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Yesterday word spread that Diniyar Bilyaletdinov was leaving Everton and heading back to mother Russia; Spartak Moscow had apparently agreed a fee though to be around £5m. If Moyes can get his hands on that money to strengthen, we could be in for a busy January.

As soon as the news broke, most Evertonians split into one of three groups. First were the rheumy eyed romantics, their lips quivering at the thought of nice boy Bily playing for another team. Then there were those who thought that Moyes had wasted Bily’s talent by playing him out of position on the left (more on them later). Finally there were those that were rejoicing that we had finally shed a dead weight with the touch of a blacksmith.

For me Bily’s biggest strength is his shot. Actually, his only strength is his shot. He is the perfect YouTube player – a player who lends himself to gobsmacking highlight reels but below par performances.

In 59 appearances he has scored 8 goals, not bad for a player who does nothing else but occasionally shoot. His eight goals for Everton in 59 appearances is slightly less than his 31 goals in 150 games for Lokomotiv Moscow, and roughly the same rate as his scoring for the motherland (6gls 45apps). Crucially though, for both Russia and Lokomotiv Moscow he did more than just score. For Everton this is all he does, shuffling around in his glum little world, and occasionally shooting. I’ll miss Bily for his spectacular goals like this one and this one but not much else.

I’m happy to wave goodbye to Bily, with his affable personality, his eastern bloc haircut, his non existent pace, and that sensational cudgel of a left foot.

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Left back in the changing rooms?

David Moyes has been blamed by some for “ruining” Bily by playing him out of position. The argument goes that Moyes has crow-barred Bily into a position that stunted the Russian’s growth, and that if he had played him in a central attacking position we’d have a world beater on our hands. I don’t think this argument holds up under analysis. Here’s a look into where other managers have played him.

2008 European Championships
Manager: Guus Hiddink

• June 10th 2008. Spain 4-1 Russia. Bily plays on the left wing.
• June 14th 2008. Greece 0-1 Russia. Bily plays left midfield.
• June 18th 2008. Russia 2-0 Sweden. Bily plays left midfield.
• June 21st 2008. Netherlands 4-1 Russia. Hiddink brings on Bily in the 69th minute. He plays in central midfield.

I found it hard to find specific positional stats on many of Bily’s games in Russian qualifying matches or Lokomotiv Moscow games, but here are other individual games I found:

• Guus Hiddink. Russia 3-0 Liechtenstein, September 5, 2009 - Bily plays left back
• Guus Hiddink. Russia 1-1 Azerbaijan, October 14, 2009 – Bily plays left back
• Guus Hiddink. Russia 2-1 Slovenia, November 14, 2009 – Bily plays attacking left midfield.
• Guus Hiddink. Slovenia 1-0 Russia, November 18, 2009 - Bily plays in the hole.
• Dick Advocaat. Russia 2-0 Andorra, September 3, 2010 - Bily plays left back.

• Moyes gushing about his new signing Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (via Sky Sports):

“I spoke to Guus Hiddink a few times about Dini and he recommended him to me,” Moyes told the Liverpool Echo.

“He is a very versatile footballer. He can play wide on the left of midfield, but he has also played on the right quite a bit as well.

“Technically he is very good. He has a nice left foot and he has scored a few goals as well.

“Guus told me that even at a push he could play left-back.“

• The best Russian XI of the 2008 season, Bily makes the Reserve XI as “Attacking midfielder left”.
  
• Euro 2008 scouting report from a Canadian website:

“A playmaking midfielder (Diniyar Bilyaletdinov) plays in the centre of midfield, just ahead of a pair of defensive, ball-wining midfielders”

• Bily described as a “left winger” in a blog post prior to Euro 2008.
• Jonathon Wilson writes this in his Euro 2008 preview for the Guardian:“Lokomotiv’s Diniyar Bilyaletdinov will probably be given the more advanced central midfield role, leaving Dmitri Torbinsky and Igor Semshov as options on the bench.” 
• In the comments section of Wilson’s article, he is challenged by a reader who claims that Hiddink will use:“Sychev (right) and Bilyaletdinov (left) as “wingers” – they can well be substituted by Bystrov (right) and Torbinsky (left).”

