Everton are a scary team to be facing right now. Fulham are this close to making something happen, if the form on the field is anything to go by, but they need the psychological boost of a positive performance.
Everton do a lot of things well, they play the long ball, but they aren’t hoofers. They pass the ball accurately through the air, win headers and make intelligent flick-ons. When they get the ball down on the grass, they have players who know what to do with it.
Watching them play against Fiorentina, I was most impressed by the way they came in knowing they needed two goals, and they got them. Not by desperately throwing everything forward, but by playing their game, and trusting that if they did everything right the result would take care of itself. It didn’t of course, but losing on penalties is no sin. They got their two goals, and shut down a Fiorentina team that is fourth in Serie A.
It’s going to be a tough, physical game, but Blackburn away was the right preparation, and I am cautiously optimistic that Fulham can get a result.
P.S. Personally I find Everton’s shaven trio of Johnson, Osman and Carsley to be a hideous sight, truly the stuff of nightmares. Those bald domes twinkling under the floodlights… ugh. Let’s hope that Fulham’s players are made of sterner stuff.
P.P.S. I think it’s been shown that I am not immune to the siren’s call of the 4-4-2, but I think the 4-5-1 is right for tomorrow. Johnson up top, Dempsey to join him if we go down a goal.
