At the start of this article I'd like to explain my comments in advance. I do NOT believe Moyes is blameless for the poor, sometimes shocking performances this season and I am a fan of this site and have the utmost respect for it's creators, editors etc for offering such a good quality site for evertonians to discuss, vent frustrations etc.
However, I, over the course of this season have become increasingly frustrated at how people have come to the conclusion that the main cause of the poor performances has been one man: David Moyes (I apologise in advance as I am as passionate about Everton as the next loyal fan and may use some rather choice language).
I will get straight to my main point which is that David Moyes, on countless times this season, has been let down in absolutely appalling fashion by, I believe most of his players and especially his star players.
Mikel Arteta has been a shadow of his former self this year. He hasn't been injured, he signed a new contract, he's been starting games in his favoured position, yet all season long virtually, he as been complete and utter shite.
Now I won't try to fathom the reason for his violent dip in form as it could be any number of reasons (high wages gone to his head, long-term injury has affected him badly etc) but the bottom line is David Moyes's most talented and creatively influential player has vanished... to be replaced by, in my eyes, a decent Championship ability player. Immediately David Moyes has made a mistake in trusting him to perform after giving him the contract when he might as well have sold him (a mistake everyone on this site would have made too) and the team is considerably less formidable.
For creativity, we now look to Fellaini. A class act on his day, as we saw against Spurs and in the further past against City at home, but he's not produced anything close to the quality we've needed since Mikel went downhill.
Leaving us with Pienaar who has been great (admittedly in my opinion) this year: however, on the left he can hardly have the creative influence needed to give our midfield the injection of quality needed to set us apart from the likes of West Ham, Stoke and Wolves.
Moving away from the midfield, Howard has cost us points this year, making vital errors and generally not performing at his best or close to it, Jagielka has been a fairly average player this year, showing glimpses of the player that had torres in his back pocket at Goodison two years previous but not enough. Indeed, out of the back five, only two have performed as well as they could: Distin and Baines.
Distin has been absolutely awesome over the last 15 or so games for us; however, earlier on in the season he was error prone and nervous and that cost us. Baines, however has been fantastic. A breath of fresh air, he has been our only consistent outlet on the wings and is rapidly convincing me and many others to believe he, not Ashley Cole, is the best left back in the country.
But I'm afraid Distin and Baines, Coleman (for effort) and Cahill (for goals) is all we've had this year as up top we have been absolute shite. Louis Saha. Class player, unbelievable talent, proven goalscorer... this year ? fucking shite. No goals in the league from February until Spurs showed us one thing. First, the goal was awesome and proved he can score a goal in an instant; second, that he has been nowhere near his best and hasn't put in the effort to even try to get there. I do, admittedly put that mostly down to Moyes and his insistence on playing him every bloody week on his own up front (but with a player that talented, you've got to give him a real chance to get to top form) and believe he got too relaxed, possibly in the knowledge of a bust up between Yak and Moyes... Well, let's not go there.
On the subject of Yak he was shite until we played Liverpool and then got dropped. One of the few really bad decisions made by Moyes this year. However, if he did fall out with Moyes, I highly doubt our manager would have been at fault.
And finally, Beckford shouldn't have had to be put straight in when he was and I'm sure that wasn't in Moyes's plan and he was always going to take a while to settle down.
What I am getting at here is Moyes is not the sole root of the problem. Not even close. Neither, in the short-run is the board or Bill Kenwright. The problem is the players. Moyes hasn't been perfect but he hasn't changed for the worse since we hit top 3 form in the second half of last year. The players have. Whether it's due to high wages or injuries is another argument entirely but the players have failed everyone this year ? the fans, the manager and the club as a whole.
David Moyes assembled a team of class players with a net spend of a few million a year while having some of his gems pinched along the way. While everyone else around us became richer, we became poorer. THAT'S Bill's and the board's fault. Yet as Spurs, Ccity etc struggled to move forward, often moving backward, we continued to progress valiantly, constantly punching above our weight (we were, let's face it) and I, as a fan of this club, am immensely proud of that and know David Moyes will always have the ability to move us forward.
Often we've needed a catalyst, a kick up the backside or Neville's tackle against United to get us going. This year, we've had countless turning points, yet the players haven't reacted. Moyes has tried and the players have failed. I wasn't angry at anyone but the players on Saturday. Moyes played the 4-4-2 that everyone had been crying out for against Spurs and this site was rammed with people all trying to get their chance to say "I told you so! Moyes out! We know better!".
