Anyone for 5-a-side?

By Chris Kirwan
January 30 2003

The Blues head into the weekend’s game with dirty Leeds unsure of how many players will be able to face them. Venables will be delighted when the transfer window closes, as he'll finally know what he has got to work with.

Leeds may have to ask David Moyes if they can use the Everton substitutes on Saturday, as it seems that one of their players is auctioned off every hour. You have to wonder how Peter Ridsdale managed to let the situation get so out of hand. When all other clubs were wary of spending money for fear of a collapse in the transfer market Leeds took a gamble and splashed the cash, and failure to qualify for the Champions League meant some of the cash had to be recouped. When they received vast fees for Keane and Ferdinand most of us believed that sales would cease for a while, but such is their plight that Fowler, Dacourt, Woodgate, and Bowyer have all departed, however Leeds fans must be relieved that Paul Okon can stay. But despite the exodus Leeds still have quite a handy side and shouldn’t be as far down the league as they are.

Venables desperately needs the likes of Kewell, Viduka, Smith, Mills, and Matteo to produce the goods for him, something they very nearly did at Stamford Bridge. The disappointment of leaving with no points from their encounter with Chelsea will spur on the Leeds side at Goodison, and we will no doubt have the traditional tight finish to an Everton game. Hopefully Dominic Matteo can do the honours and provide us with a late two-goal cushion!

The key man for Leeds is Alan Smith. The Leeds fans and players alike look to the England man to inspire them. Whereas they used to look to Kewell, now they turn to Smith to get them out of trouble. Smith is similar to Rooney in that whenever pundits talk about him they say, “Well, you wouldn’t want to take that aggression out of his game….he just needs to channel it”, and while it may be a cliché it is accurate. And I bet that most of the Leeds faithful would rather have Smith on the brink of a red card fighting for the cause than Viduka and Kewell sulking up front.

Moyes would undoubtedly like to put out an unchanged line-up, however Stubbs is struggling with injury, but Yobo is a more than able deputy. The Nigerian has recently suffered a slight dip in form, but this is only to be expected of a young centre-back. Moyes said recently,

"Basically he is just a young centre-half who is learning rapidly. I always said that as a young defender he would be liable to make mistakes, especially at this level.

“The thing is for him to learn from them and we are working hard with him every day to help him improve."

Terry Venables will no doubt have to change his tactics to legislate for the goal scoring machine that is Steve Watson. The Geordie now has as many goals as Wayne Rooney, and is looking settled on the right side of midfield. But saying that, Moyes’ policy of sticking with the form players means that no player is ever settled in the side. If a player loses form then there are plenty of colleagues ready to step in. This policy has reaped dividends for Moyes, and has seen the re-emergence of Pistone, Naysmith, Gemmill, and many other unsung heroes. You never know, perhaps if Tal had stayed…..maybe not.