Match Report
The heat may finally be building on Bill Kenwright and the Everton Board as the extent of the credit freeze gripping Everton Football Club, along with their inability to do anything meaningful to resolve it, has been laid bare this past week, but with more or less the same group of players as 12 months ago (albeit a year older) — the same squad billed as the best to grace Goodison in two decades — any genuine "crisis" (one borne mainly of ageing players and not enough funds to replace them) looked to be a couple of seasons away.
This demoralising opening-day defeat, however, the sheer predictability of the way it unfolded, and the resounding chorus of boos that accompanied it could usher in a crisis of confidence and supporter disenchantment much sooner if it marks the beginning of another run of results that plunges the Blues back to the bottom of the Premier League.
Predictable was the watchword of the day — the 4-5-1 formation that has been David Moyes's crutch for almost all of his time in charge at Everton; the lack of imagination in the final third; the crucial defensive lapse; the wayward passing; the dearth of sustained attacking threat; Moyes's "we lacked quality" quote after the game; all the way down to Mikel Arteta taking free kick duties off Leighton Baines and driving a direct effort into the defensive wall.
And if Moyes's decision to leave Louis Saha and Marouane Fellaini on the bench and then replace lone striker Jermaine Beckford with the Belgian midfielder after 64 minutes leaving the team without a recognised attacker on the pitch for 10 minutes wasn't all that predictable, it wasn't all that surprising given his propensity for such bizarrely negative moves against supposedly inferior opposition in the past. Nonetheless, the crowd gave the manager their disapproval with both barrels and booed Kenwright for good measure when his pained countenance appeared on the big screen shortly afterwards.
With no fresh faces added to the team this summer, the chances were great that the Everton side that kicked off 2011-12 campaign would be little different in terms of playing style than last season. Any hopes that the coaching staff might have freshened things up in terms of tactics and approach were dashed within the opening quarter of an hour; this team plays exactly the same way as last season, with the same useless punts downfield from Tim Howard to a striker in Beckford who is useless as a target man for such aerial service, the same susceptibility to moves breaking down on the edge of the opposition area, and the same slack passing.
The one difference? The one surprise of the day? The breath of fresh air that was Ross Barkley, a 17 year-old kid making his senior debut who showed up each of his outfield peers with a performance of such composure and self-assuredness that it's a wonder he shares the same Finch Farm training facility as everyone else. Whether it was spraying a pin-point cross-field ball to switch the play to the opposite flank, a quick change in direction to wrong-foot and beat his marker, or being the one player not afraid to put their boot through the ball when a chance opened up in front of him, Barkley's display belied his years and offered enormous hope that the Blues have unearthed another gem from the youth ranks that will save the Club millions. Unfortunately, though he came close with a couple of 20-yard efforts, Barkley wasn't able to rescue this game for Everton.
In the final reckoning, it's fair to say that this game could have turned out very differently had two incidents swung Everton's way. First, when their first spell of pressure ended with the feet of Jack Rodwell 10 yards from goal and he was clearly bundled to the groound as he lined up a clear shot on goal. Referee Kevin Friend, doing nothing to shed the impression formed last season that he is the worst referee in the Premier League, waved away appeals for a foul that would almost certainly have been given had it occurred anywhere else on the pitch.
Second, when Barkley was clipped on the edge of the box after 20 minutes and Baines stepped up to whip a now trademark free kick off the underside of the crossbar. Another inch lower and Everton would have taken the lead.
As it was, it was newly-promoted QPR who were thrashed 4-0 by Bolton on their own turf in their opening fixture last weekend who snatched the advantage 10 minutes later. The home defence eschewed a series of opportunities to clear the danger from a rare spell of Rangers pressure and then allowed Buzsacky too much space to thread the ball inside to Tommy Smith who, having lost Phil Jagielka as the defender was drawn off his marking duties towards another opponent, had all the time he needed to pick a spot past Howard and make it 1-0.
Everton took eight minutes to respond and came within inches of grabbing an equaliser when Beckford whipped a cross behind the visiting defence but Cahill, stooping inside the six yard box, somehow contrived to put his header past the far post.
John Heitinga then headed smartly back from the byline to pick out Beckford but he couldn't get enough power on his own header to trouble Paddy Kenny before Cahill despatched Baines' deep cross over the bar with the last chance of the first half.
Troubled by the familiar attacking failings on display, hope nonetheless remained for the Goodison faithful that things would change in the second half, perhaps with some dressing-room inspiration from Moyes or an attacking substitution during the interval. Neither really materialised, though, and while Rodwell spurned a gilt-edged chance off Heitinga's pass just two minutes after the restart and Arteta made his entrance after another eight minutes, a depressing sense of deja vu was setting in for the increasingly anxious fans.
Heitinga sliced wide from 20-odd yards just before the hour mark, Osman wasted a promising attack by ignoring the opportunity to carve the QPR defence open with a pass through to the well-placed Beckford and was closed down, and Cahill emulated Rodwell's earlier miss by firing straight the at 'keeper.
Having seen Moyes haul the increasingly sloppy Beckford off after 64 minutes and roundly booed the manager for bringing on Fellaini instead of Saha, the fans got their wish right on cue with 20 minutes to go when the Frenchman was told to start warming up. He finally entered the fray in the 74th minute as the last of three subs but, truth be told and Barkley aside, he was as bad as the rest of them.
The less said about Everton's pathetic attempts to rescue anything from this game the better. Save for two fine efforts by Barkley and a header at Kenny by Fellaini, the final quarter of an hour plus five minutes of stoppage time were a demoralising mess before referee Friend put them out of the misery and allowed them to escape the fans' verdict by disappearing down the tunnel.
With all due credit to QPR for a job well done, the painful truth for Everton is that they were rarely troubled by the West London side, Tim Howard really only called upon once to pick the ball out of the net following Smith's goal. The game was there to be won by a Blues team that should be so much better than they are but they just didn't look like they knew how to do it.
Quite why Moyes chose not to put his best foot forward with his best possible starting line-up — preferably 4-4-2 with Beckford and Saha up front but at least with Fellaini and Saha on the pitch from the first whistle — is anyone's frustrated guess. Arteta's lack of match fitness was known beforehand but unless the manager was shielding Saha and Fellaini from rushing back to competitive football after long injury layoffs, his decision not to include them smacked of disrespect for QPR.
Of course, all that matters now is the response from the players and manager, starting with the Carling Cup banana skin posed by Sheffield United in midweek. Moyes has been moved by supporter angst to shuffle his pack and formation in the past but there's no guarantee that he'll do anything different, and therein lies the concern.
Will his stubborn adherence to his rigid tactics preclude any attempt at a two-man attack? Will his unwillingness to mend fences with certain players keep a natural goalscorer like Yakubu in the shadows even if Beckford starts to struggle for form and confidence? Can he or Steve Round get the team playing the kind of football they've shown countless times over the last few seasons that they know how to play? Can he keep morale sufficiently high among the players as they take the next steps along what looks like a very long road to May 2012 as Board-level problems continue to bubble away in the background? And will the faithful be able to sustain their dogged support as the realisation of the death of the Champions League dream really sinks in?
Player Ratings: Howard 6, Neville 5, Jagielka 6, Distin 7, Baines 7, Rodwell 6 (Arteta 6),
Barkley 8*, Heitinga 6 (Saha 5), Osman 5, Cahill 6, Beckford 5 (Fellaini 6)