Hopefully the information above has exposed all this “Bily was out of position chatter” as total anti-Moyes guff. From what I can see Bily was perfectly comfortable in both a central and a left sided position. He played all of Russia’s Euro 2008 campaign – bar one second half substitute appearance – on the left, and countless other games too. Bily just wasn’t the right fit for the aggressively fast Premier League, I think Moyes spared him by playing him wide and that if he had played Bily centrally more often, the Russian would have drowned.

And finally, I found this (perhaps fitting) little tidbit on the Football Ramble message boards: Diniyar Bilyaletdinov is an anagram of Boner invalidity daily. I think those three words sum his Everton career up well.

Despite excelling in a weakened side, finally playing in the position that is best for him, the criticism of little Leon has continued. In the eyes of his detractors, he is a bell hop, merely fit to carry the bags of our stars, and then there are whispers that he isn’t even up to that job.

Others say he’s physically unable to compete in the Premier League, persisting with the view that he is toothless and weak, that he floats around midfield following the opposition like an over-attentive waiter.

Surely this vocal minority will wake up soon. Wake up to the fact that when he plays in his best position, centrally, with freedom to roam wide, he is excellent. Wake up to the fact that far from being a defensive liability, he made almost three times as many successful tackles as Phil Neville did on Saturday against Blackburn. And finally, wake up to the fact that you can’t judge this little book by its cover. Leon may be small, but surely we’re beyond the myopic view that positions depend on physique. That the tall ones play centre half, the little ones play on the wing, and the fat ones in goal?

The players and staff at Everton took about 60 seconds of his debut to understand his value. He’s the kingpin of the American team, the closest thing his country have to a big soccer star, yet he has no ego. That was, perhaps, the biggest thing that struck you about him. You noticed it when he walked into the dressing room and you noticed it after about a minute of his first game for us, away to Arsenal. He was playing on our right. The ball got knocked down the line, Gael Clichy set off on the run and he turned and tracked Clichy, step for step, for 70 yards. At that point the lads said: “You’ll do for us, any day.” He showed exactly the team-oriented spirit we want at Everton, not to mention fantastic speed to stay with Clichy. He came off with cramp after 70 minutes because he’d worked so hard, and afterwards every player patted him on the back.

The  above is first hand testimony from David Moyes on why Landon Donovan succeeded at Everton in January 2010, and it also gives us a glimpse into why he won’t be coming back for a repeat performance in the New Year. Whilst most Evertonians were leaping around with joy after our victory at Eastlands, I imagine Landon Donovan was wincing a little. Our lung bursting opening 20 minutes, and the passion that oozed from every pore throughout the game was something that our American pen-pal would have loved to be part of; but it may have also reinforced his belief that his tired body couldn’t keep up with the pace of a midwinter Premier League campaign.

There have been a lot of nasty things said about Landon Donovan since he decided to “forego” his loan move to Everton. Some have said that he lacks the hunger to play in the Premier League, others have called him a bottler; suggesting that he prefers the relative ease of MLS to the Premier League. We should cut this talk short immediately. The reaction to Landon’s “No” is very very similar to the reaction to our annoying run of draws – many simply look at the end product – be it no goals against Wigan or Landon’s rejection – but don’t look at the reason’s behind it.

Landon’s ravenous hunger for football is obvious, just take a look at the ridiculous amount of football he has played without a decent break. He didn’t come because he knew that in his current state he would let us down, he’s watched Seamus Coleman, a man who presses the FFWD button the moment his starts running at defenders and realized that he needs a break. We also need to remember that Landon is juggling the hopes of THREE teams: Team USA, LA Galaxy, and Everton.

