English Premier League: Winners of the fourth league weekend – Part 2
Everton proved at the weekend that they can play with the big boys, not necessarily in a consistent manner but in a manner that will make them feared and looked upon with respect, next time any of the top four side approached the corridors of Goodison Park. Under Moyes, so far in the 2010-2011 season, Everton are still to gather themselves a win so their draw against Manchester United can’t be seen as a totally positive result but given that they were second best for most of the game bar the first twenty minutes, they can take heart from the point they earned against Ferguson’s men.
With no proper striker on the pitch and Cahill alongside Fellaini providing themselves for the makeshift strikers which eventually resulted in David Moyes pulling off one of the unlikeliest of draws. It should be remembered that Cahill and his Belgian friend are no strikers, yes they do have the height and the capability to play one or two games in attack but anyone who expects them to do it at the highest level regularly is surely having a laugh but strangely that is what they have done.
United’s slumber filled last two minutes of the match aside, Everton did give a good account of themselves. At the half way mark regardless of being a goal down, they were on par with United in terms of possession. Respect should be given to Moyes and his team because they denied United space and chances in midfield, something that Sir Alex Ferguson had clearly intended to make full use of.
Fergie lined his team up with a 4-5-1. With five in the midfield, Sir Alex demanded of his players to control possession and thus control the game, however this did not work. Everton, who were without Saha and Philip Neville and with Johnny Heitinga in central midfield, gave Scholes, Fletcher, O’Shea, Giggs and Nani a fair share of trouble. Not only that, the Toffees were the first to score first blood as Pienaar got their first goal after his team mates broke from their own half at lightening pace to catch United’s defence off guard.
A man who stood out in his performance for the Merseyside Blues was Tim Cahill. The Australian so called “midfielder” should not act sensibly and remove any text which mentions him as a midfielder because he clearly isn’t so. Last season in the 2009-2010 English Premier League season, Cahill scored ten goals. Before that in 2008-2009 season, the Australian international footballer got nine and in the 2007-2008 season, he got twelve. Most of his goals have come through his fantastic ability to leap and head the ball against the most ferocious of defences.
In his first season with the club way back in 2004-2005, Cahill played as a striker mostly, a secondary one at that and got himself twelve goals. That is something that not even Yakubu, Everton’s first choice striker in the previous two seasons was able to do. Yakubu got five and six goals respectively in the 2008-2009 season and the 2009-2010 English Premier League season. Remarkably the Australians last twelve of the fourteen goals have come from his head, something that is a coincidence? Definitely not.
As Everton’s season gathers strength, Cahill will have an increasingly vital role to play. He has already shown his manager that his true position lies in front of the opposition’s goal not in midfield where he has been deployed for the majority of his games at Merseyside. David Moyes should seriously consider turning Cahill into a full time striker, a striker that is an expert at heading the ball and terrorizing defences in doing so.
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