Confidence High

By Chris Kirwan
August 26 2002

The weekend game versus Sunderland showed that the Blues have a great collective spirit; Moyes is knitting the team into one that will back each other, and work together to get results. He has created an environment whereby no team member wants to let his colleagues down.

David Moyes has impressed me so far this season with his handling of the squad. Everton possess a number of confidence players, Wright, Campbell, Gravesen and Radzinski all blew hot and cold last year, and frequently were accused of under-performing. However, Moyes has used an honest approach whereby he openly admits when he is disappointed with his team. He is quite frank when he is dissatisfied with the players, and thus when he praises them you know he is genuinely pleased. I like this approach, as it builds a team spirit whereby everybody is accountable to each other. Moyes was clear to praise Richard Wright after his performance at Sunderland, but at the same time stated that he owed it to his team and the fans after his errors versus Tottenham. And through the acknowledgement of mistakes a team spirit is built, when saving the Phillips penalty his teammates rushed to congratulate him, pleased that he had put the Spurs game behind him.

It was also good to see Radzinski turning provider. In setting up the Campbell winner he showed an awareness that he has all too often lacked. A brave header by Radzinski set up a brave finish by Campbell. As is clear from my earlier article I firmly believe that Campbell has everything in place to put last year’s disappointments behind him, and he showed his predatory instincts to open his account for the season. With a greater commitment to attack from the midfield hopefully he can continue to add to his tally. But under Moyes the message is clear, keep performing because nobody is assured their place.

The most impressive positive to take from the weekend’s performance is that under Moyes we look set to continue taking points off sides that will be in the bottom half of the table. This is because we are no longer prepared to sit back and see how the game pans out; instead we take the initiative and put the opposition on the back foot. Hopefully this will continue as we have good opportunities to continue the good start to the season with games against Birmingham, Man City, Southampton and Middlesbrough. These games should provide enough points for the Blues to continue playing with confidence when the sterner tests come along.