Oh I think there'll be plenty of excitement ? this is Everton after all ? there just won't be too much of the quality football, played on the ground, that some of us (dinosaurs?) crave. Here are the answers to your questions, gleaned from the more intelligent contributions I have read on this website:

1. David Moyes encourages the long ball out of defence, not because it is successful per se, but that it achieves its immediate objective: to take the pressure off the defence. Hoofball has the low-percentage possibility that it will catch defenders off-guard, that they will make a mistake, that our midget will get the ball by the corner flag, or that our main striker is perfectly positioned and superbly skilled to collect the long ball out of the air and bury it in one smooth movement, while surrounded by defenders (I saw some Barcode do that yesterday... impressive!).
   
   None of that happens very often for us. Instead, the ball comes hurtling back in the form of yet another attack... giving our Moyes-trained players another opportunity to excel at what they have been trained to do: DEFEND. Some will say we don't have the players to play any other way, which is a bald-faced lie. We do, and they have, on rare occasions played that way to good effect. But it's not defending: Moyes ain't so keen.
2. Everton did their best to bring in Fernandes, and we all know what happened there. Gravesen was hustled in as a panicky Plan B. What more could we have done? Buying early was a non-starter; we didn't have the money to pay their wages over the summer, and why should we anyway? All they are doing is swanning around in the sun for a few weeks ? not playing football. Best to wait 'til the last week of the transfer window and then get the deals done. The first priority was to make sure Moyes got the defennders he wanted: Baines and Jagielka. Oh, and we needed to get Robert Earl on the Board so Barclays would top up our substantial debt line anyway, and all that didn't happen until August. We did everything we could; things just didn't work out as planned.
3. Hibbo is a pretty good defender in terms of stopping the other side from playing their game. He gets his body in the way most of the time, he's pretty good at tackling, especially the last-ditch block (count how many times he has saved us)... so, in the eyes of David Moyes he is a fantastic player: he defends well, and remember, defence is Job One. So what's this nonsense about him distributing the ball? That's not his job. Yes, he runs up the line occasionally and swings the ball across, but that's really just so he can get rid of it then track back and be ready to defend ? which is what he is actually quite good at. Moyes doesn't play him for his distribution; he plays him for his defensive capabilities.

Fear is I think one of the main drivers for Moyes. Fear that we will be taken to the cleaners. It doesn't happen very often but when it does, I can see Moyes going ballistic. After all, his whole focus is on building a team to DEFEND. Even one goal allowed is unnacceptable, although in truth some goals are unstoppable. Sadly this season it seems all our goals against have been down to defensive mistakes... and you can only imagine the effect that has on the post-match analysis at Bellefield (when are we moving in to Finch Farm?)... what a downer! Probably no surprise we have been hearing less about team spirit and more about player unrest as we have leaked those soul-destroying goals...

The only thread of constancy through this all can be summed up in that one word: DEFENCE. When you understand that about Everton under David Moyes, all questions are answered and there is no need for puzzlement any more. The man is a master defender ? he wrote the (Scottish) book on it, after all!

Hope this helps!

Unfortunately Hibberts playing againand Nevilles still in midfield

Mike is that true about the defensive book he wrote? Someone said the exact same thing on the football phone in on radio merseyside. I wouldnt suprise me to be honest.