I’ve never liked 4-5-1 for the fact that it’s USELESS against the top4. Against the crap teams yes. But I suppose we need to re-adjust our expectations now. Portsmouth and WIGAN pass the ball better in midfield than us. And we’re got 5 in there!

Glen Hoddle would be a welcome change (don't worry about his personal beliefs). He?s played the game at the highest level, started at the bottom in management with Swindon Town (they played great football) and has managed England (unlucky to get knocked out of World Cup against Argentina in quarter final (Beckham sent off)). He?s tactically astute, his teams play football, and given the right money for players (by selling some of the others in our hoof ball team) I think we would see an improvement, especially with the ball being played more on the floor. He cant be any worse than a negative Scottish second-rate centre-half, can he!?!

Time to think big I say and if we are really offering £3.5 million a season than a big name is achievable. I?m biased but I would love someone the likes of Gus Hidink. When he managed Australia in the last world cup the change in our team was obvious. Every player was confident as they knew their roles and had a strict game plan to stick to. As a result we played great football, got out of the group stages and were only knocked out after Totti was given a spot kick for a dive.

While Australia, South Korea and Russia are all good teams they?re not super powers in the world game. But Hidink has shown what impact a good manager can have.

I know Hidink isn?t available but a manager with that type of mentality and vast experience is what we need. Someone who can sense when we need a tactical change and has the balls and timing to do something about it before the game is lost. Essentially we need a manager who has the quality to be proactive with his tactics rather than reacting once we are already in trouble.

Hiddink is a man with ambitious goals and he wouldn't be happy with Everton not being realistically able to challenge the top four, where all we hear under Moyes is getting Everton to be hard to beat, Hiddink would attempt to make us an attractive attacking football team.

In all honesty, six years on from when Moyes took over we should never still be playing a full back in the centre of midfield or 4-5-1 at home, our thinking is too small and we are always going out there with the sole intent of stifling the opposition rather than taking the game to them, I mean when is the last time we dominated a home match, had countless attempts on goal and looked worthy of a top six team?

Six years on the team still has no blend, no pass and move and no real attacking intent despite boasting some good footballing players like Pienaar, Arteta, Yakubu... It's all well and good having good players but if you have a manager and a coach who trains the ability of pass and move out of them then we are stuck in a dismal situation I think.

When is the last time we had a left or right midfielder and a full back behind him overlap and create chances? When is the last time we consistently played the ball to the feet of our strikers and gave them a quality through to latch onto?

I remember when Kanchelskis was at Everton, when asked who he liked playing with most, it wasn't one of the obvious choices, not Duncan Ferguson, Graham Stuart, not even Limpar, but Tony Grant of all people... Simply because as Kanchelskis said, Tony Grant always used to give him the ball on the ground, in front of him to chase onto, thus scaring the shite out defenders because that type of ball is something defenders truly despise facing, give them the long punts that we use all the time now and the likes of Carragher, Terry, or any big grock for that matter will just eat it up all day long.

It's a simple enough aspect of your game to change, good football is easy to play given the right coaching but so many times when I watch Everton both home and away its as though the ball is their worst enemy, nobody wants it, when they do have it nobody wants to have any time with it so its just shuffled away aimlessy, nobody wants to offer thenselves for a pass when a team-mate is on the ball. It really is scary watching us use the ball sometimes and how we turn players into nervous wrecks whenin possession.

That is down to only one thing, years of coaching and brainwashing the players into a fear of losing the ball, means losing the match and that results in a team scared to let the ball be their best friend... SHITE FOOTBALL.

I’m not yet of the opinion that Moyes should go, but he’s pushing his luck that’s for sure.

If he were to go I would like to see us bring in either Slavan Bilic who works wonders for Croatia and who will still feel he owes us something or Roberto Donadoni, who as an Italian technician would no doubt be as adverse to hoofball as it’s possible to be, any member of the back four found blasting the ball downfield will be visited by Don Roberto’s mates from the old country.

Of course Hiddink would be a dream come true but it is completely unrealistic, whereas i’m certain both of the two above would be interested in the job should it become available.

Whenever there is criticism of David Moyes tactics, it?s the same old "who would we get to replace him" as if there would be no applications for the job at (the rumoured) £3.5 million a year.

When we all got bored with Walter Smith?s negative tactics, David Moyes was a highly rated young manager who had potential but hadn?t yet won anything. In many fans eyes he is still a manager who has potential and is still learning. He is older, but is he any the wiser?

If we don?t have the money to buy instant success to bridge the £100 million gap between us and the top teams that David Moyes mentioned then do we go for a manager with proven success or a young a manager with potential?

