Moyes reserves praise for his team

Yes, we played with a lot more tempo, but I think the quality of the passing, and better hold up play from vic gave us a lot more front foot opportunities, which Coleman really exploited. Moyes why didn't you play that team last week?

I said after 18 months of Moyes management that we would win nothing with him in charge; I'm even more certain of that now, he's not a winner, and never will be, I don't like his management style and I don't like his personality. I just hope that he gets an offer from Germany in the summer and takes it, and he can take his sidekick Round with him as well.

Nice to see a good win yesterday, but I'm afraid its just papering over the cracks.

From the first minute we chased in packs every City player in possession seemed to get closed down by three Everton players, maybe it's wrong to be critical after yesterday but you have to ask why just yesterday did they do this?
Hate him as much as you like but the reason Ferguson at Utd has done what he has done is down to making his players do this week in week out, he expects nothing less, this is what we need to do from now on.

I thought the whole back four were awesome especially Coleman, he played poor last week but I still thought he was one of the few to walk away from that game that could at least say he worked hard, Mucha was superb which I thought I would never say minus those stupid punches when he should catch, plus he needs to chill out a bit with his keenness to throw the ball out quickly, it's nice to see a keeper trying this for once, but on occasions Gibson had to tell him to calm things down as he was throwing the ball out and putting the receiving player under pressure at times.

Onto Gibson, this lad was top drawer yesterday, he ran the show, when people were panicking it was him who was screaming to stay calm, every pass he made was a calming pass and how he was dropped last week for tactical reason only Christ knows.

Anichebe was great the crowd were great and let's hope something has hit home to players and manager, the crowd will not take it anymore they showed that with the Mirrallas substitution, Naismith can barely run he looks like a player who has had a serious injury, but anyway a great day lets hope we carry it on, my mate said to me as we left that you don't have to be seriously great at Everton just show the crowd you care and you will be ok, it's the reason The Strac got the support he did, it was the reason Anichebe got a thunderous applause for one lung breaking act of closing down and it was the reason everyone of them got the stick they did last week too, lets move on and up.

Now that's positivity for you. What a game to miss. Was jumping about watching MOTD though. Was hell watching those five minutes after SP was sent off, live must have been agony.

The team played like warriors against city, motivated and at the top of their game, it was brilliant to see, puzzling to understand just where the commitment and head space was last week.

Maybe, just maybe, the kick up the backside and the performance yesterday can act as a springboard for a great finish to the season, we live in hope, but we would love to make it happen.

That goal was bliss. Then the Southampton game came on...

Any full match replay online anywhere?

Completely agree with your lengthy post above. Anichebe just did not stop all game. Goodison was a cauldron and the lad was so up for it. Can he do it in the games where he doesn't have the crowd fully behind him against the lesser teams? I hope so.

As for Mirallas - towards the end he was still full of running and looked like the only one sprinting upfield to support Big Vic. I thought that was a really bad decision from Moyes and we looked a poorer team as a result. He could have at least gone with Oviedo and used his pace on the counter.

Naismith is simply not good enough to play for the club. He is lethargically slow and his "corner" was a joke. Yet he still gets an order of magnitude more game time than players like Barkley. Same goes for Neville who at best should be a backup RB.

Coleman was outstanding and its great to see him making the RB berth his own. Anichebe was again impressive when played in his natural position. I was also pleased with Mucha. He wasn't at fault for any of the goals last week and this week he looked assured. I suspect it will take him some games to really get match sharpness since he's had no game time at all.

Icing on the cake was seeing Jelly get a goal. I reckon if he's played with Anichebe in a 4-4-2 we might see a hatful of goals from him, I think they'd be a good combination.

It was rocking though. The Man Utd game was very special but I think yesterday trumped it. Loved seeing Distin lifting up Mucha at the end and Heitinga doing a full lap - particularly after all the shit he (rightfully) took, of late. And the crowd singing like that on the full time whistle was just fucking brilliant. That is why we watch the Blues.

Top marks for the team for coming out and showing what they're made of, and the same to the crowd for showing what an amazing support we've got. Very very proud to be a blue yesterday.

There's no way DM will start him at the moment, but no reason why he can't get 15-25 minutes at the end of the game to increase his experience and his awareness of what it is to be a team player - an especially skilled one, but a team player nonetheless. Who knows, the nightmare scenario might not come to pass: he might even create or score a goal!

Replacing Fellaini and Pienaar will not be easy because they are both quite unique. Moyes will probably go with Neville and Naismith or Neville and Barkley. I'd like to see Oviedo and Barkley but it ain't gonna happen.

For me, Mucha is miles better than Howard.

That said, it doesn't excuse Moyes from not using Barkley for the last 2 years and using Neville and Naismith instead. Barkley clearly has ability, but Moyes is too conservative to let him make mistakes and learn. He would clearly be happier to see Neville make mistakes, cost us possession and goals too.

Like I said in my post, this one game means relatively little. It's the bigger picture to bear in mind.

Interesting to see what team turns up against Stoke. In the last couple of seasons, I've been away when playing them and given my seat to some other poor sod to sit through it... this season I'm not so lucky and I'll be going.

Let's take the opportunity and keep these performances up, COYB!

It's not going to be a pretty game.

"And yet...10 men, 5 knackered, somehow it made sense to bring on someone who'd just be fresh nuisance value
For all Naismith's faults, he ran about a bit"

Glad to see your old fella's passed on the knowledge

His last paragraphs contain these corkers:

“You could say we’ve only ever been good in the last seven or eight years for one half of the season so why would you suddenly expect something to be dramatically different?

“Sometimes you have to win big games and I thought we won a big game today.”

I keep ringing the authorities about him but they say I'm making it up.

We should accept we only play for half a season... what right have we got to expect something dramatically different???