Birmingham City match preview

St'Andrews, Birmingham. Saturday, 2nd October, 15:00

The most likely result in this game would be a draw, like the last three league meetings between these teams, and in 7 out of 12 games involving these teams so far this season.

As Birmingham has two goal-less draws behind them at St'Andrews and our attacks are not striking fear into anybody at the moment the most likely score in that draw would be 0-0.

So, what is there to look forward to for the supporters in this game? 

Well, Birmingham are a decent team to watch. They play fair, if perhaps sometimes a tad physical football. Nothing though, that our boys shouldn't be able to deal with. If the referee don't kill the game with soft free kicks all the time and let the game flow, it will be a game our midfielders can dominate. Something that will give the extra little bit of confidence and courage they need for the important derby match the following round. 

Birmingham got a well organized defense that is hard to break down, but we are producing chances all the time against all our opponents so far, and sooner or later those chances will turn into goals. 

When it rains it pours, and I got the feeling that once we get that first goal out of the way, they will pour in. 

This will be a really hard test for our striker(s) though. Ben Foster might not be Joe Hart, and Birmingham must be weakened from the change in Goalkeepers. Still, only once this season has someone scored on Foster on his home field.  

Birmingham and Everton are faced with two similar and difficult problems. Birmingham are playing close games but not killing off their opponents which mean they draw too many of their games. Everton are playing alright, and doing everything we need to do, except for scoring goals. 

Going into this match, Moyes should show the boys the table and tell them  there is no reason to hold back anymore, nothing to wait for,  and absolutely nothing to lose. That should be all the motivation they need.

-MF.

Discuss in the Match thread on soccer24-7. 

October preview - onwards and upwards?

Following a september with 2 out of 9 possible Premier League points, and a depressing 20th place. Looking behind the results, or in fact more closely at the results, we discover three drawn matches, and three 0-1 defeats. 

The other observation is that we have only scored in two games, against United, and Wolves. 

In the month ahead we will face Birmingham (away), Liverpool (home), Spurs (away), and Stoke (home). 

Birmingham are a fairly solid team at St’Andrews. In their first home game Birmingham beat Blackburn 2-1, since then neither the Blues or the visitors has scored there.

In our last couple of visits we have drawn there, so all in all 0-0 is on the cards.

(1 point)

Personally, I am looking less and less forward to the derby games. We haven’t beaten them since 2006, and it is not a friendly atmosphere anymore, nor is it very good football. This year it will be between two ultradefensive teams. I predict a one goal win or a draw. 

(1 point)

Tottenhams season has been all over the place so far, perhaps suffering from the added strain of playing in Champions League. Ups and downs at White Hart Lane so far. 

Spurs has beaten us there the last couple of times, I expect goals and a close match.

(0 points)

Stoke started off slower than us, but has turned things around lately with wins both at home and away. Tough opponent, but one that we haven’t lost to in the Premier League.

Should be a win, and hopefully a high scoring match.

(3 points)

So, 5 points out of 12 is my guess. Could possibly put us 18th or so.

From experience we know that Everton start off slow, good seasons and bad seasons alike. Usually, October is a better month for us. 

The last time we started off this slow though was 2005-06 when we finished around mid-table even with good form towards the end of the season. So, it is best to prepare for that kind of finish.


-MF.

Not what we wished for

Our season so far has been disappointing, and last nights carling cup exit at the hands of Brentford is rock bottom. Therefore I present you with this nice list of oversimplified problems and solutions:

Problems:
First off, having a quick glance at the table can tell us some of what is wrong;
We have played 5 league games, and scored 4 goals and conceded 7.
(the same digits incidentally as Liverpool)
That puts us at around middle of the pack with regards to conceded goals, but only West Ham and Wigan has scored fewer than us.
Obviously our lack of goalscoring is a major part of our current problems.

Solutions:
Strikers not scoring is a problem that is notoriously hard to solve.
Our goals so far has been scored by Tim Cahill (2), Pienaar, and Arteta. Last night wingback Coleman scored our goal.
Changing the strikers around and using the ones that are on form would be one option, but not necessarily the best one as scoring form as with all other form is gradually built over time.
Sticking with what we got only adds to the pressure though.

