Totally agree. Been saying this since the start of the season.

The only reason I can think of as to why Distin gets in at CB instead of Heitinga is perhaps because Moyes wants some height at the back; Jags and Heitinga is a relatively short Centre back pairing. Still, I don't think this is a good enough reason and I'd much rather see Heitinga in.

Spot on. Moyes is fixated with size at CB and he wants a left footer as a direct lescott replacement.

Distin is a liability and Yobo for all the abuse he gets on here would not have performed as badly as Distin did on Saturday.

The way forward is to keep Heitinga and Jagielka there now for as much as possible and to try and build a partnership.

How Distin is first choice I have no idea. Moyes got out of jail with some terrible tactics on Saturday.

Fellaini is no forward and that experiment has to end. Play him in his natural position for fucks sake and put Heitinga back at CB where he reached a World cup final playing.

Play a Striker! Yakubu Should be given a chance now as we were totally toothless with no one up there until he came on.

Couldn't agree with you more, Graeme, I always thought we got Distin 2 years too late and was stunned by the fee.

I really rated him at Pompey and previously at Man City. Aesthetically, a perfect centre half but legs shot, and considering this club pleads poverty, I find it abhorrent we paid this much money for a player his age.

Painfully slow on the turn, decision making suspect, and I never thought he was that passionate about this club. Moreover, just a way out of Pompey for him to stay on high wages....

James Stewart, I disagree totally. He was a handful Saturday up-front, and a perfect foil for Cahill who was rightly voted MotM; however, I think Fellaini's intelligent hold-up play allowed Cahill space and time, and the pairing looked good. As for Distin, I knew everybody would jump on the "he's not good enough" bandwagon... Personally, I thought Jags had a poor game by his standards, and defensively we looked weak, just give the pairing a chance!!

Never mind the £5 million wasted on Distin what about the £9 million spent on Bily. It was tiredness with him last season....what's the reason why he cant get a game this season? Doesn't Moyes fancy him as a player? He needs to play regular games if he's going to get up to speed with the Prem otherwise what was the point of blowing £9 mill on him when he can't get in the team ahead of Osman.

Not a patch on Lescott admittedly but nowhere near as bad as you're all making out. Actually, he has had some decent games THIS season although Saturday was not one of them.

The problem with a Heitinga and Jags combination, neither of whom have performed to their full capability this season incidentally, is, as you've already identified, lack of height and physicality. Sorry, but in the PL it still does matter when you've got teams like Stoke and Wolves launching the ball forward at every opportunity and big buggers like Carew and Carroll knocking about. Even Berbatov was regularly outjumping Jags on Saturday.

So you may not like him but you're lumped with him for the time being. Agree with the comments on Yobo though - the loan/sale deal made no sense at all, other than to free up a wage.

Couldn't agree more, ive been saying this to people for ages but never found anyone who would agree, I think his a shocking defender has the right statue but thats about it, what about giving young Duffy a try!

Couldnt agree more, we need to play our best players in their best positions. Johnny played CB in the World Cup Final so Ii think" he can play a bit!!

Playing Johnny at CB would also allow us to play Fellaini in his best position - which is the holding role.

I also suggest giving Coleman a run out as the right winger against Newcastle - if it doesnt work then we can bring him off again...simples!!

Grahame, I cant help but think you've been waiting for him to have a mare to post this.

£5m is pretty much the minimum fee to pay in the prem for anyone who isnt untried or a donkey and when we got him aged 31 he probably had 3-4 more years in the tank (injurys exepted) so no problem there.

He's 6' 3" which makes him the only center half at the club you'd fancy marking Carew, Carrol, zigic, Drogba, Crouch etc. Jags and Jonny just arent tall enough and in the english league you need a center half who can dominate in the air. Which is probably why he plays every week.

The lad had a mare against united and has to take the blame for his perfomance. But players have off days and he was facing a £30m striker. Most of the time hes big strong and reliable and has put in some great performances for us, for which he deserves lots of credit and on ballence I think your being a little unfair to him.

