Can you imagine if before the Wimbledon singles final, Roger Federer cut a baseball-sized hole in his racket? Or prior to the Derby, Frankie Dettori broke his horse’s leg? How about Mike Atherton taking a penknife to a cricket ball before we faced the Indian spinners? There would be outrage.

Yet Moyes willfully chose to handicap us in our pursuit of the first piece of silverware in 30 years by omitting six of our current first-choice players last night against Wolves! There is no excuse. We aren’t in Europe, so we don’t have fixture congestion.

Some years back, Aston Villa were looking good in the Europa League but they were also chasing 4th place in the Premier League. Their manager Martin O’Neill calculated there was a better chance of securing Champions League football through the Premier League placings, so he put out a B team in the Europa League to save legs. They lost... and then missed out on 4th anyway, so it blew up in his face. But it was a calculated gamble.

Likewise, Burnley under Dyche were doing okay in Europe but struggling in the Premier League so he similarly prioritized the domestic competition, rested players, went out of Europe and avoided relegation. A calculated gamble he can argue he got right.

What was the upside for Everton last night? We aren’t in the relegation zone. We aren’t in the title race. We have almost a week before our next game. Why did England’s number one plus five others need a night getting splinters? What were we saving them for? There was zero upside.

This was a dereliction of duty. It warrants investigation and is a sackable offence. If anyone of us went to work tomorrow and deliberately sabotaged our workplace, would we expect to have a job tomorrow? No, sorry, Moyes, but it’s at worst match-fixing... and at best arrogance-inspired incompetence.

Moyes Out!

Reader Comments (13)

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Nicolas Piñon
1 Posted 24/09/2025 at 01:16:28
Moyes keeps doing everything he possibly can to lose his job sooner rather than later. At least enjoy the journey, Dave.

Everton deserve better.

Jerome Shields
2 Posted 24/09/2025 at 02:44:57
Moyes's post-match interview was just ridiculous. Wolves didn't play well either (scored a goal in each half). It was not a missed opportunity, Wolves are a Premier League side (who have not won).

Moyes threw that game. There was no serious attempt to win that game.

Derek Thomas
3 Posted 24/09/2025 at 06:06:17
Apart from his own foibles and faults... endlessly covered and refuted after the derby. It's my opinion he was saving it all up for a good show under the lights vs his old team.

Not into taxi territory as yet, but I'm willing to throw a quid in to get the pot started for the future.

Eddie Dunn
4 Posted 24/09/2025 at 08:03:04
Moyes once again thought he could rest seniors for a winnable cup tie and, like many times before, it blew up in his face.

We conceded two poor goals and neither of our totemic strikers looked close to scoring at the other end.

Garner was outstanding but others simply illustrated why we needed new players.

Colin Glassar
5 Posted 24/09/2025 at 09:01:55
Our starting XI will probably get us 8-9th this season. Our second XI would be relegation fodder once again. This is a squad game and we don’t really have one.

Plus our manager is bang average.

Rob Halligan
6 Posted 24/09/2025 at 09:35:35
I doubt TFG will be putting up with many more performances like that, no matter what team Moyes selects. He now has a free run with league games only between now and the third round of the FA Cup in early January to garnish enough points to push for a top half finish. Blow this and he won’t be seeing a second season at BMD.
Jimmy Carr
7 Posted 24/09/2025 at 09:48:19
'Moyes out'? The same Moyes who had us coasting away from relegation with ease last year. No thanks.

Same old, same old, on here. If all else fails blame the Manager. Moyes needs to take his share of brickbats for last night's game, along with the players that is. If last night told us anything it's that we don't have a squad capable of challenging for anything meaningful. Other than Coleman at left back, strange, I didn't have a particular issue with the starting line-up.

We've lost momentum and need to pick it up again now. Moyes has his work cut out with that. I'm sure TFG will be letting him get on with it, not looking for a replacement.

We also need to potentially lose some players in January if Moyes is not going to give them a game or thinks they're not up to it, and identify replacements.

John Ballinger
8 Posted 24/09/2025 at 09:48:58
Very strange - almost inexplicable unless he definitely meant to throw the game. He played a virtual full-strength side at home against Mansfield. Doesn't make any sense other than not really wanting to progress
Jon Atkinson
9 Posted 24/09/2025 at 09:58:26
Find myself more and more asking what is the point of Everton ?
Just making up the numbers in the league seams to be the height of the clubs ambition.
Another wasted journey by Evertonians, yes reimburse them.
Ryan Hagedorn
10 Posted 24/09/2025 at 10:09:48
Last night’s result falls squarely on David Moyes. I’m struggling to understand the logic behind making seven changes, including the goalkeeper, when:

We don’t play again until Monday night.
We haven’t won a major trophy in 30 years, and this competition was arguably our best chance.

His post-match comments only added insult to injury. I’m furious. This was a game to start our strongest XI, get the job done, and then rotate if needed. Instead, we handed the initiative to the opposition.

McNeil: Completely ineffective.
Coleman: Hasn’t been at the required level for two years.
Travers: Poor performance, and clearly doesn’t instill confidence in the back line.

Moyes’ decision-making is infuriating. He hasn’t evolved. We saw the same outdated approach at Anfield — bringing a knife to a gunfight — and now we’ve handed the worst team in the league a morale boost and a win.

David Graves
11 Posted 24/09/2025 at 10:14:57
Jimmy what do you mean "If all else fails blame the manager"?

Last night's loss is down to his piss poor team selection so who else is there to blame?

Wolves have lost all 5 league games; scored 3 and conceded 12.

Had we scored first last night the tie was over.

We don't play again until Monday evening so there was no need to rest players.

Here's a novel idea - play your strongest 11 to have a go in a cup competition that could give our incredible fans something to celebrate.

We've never won a thing with Moyes and never will.

Jimmy Carr
12 Posted 24/09/2025 at 10:39:38
David (12) so all the players on the pitch are excused from last night's debacle?

It's down to Moyes AND the players. This and the Leeds game are the worst performances we've had since he came back. As he's otherwise done pretty well with the cards he's been dealt, I'm cutting him a bit of slack. I objected to the overreaction of the article saying 'Moyes out'. I'm not saying he's immune from criticism.

David Graves
13 Posted 24/09/2025 at 13:41:24
Jimmy of course the players aren't excused, but do you not think that starting Pickford, Mykolenko, Grealish, KDH, Ndiaye and Betto would have seen us win this relatively comfortably?
I mean he had to bring the outfield players on anyway to try and salvage the game!
People are justifiably angry at yet another early exit from a cup competition.
Personally I hold him accountable for us getting dumped out last night in a game that we should have won.


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