Everton FC News: Wounded Everton still need a superhero after Aston Villa draw

Nov 2 2009 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

Everton FC News: HIGH in the main stand at Goodison sat a group of superheroes, waiting for their call to action.

Leading the way was the indomitable Mr Incredible, followed by the legendary Superman, an imposing Bananaman, a bloke dressed as a giant Smurf, and, er, “Beer” Man.

Quite an array of talent, yet none of them could come to the rescue of an again misfiring Everton team on Saturday.

Instead, it was the clutch of injured players sat either in the directors’ box or kicking their heels at home that David Moyes sorely needs to see parading their wares as soon as possible.

Another home game, another hugely disappointing home draw.

Of course, with Aston Villa harbouring hopes of a top-four challenge and having already downed Liverpool and Chelsea, this was a more testing proposition than the recent visits of Stoke City and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

But so poor were the Midlanders, particularly during the first half, that Moyes had every right to consider this an opportunity missed to gain a confidence-boosting victory and propel this team back into the top half of the Premier League table.

Everton recovered from a woeful start last season to ultimately record a second successive fifth-place finish and reach the FA Cup final, aided by a run of just two defeats in 23 games that began after the last-gasp home defeat to Saturday’s opponents last December.

The landscape has changed since then, however. Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur continue to challenge the top-four with greater conviction and, more pertinently, too many of Everton’s walking wounded, despite the return of Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Leighton Baines and Joseph Yobo at the weekend, are still some way from a first-team return.

No wonder Moyes spoke later of the danger of his team dropping further points and giving themselves too much to do when playing catch-up later in the campaign.

The Goodison manager is loathe to lower his Premier League sights, but the longer the current form extends – this was a sixth successive game without a victory – the less choice he will have in the matter.

Admittedly, after Carling Cup elimination at White Hart Lane on Tuesday completed a spell of three harrowing defeats inside six days, it was imperative that losing tide was stemmed.

And while an improvement at the weekend, Everton remain unconvincing no matter how Moyes shuffles his pack or tweaks the formation.

For all the talk of players being out of position, the changes made by the Goodison manager at the weekend meant there was only Tim Cahill, asked to ostensibly patrol the right flank, in an unaccustomed role.

John Heitinga and Jack Rodwell sat in defensive central midfield roles where both enjoyed encouraging afternoons, the former revelling in a combative encounter to deliver his best performance since arriving from Atletico Madrid on deadline day.

Rodwell, too, warmed to the task, his forward drives helping Everton win the midfield battle, particularly during a largely forgettable first half in which Villa, energies sapped by extra-time and penalties in the Carling Cup at Sunderland in midweek, were chronically out of sorts.

Nevertheless, Moyes’s men took until the 29th minute to fashion a chance when Heitinga’s clipped ball forward was headed narrowly off target by Yakubu, the Nigerian again benefiting from a near 90-minute run-out.

The goal their endeavours of the opening period just about deserved arrived on the stroke of half-time.

Cahill hounded Richard Dunne out of possession down the right and crossed low where the ball broke off Yakubu to the incoming unmarked Bilyaletdinov, whose neat right-footed finish rolled in despite the best efforts of Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel to keep the ball out.

Bilyaletdinov chipped in with a similar goal against Wolves a fortnight earlier, but on Saturday he was too often on the periphery. It took Villa less than 60 seconds of the second half to draw level, Gabriel Agbonlahor’s shot parried by Tim Howard back into the danger zone where substitute John Carew struck between the legs of Sylvain Distin with his first touch.

“It wasn’t a bad result considering what we had out there but the key for us was to keep a clean sheet,” says Moyes. “We weren’t able to do that.

“We wanted the three points, and in the first half I thought it was there for us. I thought Aston Villa looked like a team that had played extra time in midweek, and if we had been up to it and capable, then we could have capitalised in the first half.

Villa got stronger in the second half, but in the first half they played like we have been in the last three or four weeks because of the amount of games we have been playing. We had a couple of opportunities and we weren’t quite good enough to take them.”

Villa, in fact, were the more likely to score after drawing level, Stiliyan Petrov seeing a powerful drive deflected over and Carew’s improvised backheel flick from a Stephen Warnock cross clutched by Howard.

Everton’s biggest threat was when Louis Saha emerged from the bench during the final quarter in place of the worryingly ineffective Marouane Fellaini, the Belgian having struggled to get into the game despite playing behind Yakubu.

A low-key afternoon was livened up in the closing moments by referee Lee Probert.

The official had already sounded a warning of his ineptitude when booking Warnock for a foul on Yakubu by Petrov, and he angered the home crowd by dismissing Bilyaletdinov in the 87th minute for a tackle on Petrov that, while a foul, perhaps didn’t warrant a straight red.

The Goodison hostility perhaps swayed the referee into evening the numbers three minutes later when he sent off Carlos Cuellar for a second bookable offence, despite the Villa man clearly winning the ball from Yakubu.

A draw, though, was the right outcome. Now Everton have the small matter of the Europa League return against Benfica on Thursday and the chance to gain a modicum of revenge for their humiliation in Portugal a fortnight ago – and prove Bananaman and his chums won’t be required.