Letting Yobo go was definitely a strange decision although from what's been said since it looks as though there was a bit more going on behind the scenes. Plus he's probably looking at getting some money from seeling him at the end of loan to put towards a budget right winger / forward...or another centre back!
Distin was useless on sat. He'll never be great but the slight consolation is he isn't normally that bad. Also it was Baines' reluctance to close Nani down that led to two of their goals and he did (or didn't?) do exactly the same thing with Valencia last year. Loathe to criticise him given he set up both of our late goals and offers a lot going forward, but you can't give united that much space to pick out passes.

I've posted elsewhere that I believe Distin to be the weak link so far from where I sit. I also can see the issue over height as mentioned here.
The real reason though is the same reason why Money Citeh were so keen on John Terry / Joleon Lescott and not the likes of Jagielka - left footed, therefore left sided centre backs.
If someone is defending on their wrong foot, they will automatically push an attacker inside and show more of the goal as opposed to standing and pushing wide hopefully blocking a cross (take note Leighton).
I honestly believe that it's this need for balance that puts Distin in the side ahead of a right footed double act of Jags and Heitinga - or indeed Yobo.
However, it's worth noting that Jags fantastic England performance was as a left side centre back in the absence of Terry and whilst he played well, Capello then brought in Lescott to provide the balance of "correct foot defending".
Look it up, it's part of the UEFA Coaching badge!!!
Anyway - against the lesser lights of the league it's worth trialling to see how the pair of them get on and if Jags can manage on the left side as he is a better talker and cajoles the team - as is Jonny so they could work it amongst themselves and support those around them.
Got to be worth a go?

Distin as always got a mistake in him due to him being a very bad culprit of ball watching, due to this he's out of position and leaves his marker free which is costing us goals.

Its obvious that Moyesy as got him in the side for his height and physicality but when he ball watches like he does and goes out of position and leaves markers, then were in trouble.

For me, Jags and Heitinga should be are CB pairing and have Felli in front of them and let him challenge airially (sp) from goal kicks or deep FK's, Jags and Heitinga arent the biggest but they dont shirk a physical battle and there reading of things like crosses and high balls and leap of the ground make up for there lack of height IMO.

Ive said for a while that Jags and Johnny should be at the back and let Jags do what he's good at, getting blocks in, heading away, good at one on ones and let Heitinga be the distributing CB which he's so good at, cos at the mo it looks like Jags is doing that job and he's doing it badly, giving the ball away alot, we should just let Jags get on with what he's capable of and have Johnny pinging the ball about like he's good at..

One last thing, i dont totally agree with you that Distin is only here for the money and doesnt care about the club, fair enough he might not love Everton like we all do but i doubt he's only here for the pay day.

I think some of the comments are unfair - yes he had a bad game - but I doubt if we could finish 8th and have such a good run as we did in the second half of last season, if we were "carrying" such a bad defender as some of you make him out to be. Cue the comments in support of Yobo - but he was getting all the stick for any errors last season !!! In 44 years as an Evertonian I have yet to see a player who was brilliant every game.

I said to someone, when we went in to the lead not to get too excited because Distin has got a goal in him ? little did I know he would surpass himself entirely.

Distin is like a lot of ?athletic? centre-backs in that he has got away with a lack of understanding and vision because of his size and (formerly his) pace.

The fact is his reading of the game is non-existent, he was at fault for all three goals and was to blame against Villa (I will check Wolves but suspect he was involved somehow).

Moyes will be livid with him when he analyzes the tapes (if he?s not he?s not the man I thought he was!) and I?m certain he won?t be in the starting line-up against Newcastle however I understand that Heitinga was given assurances that he would play in his ?preferred position? when he signed for Everton (did anyone else hear that?) ? just which position that is I can?t be sure but judging by the fact that he is in midfield, and Distin is anywhere near the team, I?m guessing it ain?t centre-half!!

The only solution I can see with Distin, is to ship him off on a part-ex to Newcastle for Steven Taylor or Stoke for one of their plethora of centre-backs, perhaps they can find a home for him at left-back, otherwise he?ll see out his career on and off the bench and cost us another transfer fee. Pity because, in this world of automaton footballers he seems to be someone who doesn?t take himself too seriously and has a sense of humour ? shame he doesn?t take his responsibilities a bit more seriously.

