Yep agree totally Pete. Dont think you’ll get too many arguments on the Neville to Right back. If every man and his dog that i speak to can see that - why cant Moyes?
And agree again would like to try something different in Centre mid to shake things up a bit...
things should change a bit for the Boro game - hopefully Arteta and mad dog will be back for that which should give us enough of a change in midfield to beat Boro at home.
And hopefully keep our first clean sheet as well (christ we could do with a clean sheet!!)

I agree that the midfield needs shaking up a bit in the absence of our most creative players ... I can recall Osman playing in the centre last season for a few games and he made a decent fist of it. Problem is, who do you play on the wing ... Pienaar / McFadden ... I’m not convinced with this as it makes a lightweight midfield even lighter...

Given the propensity for the defenders to lump the ball aimlessly upfield at all opportunities you need some ability to actually win the ball back .. Moyes is far too cautious to do this.

Anderson would be a good call... he has some match fitness now and if is not good enough then why is he still here ? Vidarsson would also be interesting, a young goalscoring midfielder who is actually comfortable with the ball at his feet...

Something has got to give, you can’t keep putting faith in a team and a system that is not producing. The quicker we get Arteta, Cahill and Gravesen back the better - I’m sure this rather frustrating ’blip’ will prove just that when we have the quality back... In the meantime we have got to find a way to stay in two cup competitions and keep totting up league points in games we should be getting results from (Boro for a start).

changes have to be made we need to win our next three games or the season is gone already, hibbert out and neville to RB, everybody can’t be wrong about that, also i think stubbs has to come back as yobo was at fault for both goals yesterday and he kicked his clearance straight at hibbert for metalists goal thurs night, as for the midfield we may just hope the injuries clear up

With the lack of creativity and guile in the centre of the midfield it is all plain to see we are no more than an also ran in the league this season.
Now we have to go to Sheffield Wednesday who secured their first three points of the season. With our record of crashing out of the League Cup at the earliest possible opportunity, the recent run of poor results and the debacle of Thursday night our season is now in danger of imploding by the end of September.
Moyes again failed to secure the necessary midfield creative player that the club needs. We have brought back Gravesen as a stop gap signing and with Arteta and Cahill injured our centre midfield now consists of defensive minded players or lightweights. The clubs policy of not signing players in the summer so we don?t have to pay their wages when they are on holiday as exploded in our faces. Last season he got out early did his shopping and brought in 3 players, but obviously Kenwright and Wyness smarting for paying for Andy Johnsons pre-season suntan last season told Moyes he cant sign anyone until just before the season starts.
On deadline day Papa Bouba Diop was transferred, a big man strong in the air and creative, however no attempt appears to have been made to sign him. Even Danny Murphy who has an eye for goal from midfield and would have given us some depth in that area of the pitch.
Captain Marvellous Phil Neville continues in midfield unable to string two passes together and giving away free kicks. Tony Hibbert never the best player in the world in the past seems to have gone backwards.
Players are out of form Johnson the obvious player but even at the back without the commanding presence of Howard, Yobo and Lescott do not seem as strong as last season.
Baines appears to be the bright spark and we desperately need young Vaughan back.
The signing of Yakubu appears to be 11m down the drain and if the season now implodes could be a nail in the coffin of the manager David Moyes.
Moyes now seems a desperate man, his substitutions the majority of the time, appear to be in desperation, rather than in inspiration. I always think back to the bringing on of David Weir to replace Andy Johnson in injury time versus Manchester City to add 30 seconds onto the clock allowing City to equalise as bizarre. Surely when your in injury time you want the time to run out not add to it.
The most inspirational player we have is Alan Stubbs, granted he is at the end of his days but at least he will organise and cajole his team mates to play well. Maybe we need him back in the side possibly at the expense of Yobo.
Defeat at Sheffield is an unbearable prospect and as Evertonians used to despair and heartache at nearly every turn in the past 20 years, we now must face up to yet again the whole season going up in a bang less than 2 months into it.

James - Or on the other hand we could beat Sheff Weds easily with AJ getting off the mark; have Arteta and Grav back for Boro at home on Sunday and get 3 valuable league points putting us back in the mix; and then dispose of Metalist who will be without both their centre halfs.

Depend what way you look at it i suppose.

I think things are depressing enough as it is without pre-empting are impending doom!!!

Seamus you can either look at things with a glass half full or a glass half empty.
I don’t recall Everton ever getting a good result when the other team are missing lots of players. We will have to score against a packed defence in the Ukraine.
The next 3 games could give us the lift we need or all go belly up, the most important 10 days of our season lie ahead

Jeffery, definately agree the next 3 are must win games to get the season back on track.

