Anjishnu Roy 24/09/2025 21comments  |  Jump to last

David Moyes made seven changes to the lineup that started in the Merseyside derby against Liverpool at Anfield five days ago. The rotations cost Everton as the Blues suffered a third-round exit from the Carabao Cup after losing 2-0 to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux. 

The front four was completely changed with Charly Alcaraz, Dwight McNeil, Tyler Dibling and Thierno Barry given chances to displace the likes of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Jack Grealish, Iliman Ndiaye and Beto from Moyes’s first-choice XI. None of the players could make a case for themselves in a scrappy first half that saw Everton fall behind to a Marshall Munetsi goal.

Asked to explain the changes to his lineup, which also saw Seamus Coleman, Tim Iroegbunam and Mark Travers starting for the Toffees, Moyes said, “[There were] no real reasons.

"We've got a lot of good players and we've got players in the squad who are getting back to fitness, some of them who are not, so we wanted to give some of them an opportunity to show what they can do.

"The team have been playing at a really good level and it was a chance to see if others could join it.”

While Moyes is partly to blame for the disastrous first half against Vitor Pereira’s side, his players failed to bail him out as well. Even against a rotated Wolves side that had lost all five of their Premier League games, Everton’s bench players failed to make a mark.

Moyes was quick to make changes while chasing the game. He brought on Beto and Dewsbury-Hall at half-time and Grealish and Ndiaye came on shortly after.

Asked if any of those who started made an impression, Moyes said, “Well, they've got a level to get up to now because we've seen the levels, you saw it in the second half, the performance levels, how much better it was.

“The players who we introduced made a huge difference to the team. So we want everybody to play at that level.

"We didn't play at the level in the first half, but I don't think Wolves did either. I didn't think they were necessarily any better at that time in the game.”

Moyes was also furious with the way the Blues conceded their opening goal at the half-hour mark. “The game was a 0-0, they probably scored against the run of play in some ways. We gave away a terrible first goal, which altered things and made the game a bit more difficult. I thought we probably dominated most of the second half, we just couldn't find a way of getting a goal,” he said.

 

Reader Comments (21)

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Jim Bennings
1 Posted 24/09/2025 at 11:39:35
Absolutely no need to change the goalkeeper.

The goalkeeper should be a constant unless otherwise injured.

As for not playing strongest teams.

You should always field your strongest lineup, again unless otherwise such as injuries or European commitments and bigger fish to fry.

We are not a club with bigger fish to fry let's be honest, we are not a club where success is around the corner in the Europa League, Champions League etc

Geoff Lambert
2 Posted 24/09/2025 at 11:43:34
Moyes fucks it up again. Should have made the changes for the Anfield game and started a full strength team last night. He's never won there in his life so nothing to loose. Our best chance of a Cup run and Europe gone again.
Mike Kennedy
3 Posted 24/09/2025 at 12:34:29
Geoff, I would say the FA Cup is our best chance. In the league cup the 9 teams who qualified for European competition enter in the last 32. These 9 teams are seeded meaning they can't play each other in that round. So in effect, you are most likely to have the best 9 teams in the last 16. The FA Cup doesn't game the system from the 3rd round onwards. A total of 64 teams with no seeding and the possibility of non league opposition not allowed in the league cup. And more importantly the top teams may have to play each other.
Jack Convery
4 Posted 24/09/2025 at 12:39:49
3 results this season - all 3 were defeats. The cowardly approach at Elland Road - yes the pen decision was awful - the 1st half so called tactics at Mordor and the line up chosen for Wolves last night are all down to the Moyesiah. He may smile more but deep down he's still the KITAP1 coach. The coach that cannot break the self imposed glass ceiling he invented, with Billy Blue, the first time around. Why have other teams gone to Mordor and won. Managed by coaches with a lot less experience of the EPL than the Moyesiah ? Attitude is why. A positive attitude to trust your players and come up with a plan to get at them. Last might he picked squad players. Why ?

I posted on Monday, we needed to go strong, take the lead and when things were comfortable, then give those with little game time, some minutes. If the Wolves team had gone a goal down it would have been a totally different game. Before last night the confidence levels of the Wolves players must have been practically nil. Their manager played a second string XI. Yet we encouraged them with our selection. Wolves fans voted with their feet. Our fans as always, came in their thousands and in return got that performance. It's disgusting and takes them for granted.

The Moyesiah now has one chance of winning a trophy as an Everton Manager. He also, with our strongest line up, has an outside chance of a European spot in the League, given 9 teams are playing in Europe this season. So for once, please go for it. Have a go. Show me you have the nouse and more importantly the balls to make this a positive season. The last thing we want to hear come May 2026 is another season of "Everton That ".

Nothing forgives that Wolves loss last night. For every game, when fit - Pickford, Branthwaite, Gueye, Grealish and N'diaye must start. We had plenty of rest time before the game next Monday. Sorry for the Blasphemy - The Moyesiah is a fool.

Rob Dolby
5 Posted 24/09/2025 at 12:49:12
How many times have we had to suffer going out of the cups as the manager decides to play a weakened team. We may as well not enter the competition.

It's realistically our only chance of winning anything but a constant stream of managers disregard the cups and shit on the fans.

Wolves also made 9 changes and walked away with the win.

I just don't understand it. Moyes making noises beforehand about wanting to compete but then fields a weakened team and doesn't change a thing tactically.