To say that Distin had a bad game is a massive understatement. That was a total flop. He was about as useful as Stephen Hawking on a construction site. I've never thought he was a really poor defender but that game was really bad.

I've always thought Jags and Johnny would be a good partnership except against teams that didn't have a big man up front. Distin could be deployed against teams who are better in the air. Under most circumstances, I don't think the lack of height in the Jags Johnny partnership would be a problem as Fellaini plays a holding midfield role.

I don't think Distin is as bad as some of the comments have made him out to be. As I said before, he definitely had a stinker on Saturday but that's not the normal Distin. When it comes down to it though, Heitinga is a better all around player week in, week out.

I couldn't agree more with earlier posts about Distin.
He is ALWAYS likely to give away at least 5 goals a season.Asking why we wasted £5 million on him is another question. AT THE TIME,we had been fucked over by Lescott and were left a day or two before the transfer deadline to sign a centre back. With Portsmouth in financial trouble and nobody else available I believe Moyes had no other option to sign Distin. He also said he didn't want to pay that money at the time but what else could he have done?

As well as people clamouring for Yobo to stay instead of Distin,some people must be blind! We've had 8 years of Joey's poor defensive 'play'. Yep,he's got pace to recover,blah blah blah....but his concentration levels are on par with Distins. Plus he'd rather of played for Nigeria instead of playing against Benfica last season and for that alone he should've been fucked off.

OK, Distin had a 'mare... but I also think that Baines didn't help the situation, ball watching and not closing the winger down to prevent a cross also contributed to us conceding easy goals. He seems to have missed being blamed because of his two crosses which both ended in goals.

If you have played football at any level then you know that you don't take to the field expecting to play poorly, it just happens and that goes for those of us who paid subs to play and the elite who make their living from the game.

Yes, I wish we had won but a draw with such a dramatic ending, I would have taken in a heartbeat.

To be fair to Distin, against Man U he is often left exposed on the left handside, while Baines bombs forward offering attacking options - not ideal

I do agree that Distin didn't need to make the lunging challenges against Berbatov @ the weekend which led to all thee goals (the corner which led to the second goal was after a break down the left..left by Baines).

Distin seems to play better with Neville in the team, while Neville is great at passing, he does offer a better defensive cover!!

Moyes signed him because he has experience, pace and as a left footed player can sit along side Jags

I thought he was over priced at the time but that what happens when you shop late in the day!

Saturday was a freak display and it would be unfair to judge him on that alone. For me Distin is a strong, fast able defender who we will have no choice but to play against some of the more physical teams. However he is suspect in his reading of the game and as such should not be starting against the more footballing sides...as demonstrated this weekend!

Why we didn't get Dunne for that £5m i don't know!!

I have read on here that we already have a player who could be a replacement. Tal athletic and the Manager thinks he may be the one.

Many idolise the said player and also it has been commented that quite possibly our best player plays in the position the above player plays in leading to some duplication.

So, not that i know or can guess, but Jack for CB with JH ?

For a start I'm not defending Distin who had a real stinker on Saturday but I'm sick of this get Heitinga and Jagielka together as though they will immediately develop the perfect partnership. As stated above on numerous occasions - the 6-ft 3-inchers in Wolves, Stoke, Blackburn, Chelsea, etc would destroy them. They are both right footed only, it would be unbalanced, Jagielka would have to go left . You couldn't possibly play Coleman and Heitinga together on the right, Coleman needs a real leader like Jagielka next to him .

If you really looked at the World Cup in detail Heitinga repeatedly is dragged away off the back 4 line and left a humongous gap ? the better players "Robinho" took adavantage and scored. Even Cameroon had 2 or 3 glorious chances in the gap and never took them.

I don't know where Heitinga plays at the moment. He was far too deep on Saturday and really didn't play as a defensive midfielder , more of a 3rd Centre back too deep to help Arteta, too deep to start the attacking play and actually didn't help with Utd's opener.

