Blue Watch: A good week for one Evertonian
WITH Leighton Baines making his England debut last night, at least it's been a decent week for one Evertonian.
As for the rest, well, such is football, the highs of the Chelsea and Manchester United results have faded as quickly as they in turn expunged the pain of the ten-man derby.
To all intents and purposes, Everton's season finished the moment that Sporting scored their first goal in Portugal.
The Blues were feeble in Lisbon, and during the first half of the game at Spurs too, although they did improve after the break at White Hart Lane and were only denied a point by Landon Donovan's error in front of goal.
In fact, let's be honest, 'error' doesn't do it justice - the American's howler has every chance of becoming known in Everton folklore as 'that miss', just as Neville Southall's stop from Marc Falco on the same ground remains 'that save'.
So Moyes now has the task of picking the players up, getting them motivated for what is a comparatively straightforward run-in, and making sure that they at least secure re-entry into Europe.
After all, even though the lessons always appear to be unusually tough ones, we'll only keep learning and improving by testing ourselves against the likes of Villarreal, Fiorentina and Benfica.
Moyes will no doubt start looking to plan for next season now as well. A new contract for Steven Pienaar has to be the priority, as well as making plans for life after Landon.
Despite 'that miss', the American's had a great impact and should be an example to some of the other players at the club of just how important the right sort of attitude and work ethic is.
If the youngsters, for instance, want to establish themselves in the first team now, and they will get opportunities in the coming weeks, then they should all be looking to graft at least as hard as a lad who could have easily treated his time at Goodison as a ten-week holiday.
Seeing who grasps the nettle could be one reason to keep on watching.
Older/Newer
« Latest Everton FC news from the Liverpool Echo & Daily Post | Latest Everton FC news from the Liverpool ECHO »
1 Comments
Latest Premier League video
Ya learn sometihng new everyday. It's true I guess!