In a disjoined, injury ravaged season in which the Blues have slumped alarmingly, an old adage rings true: ‘you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.’ But whilst the likes of Leighton Baines, James McCarthy, Steven Pienaar and Kevin Mirallas have all missed large swathes of this wretched campaign through injury, it is perhaps the guile, nouse and metronomic ability to find space in between opposition lines and ruthlessly exploit it, of Everton’s 33 year-old, Billinge-born midfielder that has been most sorely missed. Indeed, for all of Leighton Baines’ virtues, the likes of Luke Garbutt and Bryan Oviedo remain able deputies if needs must, and while the Toffees are a far weaker proposition if the tireless McCarthy is not available (as he has been for roughly 3 months of the season), a recurrent problem has been a lack of ingenuity in the final third- too often, Everton have dominated possession for long spells without threatening. The fact of the matter is that Roberto Martinez’s passing game, without midfield veteran, Osman, lacks the precise, purposeful, even systematic brain of their home-gown architect in chief. I, myself, belong to the very same group of Evertonians that have previously underrated Leon Osman to the extent mentioned in the rest of the article, yet in his absence we’ve learned one vital fact: Everton are simply a better team when the midfielder is available, and win far more games as a result. Cast your mind back to his role in coming off the bench last season to help Everton win 2-0 away at Aston Villa, or even the impact he had earlier in the season against West Ham, for evidence of Osman’s impact on games that looked beyond the Blues.
In times of trouble, two things are important- one is leadership from senior pros, the other is a calm head in the heat of battle. Two qualities that Phil Jagielka’s deputy has in abundance. That’s not to say that the Bellfield academy product is without his flaws- far from it. When he limped out of Everton’s 2-1 win against high-flying West Ham in November, few were bemoaning his impending absence. “Barkley will thrive given a run of games,” they said, with others quick to point out that the midfielder, who has never been blessed with any real modicum of pace or physical strength, lacked the qualities necessary to play as a deep-lying, holding midfielder in Martinez’s 4-2-3-1 system. And to an extent they were right- Osman was the most dribbled past player in the Premier League last season, and in that particular position he is vulnerable to quick breaks from any attacking midfielder possessing the qualities that he so obviously lacks. He is not a James McCarthy or a Mohamed Besic, nor was he ever meant to be. Moreover, he’s not worth his place in the team in such a role.
Instead, Osman works in the space in between lines, ghosting into areas in between defence and midfield and probing in a way that few other Blues do. This is this type of player that Everton have lacked most this season: the problem exacerbated even further by the recurrent absence of Steven Pienaar. At times during both David Moyes’ reign, and the current Martinez era, supporters have been at a loss to explain Osman’s repeated presence in an often upwardly-mobile first 11. What both managers quickly realised was that, whilst the midfielder has all of the qualities listed in the previous paragraphs, he is above all a Blue, and one that can be relied on in times of trouble. Clearly, Osman is not the Messiah- no one would dare to pretend that- but his return is a timely boost for a club in danger of sleepwalking into the abyss, and it is this that may just save them in their hour of need….