From looking at how he plays on the pitch, and what he says off it, this is a man obsessed with “doing the right thing.” As much as it hurts, taking time off is clearly the right thing for Landon Donovan, and that makes it the right thing for us too.

Whilst all eyes are on Landon Donovan (and it’s very important to remember that he has left things open for a return in the future) lets also remember that we can look to the return of another Evertonian, a man who is slight of build but big of heart, who gets needlessly attacked pretty much every game he plays in an Everton shirt but who embodies the Everton spirit just as much as Mr Donovan, one Leon Osman.

The excruciating thing is that they both did exactly the same strange neck dance. Their actions before were different, the games themselves were utterly different, but the spasmodic neck move was the same. In both cases it was a dance borne from emotion shaved to the bone, they both looked like fish, slapping about on the deck, writhing for oxygen.

For a split second Michael Thomas and Victor Anichebe share the same space, and then go their separate ways.

Watching Michael Thomas’ goal is always amazing. Real football has the ability to make Roy of the Rovers a dirge. Thomas won Arsenal the league in the dying embers of the last game of the season. Against their title rivals. At Anfield. After his unbelievable last ditch goal, Thomas rolls off in ecstasy,  a man in a barrel about to jump into a Niagara Falls of emotion. Thomas flits between circus cartwheels, and the mad uncontrollable palsy of freebased happiness. Towards the end of his Anfield petite mort he propels himself into the air seemingly using his neck alone, a mad move completely anesthetised by his joy.

The evil twin of the Michael Thomas’ wonder goal is Vic Anichebe’s injury. The backdrop itself couldn’t be more different. It is St James’ Park in February, half time is looming. Slow “to me, to you” exchanges by midfield Sunday drivers are punctured by Vic Anichebe tracking back, winning the ball, and dribbling forward. Kevin Nolan leaps feet first on Vic’s right shin, and the youngster writhes in pain, reprising Thomas’ neck spasm from twenty years earlier, this time not through joy, but pain. Vic pulls his entire body up with his neck like a huge twisted girder. Physio Mick Rathbone says the sheer size of Anichebe’s legs is what stopped the tackle from destroying his career, later the Nigerian describes it as the most painful experience of his life. Kevin Nolan is dismissed and apologises at half time.

The game is smeared with violence, we clash like police and thieves. Ameobi rams Tim Howard and the ball into the net, Rodwell is bullied and buffeted, and Anichebe is crippled. Our Spanish laureate Arteta is injured too, although not from blunt tackling, just from an awkward fall.

Michael Thomas took the ball on a crazed bumpy joy ride all the way to the back of the net, Anichebe’s career has been in purgatory ever since Kevin Nolan’s studs hit his shin. For a second though, they are removed from their context in the same neck propelled somersault, agony and ecstasy brought together.

It is quite possible, with Mr Anichebe’s rejection of our “final” contract offer, that he may never fulfill his promise in an Everton shirt. A lot of Victor’s young career was lost on the St James’ Park pitch, and I’d be gutted to see this awkward unplayable character go.

One thing we can safely say for this game, without fear of criticism, is that it lived down to expectations: Stoke were going to string four players built like rugby prop-forwards across their back four – tick; they came to defend, in depth, with no attacking ambitions whatsoever, so long as the scores remained even – tick; it would require patience and maybe a touch of luck to break them down – tick; it would not be pretty – tick. Thankfully, the only prediction that we got wrong was that we didn’t have to watch Rory Delap trundle up the touchline, dry the ball on his shirt, and launch one of his mortar shells into the penalty area.