Where were you on Saturday afternoon after we played 4-4-2 and drew to bottom of the league West Ham, relying on a harsh red card to get the equaliser to snatch a point, turning in the worst performance of the year in my view? We were home to bottom of the league for God's sake! Oh, that's right, everyone came on Toffeeweb to slate the fucking manager! Unbelievable!
I have said already that Moyes isn't perfect and makes mistakes, he isn't the best tactician either but if you're going to blame him for the performance on Saturday or indeed most of the other performances this year then I'm sorry but I've no time for you.
We played away at City and won with 4-5-1 if i remember rightly? We beat Spurs at home with 4-4-2 we have shit performances and good performances with both bastard formations. WHY?!?! Because the fucking twats on the big money don't pull their finger out and do the job properly apart from the odd time when they can be arsed. They're class players, they should be able to win games at home to that shite if Moyes sets out with 4-6-0 let alone 4-4-2 for fuck's sake!!
The fans should get off Moyes's back (a little) and let the players really know how shit they've been. I'm not saying don't support them ? we're Evertonians, that's what we do ? but if the manager plays 4-4-2 when you want him to and they still play shit, what does that say???
I reckon I'll get some pretty negative comments but I will not believe that Moyes is the problem. It's BS of the highest order.
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Hang on... that's exactly what Moyes has been doing!
If Jags hasn't been playing as well as he could, replace him with the other centre half who desperately wants to play centre half - Johnny. Hang on. He did that when his hand was forced, and Johnny has looked a lot better than Jags, and at the very least will make Jags play for his spot. 4-4-2- against West Ham. Bullshite. When Moyes selects that waste of space Anichebe, he effectively puts out a side of 4-4-1. Moyes personally has cost us 4 points against the lowest team in the league.
We do not have any alternatives to the players who are going through bad patches. Contrary to one or two comments, DM has never dropped Arteta or Cahill, even when they may be playing poorly; he has no alternative options. He can only bring on so-called impact subs for cameo appearances. Most other clubs have stronger benches and new blood coming in to shake the lethargy... we are stagnating and I really don't think that some of the players enjoy playing for EFC.
DM stated that Lescott would stay (he went), Pienaar would play until the end of his contract (he went), Neville is definitely staying (let's see??). Our offer for Kranjcar was refused but Old 'Arry got Pienaar for less!!! He and a few other managers are taking the piss out of EFC and our motto is being made a laughing stock.
We should send DM and BK on bargain hunt because that is the only type of market we can operate in. I'm ashamed and embarrassed at the way our once great club is being run and I reckon the whole board of directors are CHARLATANS and very possibly embezzlers...
Bily was good enough to be starting and starring for Russia and were it not for a momentary lapse in concentration against Slovenia, they were probably going to be in the top 4 in the world. Heitinga played centre-half in the world cup final, and Saha has stated that he is a better player under different formations.
Moyes has always been narcicistic and would honestly tell the likes of Hiddink, Ferguson and even Redknapp that they are wrong where he is right. You can see it in Bily's face when he's standing on the sideline for 10 minutes waiting to come on in the 92nd ? "What the fuck did I leave my home town for this for?"
Who would the 'Moyes out' brigade replace him with? No quality manager would entertain coming to Everton in the state we are in. Get off his back!
@6&11 He picked those teams last year and they were on top 3 form. How's it his fault if they stop playing? Is he supposed to throw those 5 months of mostly excellent performances out the window as soon as things turn sour?
No, Moyes wants continuity in his side. Chopping and changing is bullshit. Look what Rafa Benitez eventually did at Liverpool. They had the potential to be title contenders and he only got them to that level once because the rest of the time he was dropping players all over the place.
It doesn't work and also why is it that when a player spends a few weeks out of the team eg, Bily (deservedly so imo) does he all of a sudden become a potential great player again. I think it's a possibility that he could get better but he was shite when he got games and you don't gain a few yards of pace from sitting on the bench so he'll never be a winger. He's not the solution in any way.
1) Do you think Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, City or Spurs would "jump at the chance" to take Moyesey as manager?
2) Would HK 1 or Cloughie in his prime get this squad of players to perform better?
Sadly, I think the next two games will prove a watershed for Moyes and Kenwright; defeat in both will mean the season over and will leave us only 3 to 4 points above the relegation zone. No player with any ambition will want to come near us (that's if we are genuinely trying to bring players in), attendances will fall, and I personally think they will struggle to sell anywhere near 20 thousand season tickets next season, leaving Moyes in a worse position than he is in now. All this could have been avoided if Moyes had of shown he has a pair.
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