First of all, in terms of buying and selling players, David Moyes could hardly have done better. So many players of top Premier League quality have been brought in at relatively little cost ? I think of Cahill, Arteta, Pienaar, Jagielka, Baines, Lescott, Howard, Saha, Distin, Neville and Coleman for example. When he has been forced to sell ? I think of Rooney, Lescott and Pienaar for example ? a profit has generally been realised.
We have had few ?big? purchases, and certainly none at the prices paid by the rich clubs. However, Fellaini has been a great buy and I still have my hopes for Bilyaletdinov. He is comfortable on the ball and has a great shot; perhaps with a decent run in the team he will consistently meet the pace of the Premier League.
I know that there have been mistakes, but the fact that Per Krøldrup is mentioned so frequently in that context shows how rare they have been. With his limited resources, I see no better Premier League manager in this respect.
However, what about this season? Firstly, I accepted at the outset that we had a strong squad and agreed with the policy of securing existing top players with long contracts. Teams, though, often respond well to the freshness which comes from accommodating new, skilful players, and we have not really had that advantage. Only Jermaine Beckford, on a free transfer, stood a chance of being picked regularly. At first, like many, I did not think he had the talent to make it. Now though, I see why he scored so often for Leeds. He is beginning to show some skill and is also scoring goals ? good goals at that.
A further problem this season has been that a number of players are not yet what they were prior to long term injuries ? notably Jagielka, Yakubu and Arteta.
The situation worsened in January. We brought in only youngsters, losing Pienaar and sending Yakubu and Vaughan out on loan ? the latter two strikers, who have scored goals since, at a time when everyone knows we are short of good players in that position. The suggestion has been made that the club has been keen to cut the wage bill. I don?t know if this is true, but it would be worrying if such a policy led to a weakening of our squad.
Last year, we signed Landon Donovan on loan and he helped to rescue our season. This year, our players have been able to see Steven Pienaar playing in the Champions League in the San Siro Stadium. That is bound to have a negative effect on their morale, especially as no decent new players have arrived. Having said that, while the game away to Bolton was truly awful, no-one could doubt the players? motivation, skill and determination in knocking Chelsea out of the FA Cup. We need to see this in every game.
David Moyes has had considerable success in buying players when the resources have been available ? no longer the case it seems. He has also built good passing teams who have generally competed well for European places. His teams have been well-motivated, sound in defence and inventive in attack, especially from set-pieces. This has applied to parts of games this season, for example against Man Utd, Chelsea (three times!), Liverpool, Arsenal and Blackpool. Unfortunately though, too often problems have been apparent.
We were humiliated at home to West Brom, and at home to Newcastle the away team showed all of the urgency and persistence which had once been characteristic of Everton. There have been many other examples of inadequacy.
In defence, clean sheets have become rare. There have been many individual mistakes. Johnny Heitinga looked good as a centre-back last season but now he is either suffering from World Cup burn-out or he wants to be elsewhere ? though that would not appear to have applied in the cup game at Chelsea! While Baines, Distin and Neville frequently display great defensive skills, the distribution of the latter two is often weak. Phil Neville, of course, has the added strength of being a great captain; he can also cross the ball well.
In midfield, Fellaini and Coleman have done well, with great support from Baines. Pienaar also played well, but how many crosses or goals did he deliver? I have hopes that Bily will be better. After injury, Rodwell just started to show great form when he was injured playing for his country. Cahill has been great, but after injuries playing for Australia he does not seem himself. While ?There is nobody better than Mikel Arteta...?, we have not seen much of his class this season, and we certainly need it!
Arteta is capable of great free kicks and corners but, recently, too often he has not got past the first defender. For the near future at least, Baines should take a much greater proportion of these kicks.
In attack, it has been great to see Louis Saha back to his best, only to be injured again, but we have always known that he was injury-prone. In these circumstances, why was Ayegbeni Yakubu allowed to go on loan, where he has scored four times in six games for Leicester? In the limited games he played following injury, prolific goal-scoring did not return, but we know he is a regular goal-scorer (if fed) and we need him in Saha?s absence. It has been said that he argued with David Moyes (the same being said of Joseph Yobo), and perhaps we will never learn the truth of this ? but, if so, it is the manager?s role to sort out such problems.
We can never know all that has happened in training, or the state of fitness of all of the players, but team selection has often worried me. I would like to see more attacking formations; it worries me when we play with one striker against fairly ordinary teams.
At Bolton, I could not believe that Victor Anichebe was selected as a lone striker. This is a player who very rarely scores a goal. He is powerful and can hold up the ball quite well, but his passing is ordinary, he falls too readily, and he is very tentative when in front of goal. Surely Beckford (in the absence of Yakubu) deserved a start after his goal as a substitute against Blackpool?
In my view, offering a new contract to Anichebe was one of the manager?s few mistakes. Anichebe is at best a squad player for Everton. In any event, if he did initially turn down the offer, it should have been withdrawn.
I do not subscribe to the negative views of certain other players often seen on websites and heard among the crowd. Hibbert and Osman are both very good squad players ? Hibbert is a great defender and tackler, though having weak distribution skills; Osman is a clever and skilful midfielder who passes well, but whose main deficiency is that he rarely scores.
Substitutions are also a concern. Why, when things are not going well, must David Moyes wait until 60 minutes before a first substitution? If Beckford is to be a substitute, bring him on at half-time. Be adventurous ? for example, both Baxter and Gueye have looked good when seen.
One big tactical concern has been always bringing all players back to defend corners and free kicks. Why? If, say, Saha stays upfield, the opposition are likely to keep two defenders with him. We are, therefore no worse off in defence, and stand a much better chance of scoring from any resulting break-away.