Just a point for discussion, given the lack of creative players at our disposal, should Moyes not be considering Van der Meyde again, I know he has off field issues on several occasions but at least technically he can retain & pass the ball, surely with him and Arteta on the wings we would loke more creative. Also a number of people are mentioning Neville switching to RB, whats more important to me is that Carsley is selected above Neville for the hol mid role. He is much better in that role as he knows the limits of his ability.

Lastly guys, this morning I was as depressed as most Evertonians, then I looked at the league table and noticed we are only 3 points from 2nd, so its not all bad, certainly wins & clean sheets in the next 3 are not beyond us and would have us all optimistic again!

David Whitwell, I agree with you. Why not give AvDM and Da Silva (now that he is back from loan) a chance against Sheff Wed ? If Arteta & Gravesen are still not fit, this would be my team:

Yakubu, Johnson, Pienaar, Da Silva, Jagielka, AvDM, Neville, Stubbs, Lescott, Wessels

(Give Yobo, Osman, Hibbert) some rest.

This midfield will surely give more service to the forwards. Although never a great fan of Stubbs, he might bring us back to "zero goals conceded" days.

It would be nice for Moyes to play either DaSilva or Vidarrson tomorrow, DaSilva has been very impressive on all counts in his five games for Barnsley and the game against further Championship opposition would do him no harm.
Viddarsson is a midfielder who scores, didnt he score the goal v Bournemouth in a friendly too and then done well with them on loan.
The game v Sheff Wed is an opportunity to give one or even both at some stage of the game a go.

four five one. yes that means three central midfielders two more back covering the fullbscks who can overlap with some nice wing play whipping in those inch perfect crosses fot the big Yak.
Johnson runs around like a headless chook no wonder hes to knackered to score. Cahill can ghost in on the blindside once he is fit and support the Yak. Johnsom can come off the bench and play wide, he has the pace to go past defendes and get in crosses. Im fed up with Moyes and his negative inept tactics. Why wouldny you give Da Silva a run in the midfield and what about Shandy now we got a Big Yak up front. Mourihno for Everton

I really wanted Moyes to succeed but every time i give him and the team chance after chance it is the same story, i am starting to believe this is as far as he can take us, this is as good as it gets.

Let’s be honest here, apart from Arteta, Howard, Baines and lescott (maybe Vaughan but he is young) the res of our squad is either crap or at best everage premier league players that will never be in the team that will kick us on to the next level, they are simply no where near good enough and it saddesn me to think that people actually think they are fot to wear that famous blue jersey.

I said at the beginnning of the season this should either be Moyes last season or his most defining and famous season if he pushes us on to the next level, sadly it is looking like the former.

Now yes, it is difficult to break the top 4, but at least get very near it with decent football.

We play for the most part crap football, and Yakubu to me looks a waste of money at 12+m. AJ is as good as he will ever get and that is not a great deal.

What to do next? Well, like i said Moyes has this season to prove me wrong and i really really hope he does, but come on, we are all fed up of this carp football, yo-yo seasons and constant heart break.

If we do not turn this round and start playing half decent football on a regular basis and maintain a decent league position and have some sort of run in at least 2 of the cups (inc uefa) then for me, the decision is easy, Sorry Davey, time to move aside!

I am now at a dillemma.

While I agree that Hibbert is bad at passing, as a defender he is faultless.

He makes the necessary tackles, mark the necessary people and rarely makes mistakes.

But, being a defender, if the midfield is not performing, it’s not a defender’s fault that he cannot pass properly as u have no one decent to pass to.

My point being, the exposure Moyes is giving to Hibbert is actually improving the dude’s game.

Most the faults last 2 games came from Yobo.

So, am now in a dillema since Hibbert is a dependable defender and does his defending job well.

I figure, if Everton can sort out their midfield troubles, the problem with Hibbert will be unnoticed.

I think, Carsley will have to start moving forward and start creating chances.

Worst, we have to resort to 4-5-1 again and crowd the midfield like a bar on a Saturday night.

It use to work when we had less choice of personell than now.

Think about it.



With enough personell in the middle, Carsley would be good enough to move forward and create chances.

Anyone with half a brain can see Moyes hasn’t got it!!! Change is needed throughout the club starting with mallett head in the directors box. The standard of football at Goodison the last few years has been woeful and take it from me with these tosspot’s running our club it’s only gonna get worse. Moyes is the most over-rated manager i have ever seen.

Jay - have you seen that little ginger fella who runs Bolton?

Sorry Jimmy, Hibbert is fucking shite mate.I would’nt be surprised if Artea has refused to play in front of him anymore.