to take part and are ineligible.

Everton can secure qualification to the next stage of the Europa league if they beat AEK Athens, and Benfica beat FC BATE Borisov in Minsk.

Joseph Yobo, however, has not travelled with the squad to the Greek capital.

The Nigerian centre-back was forced off during Sunday’s defeat by Liverpool with a hamstring injury and it will keep him out of the Group I encounter against the side he scored against at Goodison Park in September.

Teenage midfield- er Jack Rodwell has travelled, despite missing the derby with a groin strain. French striker Louis Saha has also made the journey, but continues to carry a thigh injury.

Meanwhile, Steven Pienaar has prom- ised to overcome his injury problems in order to boost Everton’s season.

The South African midfielder returned from an extended spell on the sidelines to play two games in five days last week, playing 90 minutes in the defeat at Hull before producing a Man of the Match display in the derby.

The 27-year-old admits he is still not 100 per cent pain-free in the knee he injured during the 1-0 win at Portsmouth earlier in the season.

He said: “I still feel a bit of pain, but it’s going to be there for a while. So I just have to keep on playing because it’s important if I want to stay fit.

“I’ve missed 10 games already, so it doesn’t matter how many games I play in a week as long as my body can take it; I’m prepared for it.

“On Thursday (after the Hull game) my body was stiff. I had a lot of aches but that’s normal. You just have to be mentally strong, express yourself and I feel okay.”

He also backed his team-mates to bounce back against AEK. “Sometimes in football you get an opportunity to make things right quickly and this game is one of those opportunities. We want to take it.”

Pienaar believes Everton can turn derby misery into a new beginning for their worrying season.

And the 27-year-old from Johannesburg insists a run of just one win in 11 matches “is nothing to panic about, even if we are in a mess.”

Pienaar believes he saw enough in the Merseyside derby to believe things are about to change.

He said: “We now have a Europa League game in Athens, and we go into that after another defeat, which is not the best preparation.

“But what is in our favour is that we know that we played well, and we have an opportunity to get ourselves back on track quickly if we can achieve the result we want in Athens.

“We go into Europe determined to make things right. If we get a victory in Athens it will be a real morale boost for the team ahead of next weekend’s home game with Spurs.”

He added: “We did feel we played well against Liverpool, that is a boost for us even though we lost. Another win in the Europa League will give us even more confidence, and lift our spirits.

“I know that our fans must have left Goodison on Sunday feeling very disappointed with losing to Liverpool, but they will hopefully have had a smile too because of the performance and effort that we managed.

“Now we must take that level of performance into Europe and then the next league match because we have been dragged into the relegation fight.

“We did not think we would be in this position at the beginning of the season, but sometimes you have a bad run and that is what is happening to us.

“But there is a lot of games still to go, and if we get as couple of wins in a row we will be right back into midfield. This situation is nothing to panic about.”

Pienaar accepts another damaging defeat is just adding to Everton’s worrying season that sees them just three points off the bottom three.

He added: “Obviously we were very disappointed to lose a derby game, they are so important to us and the fans.

“It hurts to lose, especially the way we lost with a deflected goal and then a late one when we were pushing up trying to get the equaliser.

“We had several chances, but they got their goals from very few opportunities. Liverpool are a good team and they will take advantage of things like that.

“Once they score it is always hard against them, even if we did really have a go at them. The plan was to put them under pressure, but we didn’t take our chances.”

He continued: “The turning point was probably those two saves from Pepe Reina in the second half. He is a world-class keeper and he kept his team in the game.

“If either had gone in it would have been a different game. We were on the front foot, and we would have gone on to win the match.

Manager David Moyes believes it is only a matter of time before his side rediscover their form.

“For a team that hasn’t been doing too well in recent weeks it didn’t show (in the derby),” he said.

“I saw the players’ endeavour and energy. I thought they put on a really good show.

“I have been critical of performances this season but I couldn’t be critical of Sunday because I could see things – because of that extra effort – starting to go for us.

“For us, at the moment, a good performance is a start. If you have good performances it ends up getting you good results.

“In the past we have not had good performances so, in the end, that turns into not good results.”