With Pennant and Kenwyne Jones recovered from their “flu-like symptoms” (maybe they had flu) Stoke were more or less at full strength and with Arteta passed fit and Rodwell on the bench, after resuming training earlier in the week, this was about as strong a team as Moyes could field minus the long-term injured Fellaini, Osman and Anichebe. Everton completely dominated possession during the first half, but created only one clear-cut chance, which Yakubu fluffed. Stoke were largely unruffled, kept ten men behind the ball and made sure that when Everton’s two most creative players, Arteta and Pienaar, had possession, they were double marked. Distin especially, but also Jagielka looked solid at the back.

Just as Goodison was beginning to grumble, as only she can, and following a disallowed goal by Tuncay, David Moyes made the tactical change which helped to turn the game; with an hour gone he took off Seamus Coleman for Louis Saha. The introduction of a second forward, and one of real quality, rather than the out-of-his-depth, Jermaine Beckford, had an immediate impact. Instantly the Blues looked sharper and more cohesive. Steven Pienaar attacking down the right wing left Collins for dead, and, although his cross was poor, Yakubu nicked the ball and managed to set up Tim Cahill who’s instant shot hit the post. The burly Nigerian was first to the rebound but still had plenty to do, he beat a defender before smashing the ball, in true Yakubu style, into the roof of the net from an acute angle. In truth a far more difficult chance taken than one he spurned in the first half when he was released by Pienaar but fired tamely straight at Bergovic in the Stoke goal.

Not that it was game over, far from it, Pulis introduced Pennant and Whelan, and Stoke started to make inroads, aided by an Everton backline, who, for the last fifteen minutes defended far too deeply. It would not have been a surprise had Stoke nicked an equalizer in the closing minutes.

Yakubu was superb, his link-up play faultless, his passing, long and short, was accurate and crisp, and he created and took his chance with power and certainty. Further back we would pick out Johnny Heitinga who is now getting back into gear after a slow start to the season. His distribution is superb, his interventions always timely as he prompts and probes. One area of concern is the occasional defensive frailty of Leighton Baines; he allowed Tuncay to bundle his way past him and prod home a disallowed goal, which on another day would have stood, and did not seem to be fully aware of the danger. It’s something we have noted before; in the World Cup warm-up game at Wembley against Mexico, Leighton’s poor defending was clearly in evidence, the national newspapers the next morning gave him an average rating of just 3 out of 10. We recognize that he is hugely talented going forward, but would just ask that he sharpens up inside his own twelve yard box. Next weekend it’s the short journey to Blackpool with the squad further strengthened by another week of hard training for the returning Jack Rodwell and Louis Saha. The last time this writer was at Bloomfield Road was in September 1970 when Everton won 2-0 thanks to goals from Jimmy Husband and the hugely underrated Johnny Morrissey.

EVERTON (4-1-4-1): Howard; Neville ©, Jagielka, Distin, Baines; Heitinga; Coleman (Saha 62), Arteta, Cahill, Pienaar; Yakubu (Bilyaletdinov 86)

Unused subs: Mucha, Hibbert, Beckford, Gueye, Rodwell

STOKE CITY (4-4-1-1): Begovic; Huth, Shawcross ©, Faye, Collins; Walters (Pennant 73), Wilson (Whelan 77), Whitehead, Etherington; Tuncay; Jones

Unused subs: Nash, Higginbotham, Gudjohnsen, Delap, Wilkinson

Referee: Lee Probert

Gate: 35,513  Change from last season -1,240 (3.3%)

Tottenham Hotspur 1 (van der Vart 20) – EVERTON 1 (Baines 17)

Judging by the over-confident predictions coming across the blogosphere and from the twitterati you would have thought that Spurs only had to turn up on Saturday to claim the three points. In the event we had to give them a goal to keep them in the game.  A Tim Howard flap, across the line of the ball, showed once again that our American ‘keeper is not infallible. We suspect Tim has never played cricket, but he may have played baseball. Batting, or hitting, or as on Saturday, attempting to punch, ACROSS the trajectory of a ball, is hugely dangerous…..just ask Kevin Pietersen.

