MARK LAWRENSON: Yakubu spurred on by intense competition

Nov 6 2007 by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post

NO surprise to see Yakubu suddenly spring into life and start scoring.

A week earlier when he found the net against Derby, his manager called on him to start one of those runs of scoring that made him such a pivotal figure at Portsmouth and Middlesbrough – and forced David Moyes to spend a club record £11.25million on him.

The reason now seems obvious – if he doesn’t, there’s plenty of people waiting to take his place.

Whether this has actually given the Nigerian the kick up the backside he seemed to desperately need when he first joined is not yet clear.

But he needs to keep this little run ticking over. James Vaughan is back and firing again, while Victor Anichebe and James McFadden have been among the goals as well when they’ve had a chance.

And with Andrew Johnson almost back as well, the competition for places up front is fierce – especially because Moyes can easily only go with one striker. But the bigger picture for Moyes is that the squad is now big enough and strong enough to cope with the demands of the schedule.

In fact, the way things are going, I bet he’d rather have a game tonight than have to wait until Thursday for his next UEFA Cup group fixture. And what a fantastic reaction Everton have made to the Merseyside derby.

The manager and the players said they would go about putting it right and they couldn’t have done it in a better way.

It’s galvanised them and the best set of results for 16 years is living proof of that.