If we are safe from the prospect of relegation (and however bad we have been recently there are three worse teams !) and not in with a chance of winning anything, then make the change now and get a manager who has far better tactical awareness than David Moyes and who gets the players to use their skills to play attractive football. If people seem content to settle for a top ten finish and the occasional journey into Europe then at least we should be watching better quality football on a regular basis...

Totally pointless discussion as Moyes will sign up this week regardless of the Standard result on Thursday He has won his battle with Kenwright and has, apparently, compromised by accepting that he will be guaranteed a minimum of £20M transfer funding each year NET of any sales.

You may well think the man is naive tactically but he ain?t no fool when it comes to his own wedge, I assure you!

Michael, I fear you?re right. Things have gone flat at GP and I think that a change is essential. Anyone with any flair. Bilic, Maldini, Hoddle, even David Jones, just some new ideas would do.

I would include Roy Keane in the shortlist for sure!

Cheap and he is a true winner. Give him 5 years and I think he could do what Moyes has done, but in the top half of the league.

You know he wouldnt back down against the sky 4 and I think that’s what it takes to beat them.

Come on Bill. Take it off the table.

Who in their right mind offers a manager a five year contract in these turbulent financial times.

Dont care who it is, two years with an option to renew is the most any manager should be offered.

One big fall out and there goes the transfer kitty for a whole year to pay off
a very limited manager.

Leave it until January and see what happens before deciding on gambling such a huge sum of money.

I am not a Moyes "basher" - but I was very unhappy when I saw our line up and formation. I also told my mate that he would bring Saha on for Hibbert and switch Neville to right back. If I could figure that out surely Benitez could.I was cheered up by Moyes bold changes made at half time at Hull - but then for the Derby we are back to the predictable old "favourite" of 4-5-1. It was clear to all after 15 minutes or so that it wasn’t working. I hope he shows a bit more attacking emphasis in the next few games - let’s see Yakubu and Saha/Vaughan up front .I am not saying he shouldn’t play 4-5-1 sometimes - but that he plays that formation too often - it’s almost predictable.

Kevin Keegan

Howard Kendall’s available...

Gareth Oughton wrote " Howard Kendall?s available... "

As I mentioned on an earlier posting, when David Moyes takes over at Manchester United (a dead cert according to some people) then we will get a management team of Brett Angell and Stuart Barlow :0)

Duncan Ferguson

I did a tot-up this morning on the way to work - I make it 6 wins from 40-odd matches against the "top 4" in the 6 years of DM’s tenure. No away wins among them either.

Whilst I accept that these games will be the hardest to win in any domestic season, it seems to me that the players just don’t believe they can go out there and get something in them. And the style of "football" they tend to play in these games is never going to strike fear into their opponents either.

Watching the semi against Chelsea in the League Cup only emphasised the gulf in class and ability between the teams. Don’t forget, that was basically Chelsea’s second XI in those games and apart from the 20 minutes in the first leg where they went down to ten men, they completely outplayed us.

I cannot fathom after 6 years why we STILL have trouble passing the ball to one another in many games. And we’re still a team with no real leaders in it.

I expected to lose on Saturday but that at least we’d show some fight for it. Maybe DM can’t or won’t fight no more.

The critical game for me is not on Thursday night, but next Sunday against those loveable Geordies. Lose that and I think he might be on his way.

If he goes I’d like Sparky to replace him.

after watching the 2-0 rubish on saturday it is evident to me that we are playing proberbly the drabest football in the league i think we have to start being honest about things has DM really showed his worth in the transfer market first beattie then johnson were victims of 4-5-1 but the 15 mil on tranfer deadine looks well dodgy throughout the summer there were some big name links but because of the hoof football we play nobody with any class really wants to join as for the argument that we have finished fith id rather play football of substance and finish 16th saturday wAS BLOODY DEMORALIZING lescott was on the wrong wavelength hibbert was the perpetual hoof yak would rather dive than shoot but fellini was well off the pace early days i know but 15 mil!!! anyway trough think and thin but like everyone else it really bloody done my head in!

Like it or not, the problem with moyes going right now is that the two most likely candidates, to my mind, would not improve our situation.

Curbishley or Allardyce.

I would love bilic, but I would wager either of the previous two would get it for sure.

I also agree that hoddle is actually a good manager and could be the one, if someone would give him another chance.

I recall a certain Martin Jol, ho having taken Totingham (Ossie Ardiles) to 5th spot not once but twice was ditched after a bad start. Well the Tottingham Hotspurs are now languishing on the bottom whilst Martin Jol is at the top of the division at his new club. There endeth todays lesson. Don?t be a sucker like Spurs. Commoli is a good sounding name just like all the rest mentioned above.