MALAISE

I DECIDED on a self-enforced 48 hour blogging ban after Thursday’s game.
It was to give me time to cool down and get a sense of perspective on that shambles. If I’d blogged Thursday night it would have been a rant.

Friday, I was still feeling ranty.
Now it’s Sunday and we’ve just been comfortably beaten by Villa at their gaff to really burst the bubble of our impressive start.
Despite that I’m going to try and avoid ranting. I want this blog to be positive and as far removed from your typical “Moyes Out” Park End phone-in merchant as possible.
We’ve still just broken our transfer record, we’re still in Europe, and we’ve still got the basis of a promising squad.
But then it’s hard to keep the negativity at bay.

Take the £11m man himself. Yakubu said he signed for the blues to play European football. He didn’t look arsed on Thursday. He looked lazy and I can’t recall more than a handful of occasions when he actually ran.
If that trait persists things don’t look good, because Goodison will forgive many faults in a player but lack of effort isn’t one of them. James Beattie found that out to his cost when he let frustration curb his endeavour.
To see Yakubu dropped for the trip to the Midlands suggests he didn’t up his game in training since Thursday either. That’s worrying.
Moyes has many good qualities but his people skills aren’t always lauded.
If Yakubu has the sort of personality which needs ‘handling’ and cajoling to get him fired-up, then the concern is he won’t find it here. Rightly or wrongly I get the impression that Moyes thinks that it’s a player’s job to motivate himself.
Either way, it’s ludicrously early to start labelling Yakubu a bad buy. The Metalist display did him no favours, but his goal record remains impressive and he is still settling in. .
And anyway, Leighton Baines aside, the Metalist display did nobody any favours.
I have always tried to defend Tony Hibbert in deference to his better qualities of tenacity and man-marking.
I always hoped his distribution and crossing would improve. They just haven’t.
Sadly they seem to have gotten worse.
I can’t see an argument for him being in the side anymore because he simply gives the ball away too much and creates too many problems in a key position.
Which brings us to Phil Neville, who is another player I’m naturally inclined to like. He comes across as a top fella, has pride in the shirt and never stops working.
But any delusions of him as a midfielder should now be deader than Oscar De La Hoya’s machismo.
Neville also gives the ball away far too much. Retaining possession is 100% vital for any top flight team in Europe and the league.
At full-back he looks OK but when the skipper tries a more expansive passing game in midfield he rarely finds a blue shirt. It’s just not good enough.
Neville should now compete for a place at full back with Jagielka and Baines.
Then to Europe. We’ve got a job on our hands to get in into the group stages now. And I can’t help but think that this all could have been avoided.
Injuries robbed us of any creativity. But our continual over-reliance on Arteta emphasises the manager’s failure to bring in midfield creativity over the summer, the ageing Gravesen aside.
Tactically we seemed naive against foreign opponents again. Everton effectively played 4-3-3 and changed to face the competent Ukrainians who surprised with their efficiency (and kits....who’d have thought they’d have proper kits? I was waiting for them to have kits made by Pony or Nicks).
Despite being solid opponents I saw nothing about Metalist which made our formation changes necessary.
We’ve played 4-4-2 successfully at home this season and I would have stuck to that.
Not only was Osman, Neville, Carsley and McFadden a pretty woeful midfield it was also a new one. There was already enough of the ‘unknown’ about Thursday without asking the players to adapt to a new formation.
Then we get to Andy Johnson. His work-rate, running of the channels and intelligence is still beyond reproach.
But his third penalty was inexcusable for a professional footballer. He should never have been allowed to take it. Moyes, or Neville as skippers should have give the job to someone else. A 2-1 victory, even with an infuriatingly conceded away goal, would have been miles better.
I hope the squad pulls together now. There were some terrible refereeing decisions on Thursday and they must be mentally tough enough to regroup and not allow this malaise to scupper them like the last time.
The blip can be exactly just that - a temporary blip - and we can beat Wednesday, Boro and Kharkiv.

I firmly believe our squad is capable of that. I hope they do.

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