Blues analysis: World Cup summers don't have to bring an Everton FC hangover
Dave Prentice on why the Blues need not suffer a repeat of their 1970/71 fall from grace
Steven Naismith celebrates his goal against Arsenal
It was coincidence – but very appropriate – that Everton chose a retro programme cover from 1970 for Saturday’s Goodison curtain raiser for the new season.
Because 1970/71 was a post World Cup campaign.
And boy, did Everton suffer.
A team which thoroughly earned the School of Science tag kicked off that season as champions. Dominant champions. Just one point shy of an all-time top division points record.
They ended the campaign in 14th.
It was a Lucifer-like fall from grace, and it was blamed on the World Cup.
Alan Ball, Brian Labone, Tommy Wright and Keith Newton – all heroes of the title-winning season – had provided almost a third of Alf Ramsey’s England side in the gruelling heat of Mexico.
And all were shadows of their former selves in the months that followed.
Fast forward 44 years and after a Premier League record points haul in his opening season in charge, Roberto Martinez has seen his side toss away four points in their opening two matches.
And again, the World Cup is being blamed.
“Certain players have come back late from the World Cup and it’s going to take a bit longer to get the volume right and get them ready for 90 minutes,” said Martinez.
It was easy to identify who he meant.
He later added: “Romelu Lukaku, Kevin Mirallas and Steven Naismith – those three had the most demanding roles in the game and they needed to be a little bit refreshed and I couldn’t refresh the three of those and as a team we suffered.”
Naismith can be taken out of the argument.
The admirable Scot is a dynamo – and currently the most reliable finisher in the Blues ranks.If the roles had been reversed when Naismith’s header played Kevin Mirallas clean through on goal midway through the first half Everton might have enjoyed a two-goal lead 20 minutes earlier than they did.
Whether they would have held that lead is a different matter.
The Blues' two Belgian stars both enjoyed influential afternoons while they lasted, but they didn’t last and were both replaced.
When Lukaku made way with 14 minutes remaining, left boot removed, trudging slowly across the width of the pitch, he looked every inch a player who was completely spent.
But is modern football so different that two forward players lacking full 90-minute match fitness can have such a significant impact on a result?
Against a team of Arsenal’s quality, probably.
But is it just the World Cup players who were lacking in 90-minute fitness?
Both were replaced in the closing stages yet Everton still ran ion empty.
Could anything have been done differently in Everton’s pre-season?
Martinez made the conscious decision to spare his already well-travelled players long-haul tours.
The Blues played just five warm-up matches, three on Merseyside – half the number of some of their top four rivals.
But by the time the Premier League fixture list had been published in June the Blues still had only two concrete fixtures arranged.
We will only tell if such an outlook pays dividends with fresher players later in the season. But early in the campaign it appears to be costing Everton points.
Mirallas and Lukaku were both influential in the early stages on Saturday.
But both faded and were substituted.
Yet Arsenal had Per Mertesacker and Mesut Ozil both busy in Brazil for a fortnight longer than the Belgians.
Both completed the 90 minutes.
Match fitness is a curious thing.
Everton’s high-pressing approach demanded more from their front players, while Ozil decided if he carried on tracking Seamus Coleman’s relentless forward runs his eyes probably would have popped out so he simply didn’t bother.
He got away with it. So did Arsenal.
They were the poorer team for 75 minutes, but stole a point and in time added on looked the likelier team to take all three.
When Olivier Giroud equalised he was the man desperately racing into the Park End goal to retrieve the ball, while Everton looked to toss the ball into touch.
Everton clearly have issues to address around their World Cup performers. Hopefully before Chelsea arrive on Saturday.
But it can be done.
In 1986, after another Mexican summer which saw England reach the World Cup quarter-finals, Peter Reid, Trevor Steven and Gary Stevens were mainstays of Bobby Robson’s England side, while tournament top scorer Gary Lineker was sold to Barcelona.
Everton won the title.
World Cup summers don’t have to end in a hangover.
Source: Echo