Though Baines scored with a stunning free kick (memo to Mikel; let Leighton take a few) and his general play was excellent, our man of the match was Phil Jagielka. In defence relentlessly sniffing out trouble and good going forward; on one occasion in the second half he broke down the right wing, turned Modric inside out, before casually finding another blue shirt. He fired narrowly over the Liverpool goal a week ago Sunday and is getting into some very progressive positions; not long before he finds the net we think. Whisper it quietly, no shout it from the treetops; City did us a huge favour, they paid £23 mln for our second best defender!

Talking of defenders is there a better right back in the country than Phil Neville. His performance in the derby was superb – Cole hardly saw the ball – and again at White Hart Lane he pacified the skilful, fast and physically strong Gareth Bale. Time for an England recall?

So now we know: The newspaper inspired rumours, going back for a year or more, that Harry Redknapp wants Steven Pienaar are tripe. As we heard from ‘Arry post match; he has Bale and Lennon as his wide men, can’t even get the hugely talented Nico Kranjcar on the pitch, so “what on earth would I do with an Ashley Young” (or Steven Pienaar). With the clock winding down on Pienaar’s Everton contract, and him legally free to open negotiations with potential suitors from January the hierarchy at Goodison need to piss, or get off the pot. It’s clear where the sticking point on the contract negotiations is: Mikel Arteta, who won a new 5-year contract in the summer, is 28 years-old, in fact just eleven days younger than Pienaar. We suspect that Pienaar, not unreasonably, wants parity with Arteta. Unfortunately for him Mikel has become an iconic figure at Goodison, while great player that he is, Steven has not. We feel that Moyes and Kenwright need to show some pragmatism here and compromise. Pienaar never hides, has a wonderful partnership with Baines and is an automatic choice when fit. Goodison knows a player when she sees one, lets not lose him.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR (4-4-1-1): Gomes; Hutton, Kaboul, Gallas, Assou-Ekotto; Lennon (Pavlyuchenko 69), Palacios (Sandro 46), Modric, Bale; van der Vart; Crouch. Unused subs: Cudicini, Bassong, Jenas, Kranjcar, Keane

EVERTON (4-1-4-1): Howard; Neville, Jagielka, Distin, Baines; Heitinga (Hibbert 79); Coleman (Beckford 84), Pienaar, Bilyaletdinov, Cahill; Yakubu (Saha 63). Unused subs: Mucha, Gueye, Duffy, Baxter

Referee: M Jones

Gate: 35,967

Moron of the Year?

West Ham Chairman David Sullivan came out yesterday and gave his opinion on Yakubu’s market price. Sullivan said:

“Everything has a price. You want to get Yakubu for £1-2 million and they are quoting £8 million and that is far too much.

“They have to be more realistic. If they said £1-2m we might go back. We bid more at the start of the summer because we had more flexibility but, at this moment in time, having spent some of our money on other players we want him for £1-2m.”

With gutter rag The S*n claiming that West Ham want £20million from Liverpool for Carlton Cole, are we to assume that Sullivan thinks that Yakubu is only a tenth of a player that Carlton Cole is? Yakubu has scored 19 goals in 49 league games for us, as for Carlton Cole he has scored eight more than the Yak, 27 goals – in a whopping 78 games. David Sullivan, early entrant for Moron of the Year?

Mike Teevee: Definitely American. Quite possibly a NASL fan.

Donovan then, could become more of a household name in the States by playing abroad rather than staying in Los Angeles. It’s obvious that we still pull at the little man’s heart strings – even his Twitter page still contains a profile picture of him in his #9 Everton shirt. Love child or not, he’s still left a little piece of him on Merseyside – and with Steven Pienaar procrastinating over his contract, and Dan Gosling running away from his – it is no wonder there are lots of longing glances across the pond towards Landon. With most sources dismissing yesterday’s transfer rumblings about Mancini being “interested” in Donovan, coupled with the Californian’s previous comments about not wanting to play for another English club aside from us – makes me think that we could see a Christmas arrival of Landon on Merseyside.