Interesting that for some Yobo is suuddenly akin to the Messiah. Personally my heart was in my mouth pretty much every game he was involved in. Some tiimes he got away with it because of his pace, but too many errors to make him a better bet than any he left behind. Was it his last game against Man U when he inexpicably passed the ball straight to Rooney to score ?

Distin had a stinker on Saturday but last season I thought he was great and kept Yobo out the team. I won't be judging him on that perfornance.

Steve- How long ago was that with Joey.

What about Jags and Villa?

I never rated Distin even when he was at City.

For the life of me I dont know why we didnt get Richard Dunne back at the same price as Distin at the time.

I know who I'd consider a proper Centre Half of those two.

Anyway any team with top 4 aspiration needs more than 3 experienced Centre backs so while I know why Yobo went it still doesnt explain why we didnt have a replacement lined up unless Moyes is going top drawer in January.

For those who suggest Jack Rodwell could play there you obviously havent seen him play there. He is about 10 years off being able to play in the back 4.

Agree absolutely. The Torre Canyon turned quicker. Distin or Yobo? Yobo (and Joe's a long way from perfect).

What about Lucas Neill?

He seemed to be written off as soon as he signed. Not only did he fill in the the oh so obvious gap at the back, but his distribution play and decisiveness was paramount to getting some stability back into the first part of last season.

In the end we made a small profit off him, though as the main point of the thread, it's nothing compared the 5m wasted on Distin

Neill was far superior to Distin.

Have to agree with this saying this is harsh. I can see what you're saying, but I hope he can rekindle the performances he brought directly after being signed (for what did seem to be a lot for a player in his circumstance).

Berbatov gets called lazy because of his lacksedaze playing style, but I imagine that he's deceptively pacey... Certainly we know Distin is quick - but the 3rd goal looked like slow motion (perhaps that was car crash slow mo, or just that at that time Man U were pulling us out of position all over the place at the back).

I hope Distin comes back from this dip and to me he's always looked less "Titus Bramble" than Yobo.

In the meantime, would Heitinger and Jag's match the height of Newcastle's man of the moment - you'd like to think so.

"deceptively pacey" should read "faster than my Nan - whose dead" by the way.

In the days when we were strong defensively, a couple of seasons back, Neville was at RB doing his normal steady defensive duties (his problems start when he gets over the half way line) we had Jags who played a blinder week in week out and was given his first England cap as a result. We had Lescott as the other CB and he was also solid more often than not, he even earned his first England call up. Lescott also chipped in with a few goals. Baines was at LB. That particular line up was the formation for most games and developed a pretty good understanding.

Fast forward a couple of seasons and the real difference has been that whilst Neville has not really featured, for me Jagielka is still nowhere near the player he was (I do feel he will regain it); he is prone to the same lapses in concentration that both Yobo and Distin suffer and his distribution from the back is quite often poor including passing the ball directly to the opposition.

As for Distin, he had a shocker on Saturday without a doubt; whilst not being a particular fan of his, I have not considered his purchase to be a disaster as he has played well on occassions. For my money Hetinga is the best CB of the 3.

I, like Mitchell (#26) and James (#27) thought that for some reason Lucas Neill was disposed of too quickly. If you could say one thing about him, and I thought he had a couple of seasons left in him, he was composed and a good distibutor from the back, not particularly interested in the long range ball forward that both Jags and Distin seem to like to no real effect.

As I said before, I think the criticism of Distin to be a bit "over the top". Yes, he had a very bad game ? some of his mistakes were highlighted and analysed on "Match of The Day" on Saturday night. But EVERY player has a bad game at some time.

It's very interesting at how Yobo is being praised by some and also Lucas Neil. Yet I can remember reading some pretty harsh comments in these "pages" about both of these players last season.

There are certain players that at times appear to be "immune" from any criticism. We conceded 3 goals on Saturday - not just because one of our defenders had a bad game.

And as regards having a nightmare, in the opening game of the season Tim Howard made one of the "goalkeeping howlers" of the season. It was not just a goal gifted to Blackburn ? it was a goal gift wrapped with decorative paper and a matching label. Yet look at how he performed on Saturday ? he was brilliant. Yet I am sure that there were some Evertonians calling for him to be dropped after the opening game.

