Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

Better Than the Devil You Know

By Iain   McWilliam  ::  15/04/2012   83 Comments (»Last) I haven't contributed to this site for about 2 years but have been a constant 'lurker'. I gave up voicing my opinions because I felt a lot of people were being ignorant to the fact that we were simply treading water and happy with playing it safe and keeping Moyes in charge.

I like David Moyes as a person, I think he is honest, hard working and humble. I think he's a very good coach as well. He's also pragmatic... too pragmatic in my opinion.

His theory, I believe, is that all things being equal that we should never beat Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, or Spurs largely because they have spent more money on their players. Getting the odd point against them or keeping the score down to 0-1 is a success to him and I suppose in a cold-hearted, scientific reasoning he is correct.

He runs the club almost like a computer game (say Football Manager). Before the season has even started, the computer has worked out who will beat who.

For example:

Everton play 38 matches a season = 38 x 3 give you 114 points
Everton play the big six teams 12 times, Moyes believes we will never beat them home or away so that's 12 matches down the drain straight away = 38 ?12 = 26 x 3 = 78 points if we win all our home and away games against other 'lesser' sides (not very likely).

To be more realistic perhaps we could say 13 home wins and 13 away draws will give us 52 points in toal against the 'lesser' teams.

As for the cups, well we would do well if we reach the Quarter Finals of the FA and League Cups, anything else is a bonus.

Going by the above estimations, apart from the League Cup, we have done well. We just under-performed in the League Cup but we have over performed in the FA Cup and have met expectations in the Premier League (at present).

So, from a purely statistical point of view, I would side with the 'In Moyes We Trust' brigade but, and I may be in the minority here, despite football being a business rather than a sport these days, I still believe that a football club manager also needs to encourage a certain amount of optimism or hope with both the players and fans that they can somehow strive to do better.

Rather than say "they are better than us lads so just keep it tight and see how it goes," he should be the first one to say, "come on, have a go, just possibly you are better than you think. Have a go, you have nothing to lose, at least go down fighting knowing that you did the best you could."

I'm in a lousy mood and will be for the next week or so but, as so many other fans have said, as soon as we went 1-0 up and we just shut up shop, I knew what would happen; we handed the initiative back to them. We weren't playing well but Liverpool were even worse.

Distin has been great for us, Coleman has a great attitude, even if he has played crap all season, but they just cocked up. The length of time Moyes and Round spent talking to Coleman before he came on was bizzare and just seemed to epitomize the Moyes attitude. It's not, "Go on, son, keep it simple, just get stuck in, push up and put pressure on in the final third," it seemed to be, 'Okay, don't bomb forward too much, remember to mark him, and stand there... blah blah blah." By the time Coleman got on, his head must have been spinning.

Moyes has been at the club for 10 years now and, although I cannot stand his style of play, I admit he has done a reasonable job in many respects... but I will never embrace his outlook on football. In those 10 years, due to his 'pragmatic approach', he has reduced the expectancy of the fans bit by bit, year on year. This has taken the heat off both himself and Bill Kenwright and put them in a relatively comfortable position where now fans are just as defeatist as him. This is the most saddening aspect of it all.

This result seems to have finally broken the last tiny thread of defiance that us Blues felt. I don't think I've ever felt so down whilst reading some of the comments, not since the '86 cup final anyways.

John Moores once said, 'Everton Fans expect success', our Club motto roughly translates to 'Nothing but the best', but deep down I know that without a huge financial input this club will never see the Premier League trophy again... BUT I want us to go down fighting, regardless of the opposition. I would rather lose 3-2 than 1-0, at the very least I just want to be proud that we remained true to our principles of playing positive, attractive football in the long tradition of the School of Science. It's what made us stand out from other clubs in the past; now we are one of the worst to watch.

When Cloughie took over Notts Forest, did he believe finishing in the upper half of the Second Division was good enough given that the club was skint? When Ferguson took over Aberdeen, did he think 3rd place was good enough? Or when Paul Lambert took over at Wycombe only to lose in the playoffs, had he decided the players had less ambition than him so left?

I'm not saying Lambert is the answer to our prayers (the last manager we took from Norwich was a bloody disaster) but I think it's time for a new managerial approach at the club ? otherwise we will end up like clubs like Wolves, a pale imitation of a once proud club.

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