Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

I said last week that to get a good result at Old Trafford you need to be on top of your game, and as we all saw on Saturday – and last night at Hull, Everton simply are not on top of their game at the moment.

We can sit here and blame injuries if we want to, but injuries are no excuse for the players on the pitch and fit to play not to give their best or to play well. Their confidence is clearly low, and something needs to be done to get it back.

We started the season poorly, but by the time we last went to Hull, we had found a little run of form, and handed out a 4-0 thrashing, yet just two months later we go to the KC Stadium and find ourselves 3-0 down after less than half an hour and in the middle of another run of poor form.

The worrying thing about a loss of confidence, is that as every game goes by, the next gets harder and harder, and with a derby coming up ahead of a trip to Chelsea, we could do with something to change our fortunes. Luckily, the abysmal run of form the Kopites find themselves in could be that catalyst.

Dumped out of the Champions League and in all kinds of turmoil, if we dig deep on Sunday we could get a result against them, but we need to stop haemorrhaging goals in such an alarming manner.

There are still a lot of games left to play this season, and a top six finish is still not out of our reach. We only have to look back two years to see the impact the Goodison derby can have on Everton’s season. We didn’t win that game as we will be aiming to do on Sunday, but it sent us on a run of form that propelled us back into the top half of the table and a European finish eventually.

Derby games when I was playing were always frenetic affairs. I remember my first derby and after twenty minutes I hadn’t touched the ball! The game was just flying past me, it was real end to end stuff and the tackles were flying in.

Billy Bingham would always drum it into us how important the game was, and the week leading up to the derby would see a rise in pressure in training. With Gordon Lee it was a little less pressurised, but we were always aware that this was the game to win. Often players can freeze when they are put under so much pressure, so I enjoyed Gordon’s approach to the derby.

It wasn’t a game we looked forward to, but it was one we desperately wanted to win, although as it turned out the results when I was playing didn’t go as well as we would hope. The papers were always full of speculation before the game, and the local lads must have felt it even worse than I did! The atmosphere was electric on derby days, almost like a cup tie in some ways, and the Goodison crowd always raised their voice on derby day.

With the news today that government has rejected the move to Kirkby, then it looks as though there will be plenty more opportunities for the crowd to get behind Everton at Goodison Park. It will be interesting to see where the club go from this decision, and I would be staggered if the club had not looked into a “plan B” to refer to if this decision had come to pass.

I’m not sure if there are many sites inside the city that can hold the type of stadium Everton need, but the club does need a stadium for the 21st century, Everton need to be bringing in revenue on matchdays to compete with the big boys in the Premier League. Where that will be will be interesting to see.

We need to hope that there can be a rabbit pulled out of the hat, and that the club have been working on an alternative, as I would be amazed if it was “Kirkby or bust.”

Earlier this month, we heard the sad news about Robert Enke, who took his own life after suffering from depression. It seems bizarre to think that footballers could suffer from depression, but as has been seen in recent weeks, he wasn’t alone. Just because these people are taking home hundreds of thousands of pounds a month in wages, doesn’t make them immune from life’s worries.

I’m not sure if the PFA or football clubs in the UK already do this, but surely the recent outpouring of stories should lead to something to help players like Enke and give them an outlet to talk about their problems. Maybe some form of annual mental health screening could be introduced to give players a chance to let someone know how they are feeling.

Another story that caught my eye was, naturally, the France goal against Ireland to clinch their path to the World Cup next summer. If ever there was any evidence needed to show that video replays, or the kind of technology used in tennis now, was needed in football, then this game was it.

I was watching a tennis tournament this week and they use the Hawkeye system to settle controversial decisions. It takes around 10 seconds to show the whole stadium /arena what the correct decision is, footballers today spend at least that protesting anyway, so would we really lose too much of the game?...discuss this on the forums