My solution would be to change the formation from the 4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1 that we have alternated between to a 4-4-2 or even 4-3-3, a 5 man midfield only makes sense if you aim to dominate through overpopulating midfield and pressing your opponents. Something we aren't doing anyway.
Instead we should overpopulate the box and try to play faster direct football.
If we opt for a 4-4-2 or keep playing the 4-5-1 we need to drastically improve the quality of our crossing.

A quicker way to solve the goalscoring issues would be to work on set plays, free kicks and corners should be more of a source of goals for us as we have got quality free kick takers, and the right players to aim our corners at.

Defensively we have been alright, but there are still things to be sorted out.
As mentioned our midfield is not dominating the games, and the timing and precision of crosses and forward passes are not where it can be. Likewise, the defensive work is left by and large to our center backs with our wing backs up front supporting the attack. Our defenders are often overworked or like on several occasions this season abandoned.
Either leave the backs on our own half, or begin pressing the opponents on midfield so our center backs aren't outnumbered and overrun.

 -MF.

Before the Brentford Carling cup match

Everton will play Brentford in the Carling cup. As Anichebe, Saha, and Rodwell are still unavailable it would be a good idea to let Yakubu and Beckford use this game to figure out how to score goals.
Brentford should not be too much of a challenge, but this is a nice opportunity to gain confidence, and work out some of the problems we have had this season.

The way I see it, confidence and match practice is whats needed to get things going our way again in the league.

Our midfield will need to find their ways, and run the game like they did in the end of the last season.
The forwarders will eventually start scoring, as long as chances are being created. Yakubu has been looking alright lately, and once he starts scoring I think he will keep scoring.
Beckford needs to find his place in the team, and things will fall into place for him.

Key targets for the match would be to regain confidence, and figure out the balance between attacks and defense.

My predicion: a two goal win or so for Everton.

-MF.

soccer24-7 thread; carling cup run

Third kits

Rodwell, Cahill, and Arteta in the new kit.

Everton has just recently unleashed the third kits, traditional away colors white and dark blue.
These are the ones the team will wear when playing Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

I like to think that Everton has more success when our away colors are white or at least is the main color of our shirts. Great things to come in other words.

-MF.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to the Everton 24-7 blog.

On here you'll find everything from match reports and reviews to random thoughts about the team, anything to do with Everton.

My name is Marthin (spelled with an h) and I have been a supporter for as long as I care to remember. I will always do my best to share my thoughts and give my views in a fairly intelligent way on here. I can't promise not to be biased though, because I am biased and will always be when it comes to Everton.

As you might have guessed from my name I am not English, in fact I am Norwegian. I did thankfully grow up in a highly Anglophile country (at least when football is concerned), and Everton was the first team I saw play. Naturally I chose to support the blue team, as that was my favorite color. Thinking about it now, I was incredibly close to becoming a Spurs fan and then my life would have been slightly different.

My brother is a Liverpool supporter, and so is many of my friends. That is not unusual for an Everton supporter, whether he is from the city of Liverpool, or Norway.

I have followed Everton through some ups and downs, and have learnt to enjoy the good times when they are there. Right now, my team is struggling with another hard start to a Premier League season.

There's no injuries this time to place the blame on, but Moyes' Everton is a team is always going to be one that needs a little time to gain momentum.  

The season of 2010-11 has started horribly (you'd have to admit) but I fully expect it to finish great, and that is far better than if it was the other way around. 

When the ginger Scot came to Everton in 2002 I remember being cautiously optimistic, telling friends that he had had some success with Preston in the division below and that he might be what we needed.

At the time, Everton was a club battling relegation. Since we have become a force to reckon with.

The kind of football that Everton play is entertaining yet simple, not very flamboyant, but elegant in its simplicity. And Everton is a club with a long and proud history. 

Please check out the other 24-7 blogs if you want, and if you are interested in discussing the club why not join soccer24-7?

Whatever you do, bookmark this blog and come back as things will only get better, both with the blog as I have some time to play with all the buttons on here to make this place look nicer, and Everton as Moyes has some time to fix what's not working over at Goodison.

-MF.