Should David Moyes opt for Vellios
With this seasons decline in the performances of Nikica Jelavic, his strike partner Victor Anichebe has had to come to the fore scoring 6 league goals so far this season. Many Evertonian’s have been asking for the inclusion of youngster Apostolos Vellios.
Everton signed Apostolos Vellios from Greek side Iraklis Thessaloniki in January 2011 for a fee of around £250k. Hailing from the northern Greek city, the 6″3 forward was a member of Saloniki’s youth academy from the age of five and progressed through their ranks to their first team.
Since signing for Everton, the 6ft 3 youngster has made 22 appearances (many from the bench), scoring 3 times. So why do some Evertonian’s think he should start?
During his very brief appearances, often only 10 minutes at the end, Vellios has come on leaps and bounds showing strength, technique and tenacity. Trying to impress, the young Greek shows boundless enthusiasm and energy, often leading the way for his elder team mates.
This season Vellios has made most of his appearances for the Everton under 21 team scoring 3 goals in 14 appearances.
So what does Vellios bring to the table?
At 6ft 3, Vellios has all the attributes to be a Premier League Target man. Combined with his height, the lad also has a decent turn of pace that can trouble defenders. His technique has also come on no end since his debut and Vellios looks to have a decent touch on him.
So why isn’t he playing?
During his time at Everton, it has been rumoured that there had been bust ups with David Moyes and a lack of effort in training. None of this has been confirmed by the club, but after performing well last season and scoring goals, Vellios was left out of subsequent squads leading to speculation. This season, Vellios is back in the squad, but despite our lack of decent attacking options, isn’t really getting a run out from David Moyes and it’s understood that Vellios has turned down loan moves to championship teams Sheffield Wednesday and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
My View
My own view is that Vellios should be given a try. We only really have 2 main strikers and one of them is really off form at the moment. Vellios could be the person to give the whole team a boost and really take the bull by the horns. He was given a start upfront on his own against a Stoke team who could even Bully Fellaini, so why not start him against a team like Swansea or Wigan, who may not be as physical.
With only 11 games to go, I see no reason why we shouldn’t change our style and go all-out attack, we have decent attacking players and I can only see Vellios’s attributes helping these players with different options. A combination upfront of Vellios and Anichebe would be a really good option and I don’t think many Premier League players would fancy coming up against this.
why not jelavic has lost his scoring touch but might be good with two up front playing alongside vellious, anichebe is strong and tough but injury prone and is out more times than he plays, i am at a loss to anichebes reaction when he scored his goak against oldham, he looked pissed off and pushed his team mates away when they came to congratulate, maybe he needs to see a shrink to cheer him up
Well, we are not scoring with our strikers (Anichebe has got a few but Jelavic just isn’t with it.) We are relying on the odd goal from the defence to get one or two. The reds have got TWO STRIKERS of high class – no wonder they are catching us up FAST!
When Vellios came into the side last season as a sub he made an impact and scored a couple of goals.Moyes then started him and the team got no service to him so then Moyes never played him after that and chose to play the below-par Saha!
Personally i would give him a run of games similar to what Vic has had to allow him to build confidence and match fitness.
The downside of Vellios as the lone striker is that i believe he needs plenty of crosses to feed off and a pacy player around him to feed off as he is not one to create for himself and lacks pace to go past players like Jelavic.
For whatever reason,when Moyes plats two up top it doesnt work as we tend to get over-run in midfield.I would play Pienaar or Mirallas behind him.