Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

Carpe Diem

This March will see David Moyes' 10th anniversary at Everton! In his near decade at our beloved club, Moyes has won... nothing. He has overseen the first trophy-less decade since the 1950's — only the second decade without a trophy in our history! Football has changed beyond all anticipation since our foundation in 1878, however, one thing remains constant: trophies equal success. If you do not win trophies, you are not a success.

Anybody who wishes to defend Moyes must think long and hard about that. He has, on a personal level, won three LMA Manager of the Year awards; an award previously won by such luminaries as Frank Clark, Danny Wilson and George Burley! Somehow this led, along with a couple of European place finishes, to Moyes being labelled, by certain sections of the media, as the new Sir Alex Ferguson! I think it's safe to say the only similarity that Moyes has with Sir Alex is akin to the similarity shared by Sean Connery and wee Jimmy Krankie in their own particular field — they're both Scottish.

Last night following a 2-0 away defeat to Tottenham, Moyes announced that he was "satisfied" with the defeat. His satisfaction followed 90 minutes during which, for the third time this season, we failed to have even a single shot on goal. Indeed, I think it is actually the third time in under a month this has happened. This satisfaction in spite of defeat is an attitude which I, as an Evertonian, find utterly deplorable. Do we really want a man running our football team whose attitude is such that defeat is acceptable! When has this ever been prevalent in what it is to pull on a royal blue jersey!? Never. This is why I am calling for him to resign, and why I urge all other Evertonians to do the same. Moyes has thrown in the towel; and when that happens, it's time to go!

Following last night's defeat Moyes came out with the following statement: "we played quite well and there were a lot of good signs." Therein lies the major issue with Moyes as a manager. What were the good signs? Were they that we failed to get a single shot on goal? Or that we had well under 40% possession? I believe the good signs for Moyes were that we only lost 2-0. Had we have nabbed a goal from a set-piece — again — then he'd have been over the moon!

That is what Moyes is all about: getting a result. That is what has defined his time as Everton manager, and to be frank, it is not good enough. For me it reeks of disdain towards the players he manages. It's as though he's saying, "we're not good enough to win here so we're probably going to get beat so we'll take a point..." What kind of manager is that? What signal does that send to the players!?

But then his aim has always been, not to win, but rather to get a result from games. We never go out and beat the opposition, we just get a result. This formula, Moyes fans will argue, has worked and to be fair from time to time in the past, against stronger sides who come to beat us, we've got results; but when we are at home and we have to beat sides we should be beating, we're incapable of doing so. If we nab a point or a 1-0 thanks to a header from a set piece —as we have done again and again throughout Moyes' reign —then it's mission accomplished for the manager. I presume this is why Moyes has persisted with Tim Cahill —in spite of him not having scored since December 2010 —because he thinks their is always the possibility of him getting on the end of a corner and job done!

No other side in the division relies so heavily on set pieces as us. It said it all that even the Tamworth manager worked hard with his players on defending set-pieces because, "that was where I felt their strengths were." That's the manager of Tamworth! Tamworth are, by the way, a side from the fifth tier of English football that have conceded 10 goals in their three games prior to our 2-0 victory over them. One has to look at that game —another embarassing performance —and ask, without the corner for Heitinga and penalty for Baines, would we have scored? Probably not.

Moyes' brand of negative football has been pretty much figured out by every opposition we face yet he sticks with it. Either Moyes can't adapt or worse still he won't! Is he so arrogant as to think that it will come good? Because it won't. When a system is not working it has to be changed. I'm all for bringing in Velios and Barkley but under this system nothing will change. Then, the next week Moyes' attitude, as it has been this season, will be, "told you so..." and back to 451 we go! I remember reading a quote from perhaps the greatest football genius of all, Johan Cruyff, which lampooned the Alf Ramsey idea that you should "never change a winning team." Cruyff disagreed, "never change a winning system." It seems David Moyes' philosophy is "never change a losing system."

Tactically Moyes has always been naive. But now his tactics look worse than merely naive, they look stale and deflated. It's clear he's not going to get anything from his number two. Steve Round resembles a nodding dog on the back seat of a car more than a football coach. He reminds me of Phil Neal in "Do I Not Like That." And so there will be no change: Moyes will persist with the same system, which isn't working and the same players, who are not up to the task. The squad is so threadbare that the likes of Louis Saha know that they will play week in, week out, no matter how poor they are, because there is nobody else. The only other players there are is kids who Moyes for some reason seems determined not to try out.

His attitude of late absolutely stinks and I've started to really dislike the man because of it, and like I say, I see nothing changing. It's no coincidence that we're seeing some of the worst home attendances since the 1990's of late! I guess we can expect under 30,000 against Blackburn too! For the sake of the club we love, David Moyes has to go. He's had a decade at the helm and one could argue we're in a worse position now than we were when he took charge. Back then we had an aging squad of hasbeen's and neverwhere's sitting on big fat contracts and contributing nothing, and that is what we have today! The team comprises of a shakey back four, a midfield with no creative spark whatsoever and a forward line which poses no threat to the opposition whatsoever.

Moyes refuses to start the one player who has provided some energy and spark —Drenthe —instead choosing to play Bilyaletdinov out of position time and time again. Likewise Moyes' insistence on sticking with people like Saha and Cahill —in spite of the fact that they contribute nothing —really must be soul destroying for the likes of Velios and Barkley. I know we're not going to bring the players in we need because the chairman seems to be able to make money disappear like Nick Leeson but even if he did have cash to spend Moyes would most likely bring in more defensive minded players; I don't think he knows what a creative midfielder is, and when he does get one —Drenthe —he doesn't like it! Kenwright needs to go NOW and Moyes needs to follow him; but the other way around will suit me fine.

This weekend we play another side with a manager who prefers to focus on the more negative side of the game. Moyes will set his side up, again, to try and claim a point. We'll go out and try and nab a goal from a set piece and if that doesn't work we'll try to bore Villa to death! If I can figure that out, then I'm sure Alex McLeish won't have too much trouble. So, soon as Villa open the scoring —No other PL team this season has conceded more first half goals than us —Moyes' game-plan is defunct. What do you do then? Then when Villa get a second, we're screwed! I'm sorry, it seems Moyes' pre-game press conferences are rubbing off on me; I've already got us down to be beaten at Villa!

I know we've heard it all before but January could be a watershed month for the club and Moyes in particular. Injuries and poor form mean that we are desperate for new additions! Will we add a centre half to the ranks before the month is out? Will we ever sign a midfelder with creativity and guile? Will we bring a top quality centre forward? The answers to all those questions are probably no, and that is down to the chairman. If that is what happens then those who continue to support Kenwright must really look hard at themselves and ask the questions that the rest of us are asking. Because the fact of the matter is, if we do not address the issues with injuries and the issues in the squad which need to be fixed whilst we can, then we are a very real contender for relegation. And if the manager continues with the attitude he has had over the last few weeks then we could be playing Championship football next season.

There has to be change on and off the pitch. Supporters who feel as I do about Moyes and Kenwright need to start making their voices heard. Protests at the games from the Blue Union and the like must be stepped up and must move to the next level. We can't just sit around idly hoping that change will come! Only we have the power to be the catalyst for change. I believe getting rid of Moyes could spark a revolution, a new manager with new ideas and a fresh approach could very well be the thing that leads to Bill Kenwright's inevitable demise! Who knows. The future is unwritten but one thing is for sure, if we stand together then we can change things and smash the Moyes-Kenwright love in that is destroying our football club.

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