Having said all of that, my view remains that David Moyes is the best manager we could have had in recent years. With money to spend, he could lead us back to greatness.
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Firstly, it will give Moyes the money he needs to buy a striker and one or two other players to help keep the reality of developing a genuine squad who can tackle the best, alive. Forget out league position this season. In most games we have effortlessly outplayed the opposition but we are becoming a bit predictable.
Goalscorers are premium commodities and new classy but workmanlike players will give the manager different options to give his side a more multi-dimensional look. At times the team and manager are looking tired in battling teams with players costing tens of millions more than Everton. We have some very good players but good players are not enough any more. They need to be clever, pace is a must, know when and where to make the most out of a challenge, know when to fall and when to time waste. The top teams all do that successfully or are learning how to do it and these players cost money.
The squad and team spirit needs to be maintained and if we are selling a player he needs to be replaced with a better one. This didn?t happen with Piennar although Bily might come good and that?s worth a gamble in the short term.
Finally and most importantly, we need to find an investor and quickly. Despite Bill and David?s heroic efforts, if money isn?t forthcoming and David?s magic deserts him, the club could easily go into freefall. There are plenty of other examples. The players and manager are the most important commodity.
Keeping a tight reign on purse strings alone is not the answer and I think Everton are lucky to have a manager who has got the club to punch above it?s weight despite that constraint. It?s a balance between sound book-keeping and calculated investment. Investing £20-£30m or even more each season in a team with a manager who is arguably the best in the business, who is adept at spotting genuine class at a working mans price, is a gamble well worth pursuing.
In my opinion, his minimal risk football should have progressed after 2 or 3 seasons ? it hasn't. Although guesswork, I think most coaches could do what Moyes does ? especially given 9 years secure tenure.
Moyes failed to realise the potential in selling Saha for £8M and Yakubu for £6M when clubs offered; this would have released much needed money to strengthen the squad. Now we watch Saha sit sulking in rehab and Yakubu playing pub football at Leicester.Let's be frank: Landon Donovan came for a few weeks in order to get match fit for the World Cup ? this was not a Moyes-inspired signing and merely kept him in his job a little longer than he should have been; we relied on him in the end, which is bad planning. You have quite rightly stated how tactically inept Moyes is ? his failure to make a change until the 75th minute, his failure to play a striker, playing Anichebe, Osman, Hibbert at all... negative, predictable play. What was it you liked about Moyes again?
Personally I also think he's got a terrible attitude, always scowling and complaining, which I don't believe endears him to his team mates as, say a Heskey might. It's nothing to do with reading pages in the Sun, it's to do with witnessing a player who simply isn't up to playing for a club like ours IMHO.
Andy Gray... feck me!
BTW, although he`s been out injured for two of those five seasons you speak about, although he`s been played out wide ? not striker ? in nearly every game he played since his injury and although he still has about 10 years of his career left, Vic's still scored more goals in top football than Beckford has or maybe ever will.
Beckford gets in the box, he is not asked to engage 1-2 central defenders like Vic and, if the ball doesn't come into the box, he our boy Jemaine, is redundant. Colin Do you really think the hammering Vic takes is nothting to do with newspaper reports? Really? IMO if he was merely a bad player ? and I accept many see him as that ? he wouldnt take nearly as much stick.The point of my post is this: Moyes played a blinder on Saturday, we had one fit striker and he was having a Weston, Moyes decides to occupy the Chelsea defenders ? a decision that went some way to stemming the tide.
We got to the next round ? object of exercise ? yet according to Colin Potter (2) Moyes cocked up and insulted evry Everton player... didn't seem insulted or out of the cup to me when they were all hugging each other at the end
That's quite a list! Add these to the ones mentioned already and you get a rather different impression regarding just how good Moyes is at spotting and bringing through talent.
Check it out for yourself.
I know it's wrong to pick on one player, but he was the one player who gave up trying, and it really showed, but Moyes showed that he just will not drop his favourites. What do these other kids have to do to get a game?
Another thing, you do not need money to play people in their right positions, or to play a game as if you mean to win it, not just to go anywhere and play not to get beaten.
In his early days, he was much more attack-wise with his tactics, but you weren't keen on him; he now plays percentage football and you think he's great! Obviously mediocrity is your thing, Dave. I can only wish you good luck, and look after yourself at the away games.
ps: Ask those young fans that do the singing, What would they do if we had a manager that knew what he was doing?
For fear of repeating myself, its easy to pick the failures and ALL managers have them. Overall his transfer dealings have kept this club going whilst at board level we have stagnated more than any other time in living memory.
If you are right about older people singing his name (I've no reason to doubt you) don't you think they want their heads feeling after having been through the really good times?
By the way, I have never said in my posts about Beckford, but I will say he gives 100% more than Anichebe.
Talking about top managers, would you really expect any of them to come out and say Moyes is a plonker? Of course not. So you don't know what they really think.
Just one more thing, Dave, you say you have spent thousands watching Everton. All I can say is, excellent, and well done! We need more like minded people, but remember Dave, that doesn't make your opinion better than someone who cannot go, and can only watch every game either on the television or the computer. In fact, they have the benefit of replays as well.
If you're going to sing tomorrow, make it, "We don't care..." etc and none of that other nonsense.
There's only me and the missus now and so I can at last afford to go and recapture the good old days. Contrary to what the editor thinks, I never disrespect the views of others, I`ve had to rely on them too often in the past. I fucken hate individuals taking the blame though ? even if they are big clumsy lumps.You're right about older people knowing better times, but they will also remember Billy Bingham, Gordon Lee, Mike Walker, Walter Smith etc ? none of whom had to sell their best players.These are hard times for our club and you need to accept that although he has obvious flaws, many people will take that into account and are prepared to cut Moyes a bit/lot of slack.
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