I was 8 during our Cup winning season of 1965-66. I remember the Cup replay v Man City ? it was one of the first midweek matches my Dad let me attend. It was the night the Cup run nearly ended, courtesy of a Brian Labone header that looked to be heading into his own net ? thanks to a brilliant bit of goalkeeping from Gordon West, it didn't ? and the rest as they say is history.

Even "legends" make mistakes; Distin isn't as good as Labby... but he is certainly not as bad as some of you are making out. As somebody once said, to err is human. And anyone playing alongside Leighton Baines on the left side of our defence has my sympathy; perhaps Bainesy should be told his primary role is to defend. I am thinking of changing my name to Leighton Baines; it seems a name that's immune to criticism.

Distin is a liability plain and simple. The comments on here about Baines being at fault for two of the goals are ridiculous, the first one maybe; the second one was because of poor positioning by Distin. As for him being exposed by Baines bombing forward, maybe we should tell Baines to not go past the half way line because Distin is so crap that he can't cover for him.... or let Baines do what he does best and play Jonny and Jags at the back who will quite easily be able to cover for him if he decides to go and create opportunities for us.

Maybe I'm one of the few but I don't see Distin as being that bad a buy. Suspect perhaps at times but take Saturday you could take 2 of the goals and say what happened to Baines both goals came from his side with no challenge on the players supplying the cross.You just get the feeling when Distin makes a long ball clearance, people think HOOOOF, but when Jags does it, they don't seem to see it the same way.

I think Distin tries to play it out of defence more than Jags does. For the Yobo lovers you could always guarantee at least once in a game when his concentration would wander and he would put himself in a difficult position. You could go through the whole game and pick faults with every players performance but also positives so lets start looking at the postives and build on them. FFS at 89 mins we would have all taken the point.

While we are on the subject of Distin, I have the feeling that Tim Howard does not see eye to eye with the centre back, unless I'm reading it wrong, they always seem to have a minor spat. I just hope Moyes sorts it out for Saturday, as with the magpies losing last week, they will, be up for it, and Carroll can be a handful. A major part of our defensive game will be to stop the supply, to the big centre forward, who is no slouch on the deck. I am confident that we will see it through, as long as we improve at the back.

Ray (6) I agree with you however when we play teams such as Stoke and Wolves then Moyes could maybe bring Distin in for those games? The most important aspect for me is that CB's develop an understanding and this is seems unlikely to happen with Jags and Distin.....I also don't think Johnny is mobile enough to play Holding-Mid.

The start to this season has been poor no matter how you look at it, even in the games we have dominated possession the opposition have had the better goal scoring opportunities. I agree that Everton have to get used to teams sitting back and getting all there men behind the ball. Our passing is often to slow and laboured to really get at teams.

One thing that has me scratching my head is the love for Heitinga among the Everton fans. He is a decent passer of the ball and looks comfortable with it at his feet but he is very slow and from what I?ve seen not a very good defender. He rarely tracks his man, is not strong in the air and gets turned far too easily. He has the image of maybe a hard man but again I?m not sure, he had the chance on Saturday a few times to get in a good solid tackle to stop the opposition but didn?t (I?m thinking Fletcher coming down the right wing in the first half). He then got booked for the silliest foul I?ve seen this season to the cheers of the home crowd. Against Wolves he ducked out of the tackle on the half way line and proceeded to feign injury (I don?t think he got touched?) as they went through an scored. I can remember thinking if that was one of our lets say less popular players they would have been slaughtered.

Is it just the fact there is such little faith in Distin, which is understandable after Saturday that there is such a big push for Heitinga? I do regard him as a decent player and would like to see the Jags/Heitinga partnership in action for the fact that we would play the ball out of the back a lot more but I wouldn?t expect any dramatic improvement defensively.

If you're paired with a taller CF, just nudge the bastard in the back before the ball lands.

What is going on re this position Since we lost lescott we have not had the strength and solidity we had. However that is history...

Now we choose to let Yobo go and now we are linked with a Watford reject...

Come on Everton. We have a strong squad. Let's use them and also give the youngsters a chance if necessary.