Ray Jacques
6 Posted 24/09/2025 at 13:12:27
Wolves also made lots of changes. All the prem teams made multiple changes, so is only Moyes wrong?

The team he picked should have been good enough to beat Wolves second team.

Blame players who were given an opportunity to push for a place in the league starting eleven for not showing up and wasting their opportunity.

Nick Jones
7 Posted 24/09/2025 at 13:13:08
#2 100% agree
Nick Jones
8 Posted 24/09/2025 at 13:13:11
#2 100% agree
Mark Murphy
9 Posted 24/09/2025 at 13:17:41
IF, in the mid eighties, Howard Kendall had picked 6 reserve team players to play in the cup games we wouldn't have made any of those finals. In these days of large squads and 5 subs we don't have reserve teams but in effect, those who came in last night were reserves.
Play your best team, unless injured, or possibly if there's another bigger game in 2 or 3 days time, or at most, rest a couple, but do not change your entire attack line and do NOT play an aging and rusty right back at left back.
I don't think Moyes is furious at all. I think he wasn't arsed.
Terry Downes
10 Posted 24/09/2025 at 13:21:15
Rob Dolby spot on
That team Moyes started with had no goals in it from anywhere on the pitch it looked awful played awful it was pathetic compared to the team he played against Mansfield ?
Jake FitzGerald
11 Posted 24/09/2025 at 13:23:44
I’ve just had someone from Everton on the phone trying to flog me hospitality for the Hammers. Apparently I was at least polite in turning it down - everyone else was giving her full barrels after last night.

Last night was a shocker, and Moyes is to blame for it, so the mood around the club is probably the worst since he’s arrived, but let’s not forget - he did used to have a habit of turning a run of a defeats (which usually started with a derby one) into a run of wins - hardly any more than by a single goal, but a decent run of wins/ draws nonetheless. Maybe he needs a toe up the hole every now and again and this is it.

Derek Powell
12 Posted 24/09/2025 at 13:34:42
Always amazes me how this fuckin clown finds positives out of shite until Everton stop living in the passed we will always be shite we had the chance to break free and what do we do drag the shit with us to bmd we go back 10 years is it me or does anyone else remember his first time round and how shit it was
James Newcombe
13 Posted 24/09/2025 at 13:37:39
This squad was never going to be sorted in one window. If we actually signed some pacey full backs - right and left - we’d improve no end. Crazy that we didn’t. We will need to find the next Gana as well, pretty soon.
Joe McMahon
14 Posted 24/09/2025 at 14:02:03
James, what this squad needs is a vibrant forward thinking manager. For a manager with the experience Moyes to be making mistakes he is making, and the pitiful explanations and excuses is a disgrace.

We can't even think about winning a trophy until Moyes has gone.

John Williams
15 Posted 24/09/2025 at 14:30:45
I listened to Tim Sherwood on Sky the other day and he said,
If you have never stood on the touchline as a manager of a PL Team, you just do not understand the pressures a manager is under.
But we still have every Tom, Dick and Harry telling the world how its done,
Perhaps some on here should relate their occupations, were they good or bad at their jobs.
Some people can be leaders, most can only take orders and then many cannot manage that task.
Dave Abrahams
16 Posted 24/09/2025 at 14:44:58
John (15) Well quite a lot of managers don’t seem able to manage the pressure because they get sacked quite regularly—— some many times over, maybe they are very good managers but realise being poor ones is much better financially.
John Williams
17 Posted 24/09/2025 at 15:34:44
Dave,
Two reasons managers get sacked, players who are happy to take the money, normally without any punishment.
Second reason,
Supporters, who believe their club are world class and should win
anything and everything.

I don t think Everton should have sacked Martinez, again it was the
crap supporters Everton FC have to put up with and another reason the club fail.
Also known to drive players out of the club.

Rob Dolby
18 Posted 24/09/2025 at 16:07:49
John 15 Let's get this right.

Football managers are very very lucky people getting those positions.

People pay good money to watch and have every right to have an opinion regardless of how good at the job they perform.

We are all frustrated.

Steve Brown
19 Posted 24/09/2025 at 16:17:00
John, so the only reasons managers get sacked are the players and the fans?

I respectfully suggest that the reason most managers get sacked is their own poor performance. Owners pay them a fortune and want results.

Moyes earns £12.5 million a year and would get his contract paid out if he was sacked. He is well-insulated no matter what happens to him.

The only people not responsible for the calamities of the last 30 years at Everton are the supporters.

Kieran Kinsella
20 Posted 24/09/2025 at 16:22:54
John

Tim is hardly likely to say it is easy having been sacked after short spells at two massive clubs. But with that having been said, pressure is part and parcel of sport. Simone Biles top Olympian with glittering career, pulled out of an event at the last Olympics because despite her prior success the pressure got to her. It is part and parcel of sport. So I don't have particular sympathy for managers versus anyone else involved in sport. In fact I have less sympathy as they're well paid (in the top flights anyway) and can always blame the players.

Billy Shears
21 Posted 24/09/2025 at 16:34:07
No apologies to the traveling fans like & none to the fans watching around the world!

Even on the many Blues YouTube channels, their faces looked there had been a death in the family... frustration, angry responses,heads shaking at yet another chance to silverware pissed away.

If Moyes pulls off the same shite in the FA Cup then he be sacked pure & simple...i'd sack him now if I was Dan Friedkin,he is a bottle job Moyes...always was, always will be!

Brave Gaffer's win the pots & our Gaffer is sadly fucking spineless.

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