FAN ARTICLES

This Worm Has Turned

By Sam Morrison :  30/11/2010 :  Comments (17) :

Moyes took an aging, mediocre squad and transformed it into a younger, more dynamic side. He made great signings at low costs and achieved the transformation from perennial relegation-strugglers into a team that regularly challenged for Europe.

The details and intricacies of how he did this tell of his drive and ambition, his skills of motivation, his eye for a player who fit into a hard-working team-ethic while slowly evolving into a team who were more capable on the ball as individuals. Marcus Bent traded in for Louis Saha (not directly I know, but over time). Alessandro Pistone for Leighton Baines. Scot Gemmill for Mikel Arteta...

And as we were all getting tired over the prosaic style of play, he began to implement a different style to the team, with more emphasis on passing and possession.

All this and more has been detailed many times over the years, and better than I ever could, but in summary let?s just say that he has done Everton a lot more good than harm. And for that I remain grateful and unapologetic. However?

A common perception of the major Moyes flaws are: too defensively minded when it comes to formations (my personal take on 4-5-1 is that it?s not a defensive set-up unless you allow it to be ? it?s a 4-5-1 in defence, a 4-1-3-2 in attack, or whatever formation you like as long as the players are all on the pitch and have the confidence and wherewithal to attack with fluidity); he?s tentative with substitutions in terms of whom he replaces and the timing of it (ie they?re usually reactive rather than proactive); and he favours particular players to the detriment of the team (here we get into a very subjective argument about individual player qualities, so it?s difficult to address it definitively).

All of which can ultimately be forgiven if the results justify it, and obviously this season this isn?t the case.

I?d add two more major criticisms though which I believe go above and beyond the oft-quoted three above. The first is that the team moves to the rhythm of Moyes?s moods, and too often we find that his mood is bleak. His drive can never be doubted, but it does not manifest itself as the infectious enthusiasm of someone like Owen Coyle or the tactical adaptability of a Jose Mourhino. It's closer, by accident or design, to the ?Generalissimo? approach of Alex Ferguson, where the leader commands (or hopes to) such respect that the players would do everything for him, a leader who protects them to the extent that after dressing a player down for a shite performance he?ll tell a journalist who shares his opinion that he?s talking bollocks.

Moyes certainly seems to be aiming for this kind of leadership, but he will occasionally criticise or ?temper? individuals (Coleman and Beckford most recently) and this can seem mealy-mouthed. Without the years of success, not to mention presence, that Ferguson has had, Moyes?s temper can seem like a sulk. And while his ?no carrot, just stick? approach gets some thriving, it is not for everybody. I think if Moyes showed a bit more flexibility in regards to massaging certain egos in the squad (and I mean 'ego' in terms of confidence on the pitch) it would actually increase his hold on the club, not weaken it, but he seems not to agree.

The other major drawback is one that is actually a positive taken in isolation. Moyes seems to work best with his back to the wall. We often turn in a disappointing performance against a team we?d hope to beat when we have a full (or close to it) squad to choose from, while we get our best results against the big boys when key players are missing.

Examples: during our great run of last season we beat Chelsea without Fellaini and Pienaar, Man Utd without Cahill or Fellaini, and Man City without Arteta. If memory serves Jagielka was missing for all of them. This in itself is admirable ? and in the grander picture of slumped expectations when he arrived here, makes me eternally grateful ? but set against the thirteen draws (last season) against mostly-average teams, it can be frustrating. If Moyes can gee the players up for these massive contests when the expectation is against them, surely we can hope to expect even better when all players are available and we?re at home to say, Stoke... Or Wigan... Or West Brom.

It?s these two issues that speak to me more than what formation we play, or whether Phil Neville is playing, or the fact that Moyes left it a little late to bring on second striker. All of these criticisms are valid, and yet all of them can be temporarily negated if Moyes can get the players playing as they are capable of, and maybe even permanently eradicated if Moyes takes the next evolutionary step and gets the team he built to attack actually attacking.

But I don?t think that will happen now. Unless the ownership of the club changes and our financial standing with it, I think Moyes believes he has faced all his challenges already and come up with his working methods for when they re-occur. I don?t feel like he is evolving any more.

I think he feels because something worked in the past he?ll stick with it, and our fortunes will be tied up in whether Moyes is going through one of his driven, bloody-minded, fighting-talk moods, or one of his bloody-minded periods of grim bleakness, where his post-game interviews are like some soulless Kafka-esque take on the human condition. We?ll still pull off the odd result against Man Utd/Chelsea, we?ll grind out some decent results, but in-between times we?ll struggle against teams who are well-organised defensively, and ultimately, it won?t feel like we?re progressing.

It?s sometimes hard to separate the issue of stewardship of a team from the financial strictures they work under, but despite his skills at working on a tight budget, I?m no longer convinced that Moyes is the best man for the club. Unless he can cast off his dead-eyed stoicism and fall in love with the game again, I think we will stagnate as the team he built to win things realizes they are not winning, and begin to leave. I?m still scared of all the possibilities of what happens if Moyes leaves, but for the first time I?m no longer optimistic about what happens if he stays.

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