The Mail Bag
Praise from High Places
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I wonder if all those who regularly criticise Moyes for his archaic hoofball tactics noticed this statement by Bilyaletdinov in the Liverpool Echo:
“(Guus Hiddink) told me Everton were one of only a couple of teams who really impressed when he was at Chelsea ... He told me they play in a contemporary style, under a good coach who likes to pass the ball."
I wish old Guus was a regular contributor to the ToffeeWeb, as sometimes my spirits are in serious need of lifting after reading some of the posts on here. I know we've some way to go yet before we can start talking in 'School of Soccer Science' terms — I doubt, for instance, that Hiddink is researching Hibbert's family tree for possible Russian ancestry — but there were signs against AEK last night that we are still going in the right direction, despite this year's disappointing start.
And remember how the last side to wear the Bib-kit started the 84-85 season... 1-4 home to Spurs, 1-2 away to West Brom, if my memory doesn't fail me. City and the rest — watch your backs!
Phil Grayston, Posted 18/09/2009 at 15:05:32
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As for Hibbert, I’m a bit worried I might have started something here — will I become a persona non grata on the Toffeeweb if one day he gets tapped up while on international duty in Moscow?
Moyes will probalby have Hibbert back at right back, and start with Osman as well. Nothing will give me more pleasure to eat these words, but just can’t see it.
I wonder how many of our games he watched last season...
It always astounds me that some people will give credence to everything that managers say.
As for Hiddink, i think he was drunk!
There’s a lot wrong at Everton but Thursday more than compensated me for the poor start to the season and I still think we’ll end up in the top six.
Hiddink is in the dressing room when Bily approaches him. "Hey boss Everton want to sign me !" Bily says.
"Oh great they are one of the few teams that play a contemporary style and have a good coach." Bily smiles and leaves the room.
Asst coach Vladimir whispers to Hiddink "Contemporary style ?" both men laugh. "I didn’t know what else to say," says Hiddink "I was trying to be nice. At least the kid will get paid more than he does now and let’s face it he’s not exactly Barcelona material!"
And on that topic, if we play well, as we did on Thursday, people come on here and post things saying "we played well". If we play shite, like we did against Fulham and in most games so far this season, they come on here and they say "we played shite".
There is nothing wrong with that... in fact that is why we provide this forum — for exactly that kind of post-match analysis.
It’s not "moaning" and I am getting seriously pissed off at hearing that term. Those using it are saying in essence they only want to participate in the praise and not the full gamut of post-match analysis.
Choose wisely please. And don't pick personal fights with people whose views you cannot counter with reasonable non-personal discussion. As you may see from this thread, your posts will be removed.
Add to that Joe Cole, Paul Merson, Alan McAnally, Charlie Nicholas- all complimentary towards Everton, they know absolutely nothing about football.
Sometimes we play really poorly and I am as disappointed as the next person, I hate it that we don’t win every week, especially when we are expected to.
But we didn’t win every game in the middle 80s, the current Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool sides slip up when strong favourites.
The point is, this will always happen, even if and when Moyes turns Everton into a side capable of winning the league, the emotions and expectations each game never change.
We need to put losses, no matter how disappointing into perspective. Most teams in the country would love to be in our position and with our manager.
The money situation is frustrating, Blue Bill shoots himself in the foot with some of his soundbites, but no-one on here is really qualified to know exactly what goes on inside our club.
We are building though, that is quite clear from the way we can play and our cup final just four months ago.
And guess what, we will play badly again this season, and we will draw/lose some games we expext to win, but we will win more than we lose, and after 38 games, we will be up there somewhere, 3rd-7th I would imagine.
When we win though, let's all enjoy it, we all want the same things, and when we lose, let's critisize, but let's do both with perpective. If we win, doesn’t mean we are going to do the quadruple, if we lose (even to Burnley, Fulham!) it does not mean we are Leeds bound.
It just seems to create a divide on here that is not necessary. Everyone on here has something valuable to contribute, but let's not turn on our own, and let's all calm down a bit and hope we turn this poor start around.
Why? Where does this rule come from? What is this "Perspective" thing of which you talk? A loss is a loss; those three points are gone... you can’t ever get them back. And if it’s a knock-out competition... you’re out! That’s it, finito.
If you’re ever going to win something, those lost points and those lost games are crucial. The pathetic start to last season hobbled our efforts to secure a place in the top four... that’s the real perspective. You may have been happy to put the Cup Final defat "into perspective" but for me our utterly inept performance on the day was unforgivable and a depressing confirmation that Moyes is not a winner: he doesn’t have the winning mentality needed to carry the day against real opposition.
Fast forward to this season and another abominable start under Moyes. The perspective I see is that we now sit in the relegation zone and have to claw our way relentlessly back up the table in order to achieve anything approaching mid-table mediocrity, never mind making an impact among the also-rans.
Forget breaking in to the top four, because I fear we have already lost too many games. To me, that is far more than "dispappointing".
The perspective part comes from ripping into each other for having an opinion.
The ’ripping’ of each other comes with extreme comments from some of the posters on here, clearly just trying to get a reaction.
Do you think we would have been better off had we not appointed Moyes? Should we have stuck with Walter? or if not who would you have gone with? Should Peter Johnson still be here?
We have turned in finishes of 5, 5, 6, 11, 4 in last 5 years. Best return for over 2 decades. In same time our annual attendances & revenue has slipped to 10th.
I just wonder what your reference point is for judging Moyes and the team. Are you simply being idealistic? Nothing wrong with that. Just curious.
That's quite a statement — just to "put it into perspective" — Everton were missing the spin of their team,best, defender, attacker and midfielder. We were beaten by a world class finishing by Lampard and were deploying the same tactic that Guus Hiddink deployed against a superior Barca team two weeks ago.
I find it astonishing when people are blatantly ignoring facts. Imagine Chelsea, without Terry, Drogba and Lampard — do you think that missing those 3 players will have an impact on their game, is Hiddink a loser for playing with 10 men behind the ball, breaking up Barca’s game and eventually succumbing to a piece of genius?
Do you realize that this bloke for the last 2 seasons is working only with funds he is generating with net spending close to zero, do you think that any level of training and coaching will turn Osman into Lampard, why certain players cost obscene amount of money and are 3-4-5 times more expensive than others in their position.
Why haven’t Chelsea won for 50+ years and won it 2 times in row, what was the force behind that? Why suddenly Man City are regarded as a top 4 material?
Why is that the level of investment is directly related with the success of a certain team in EPL and based on that do you know, that Everton are on 10-th place in terms of salaries and in the relegation battle in terms of net spending, can you name me the best pound-per-pound manager in the league, or at least one, just one who has outperformed Moyes for the last 3 seasons and correlate that with the money spend? Is there one lunatic on TW who believes that you can break top 4 without any extra investment in the team?
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1 Posted 19/09/2009 at 06:13:34
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