Landon Donovan's Twitter Profile: in our number 9 shirt.

 I’ve said it before: Landon Donovan is no Li Tie, a stooge brought in to simply sell shirts in a foreign land through his celebrity, but there is also no doubt that Donovan would raise awareness for Everton in America.

Preki - In his Everton days.

Aside from Donovan, there are a huge amount of US Links to Everton: – John Spencer, Mo Johnson (Colorado Rapids), Dixie Dean (reportedly turned down a hefty offer to play baseball for the New York Giants in 1928) , Steve Sergeant (Detroit Express in NASL) , Jimmy Gabriel (Seattle Sounders and others) , Terry Phelan (played for Charleston Battery) , Preki (and all star MLS player several times, now manager of Toronto FC), Robert Warzycha (played for and now managing Columbus Crew), Alan Ball (Vancouver Whitecaps and Philadelphia Fury) , Peter Beardsley (Vancouver Whitecaps). Also of note are Brian McBride and Joe-Max Moore - and I’m sure I’m forgetting others…

"Wazza" in salmon pink for Everton, before he became manager of Columbus Crew

With this kind of history we should be drawing American fans in droves, and with Landon Donovan still hinting that his flame still burns blue, we could be forging even more links…

 He’s done well to come this far considering the state of his foot this time last year. Seamus Coleman’s blistered foot was such an infected mess that it was considered career threatening by Everton’s medical staff.

Having glistened in both his handful of appearances for Everton and his part in Blackpool’s promotion charge, he is now looking very lively in our pre-season tour of Australia.

After years of waiting for a good right back, it appears that we may have got even more than we asked for; this boy is  ruthlessly direct – like a mouthy child that spouts awkward home truths – and he has the fearless effervescence of youth. Coleman, an explosive and skillful player, is a full back itching to roam higher up the pitch.

 Attacking full-backs can be very effective when everything clicks. Baines was the perfect example of this as his relationship with Steven Pienaar ripened, but I’d love to see Coleman cutting even deeper into the opposition than Baines has on the other side.

 When Phil Scolari first came to Chelsea people were falling over themselves to praise his attacking full backs – and just before this summer’s World Cup one famous journo was openly declaring that only a team with truly accomplished full backs would win the tournament.

Although it may sound stupid – and premature – to compare Coleman with some of the best that international football can offer – that’s exactly what I want to do. 

Right backs can be very hard to find, especially at Goodison – where Hottiger, Burroughs, Jackson, Barrett, and even Hibbert have all auditioned and ultimately failed to get the right back position. After Inter Milan (stupidly) sold Roberto Carlos to Real Madrid they went through twenty-eight left backs while the Brazilian was starring at the Bernabeu.

Roberto Carlos was also used in a very attacking manner at Real Madrid, especially when Capello took charge there. The Brazilian was part of an ingenious routine which flummoxed the opposition continually. Hierro would pass the ball out of defence to a charging Roberto Carlos, who – through a number of clever movements and screens from his teammates - proved virtually unstoppable. The purists at Madrid looked down their noses at this tactic but it was hugely successful.

Interestingly, Capello also employed a very attacking full back when he won the title with Roma, using Cafu so high up the field that he was often level with Batistuta.  Another important factor to note, in both these examples, is that Capello used well drilled and stamina laden players like Redondo and Delvecchio to close down any open spaces. Everton, a team brimming with hard workers, and also a unit that closes down space, could be perfect for a really attacking full back.

Moyes is blessed with a squad that is enormously hard working and also very versatile. As Coleman attacks – players like Jagielka, Heitinga, and Neville could easily cover for him. This could be an excellent option for Everton, especially if Moyes really gives him license to attack – the last time we had a player who scared the opposition on the right it was Andrei Kanchelskis – if Coleman can get anywhere near that level of performance I’ll be ecstatic.