FAN ARTICLES
Time for Change
Comments (24) : Moyes had a 5-year plan when he arrived, but since that point, we have gone backwards. Money was not an issue when he arrived so Moyes should not be hawking that lame excuse around any journalist lazy enough to print it. With the exception of Osman and Hibbert, Moyes has signed, or introduced, and then coached every single member of that first team squad.
- The lack of money is not an excuse for not moving at throw-ins.
- The lack of money is not an excuse for hitting the first man at every corner we take.
- The lack of money is not an excuse for most of your defence playing hoofball season after season.
- The lack of money is not an excuse for midfielders never running beyond a forward.
- The lack of money is not an excuse for not moving into space.
- The lack of money is not an excuse for consistently passing sideways when the aim of the game is to move the ball into the opposition goal.
He spent big on the gifted, but limited and pedestrian Bilyaletdinov. He spent big on the gifted, but limited and pedestrian Felliani. He spent big on Yakubu and then systematically disintegrated what made him such a threat at other clubs. He spent big on Heitinga and then refuses to play him in his best position; instead Moyes chooses the error prone, hoofing, yard-dog Jagielka at centre back... The list goes on.
With such a heavy investment in so few players, who either sit on the bench or are constrained by the rigid Moyes structure, there is no free capital to procure players with pace and or flair. Hatem ben Arfa and Victor Obinna were both available over the summer but did Moyes even consider them? I doubt it. Moyes hates flair but flair entertains fans and wins games ? but is Moyes interested in winning games? I think his team choice and time-wasting substitutions at West Ham provide all the evidence one needs to prove that Moyes isn?t interested in winning games anymore.
And Moyes?s reluctance to try and win takes me back to his dogmatic adherence to his 9-year-old pattern of 4-5-1. It is dour and negative, because our midfielders cannot or will not overlap. It doesn?t matter whether this is due to a lack of pace or an overly defensive mindset, it is soul-destroying to watch. Conference teams could defend against our set-up; all they need to do is double-up on the target man and mop up the second ball, then break with a hint of pace ? Everton nullified.
Moyes has turned us from perennial relegation candidates into mind numbing also-rans. He will never win silverware because his sides are consistently incapable of maintaining any type of form for a cup run, never mind a whole league campaign.
We have lost all the home games I have been to so far this season and every time I make the effort to go to the alehouse to watch a game, we have been shite. We are coached not to concede and for Cahill to nick the odd goal. This is not the Everton I grew up on, this is not the School of Science, it is football played on the balance of probability and it typifies the defensive mindset that permeates Everton?s current coaching staff.
But unfortunately we have a catch 22 at Everton. This mind-numbing mediocrity allows Kenwright get to keep his train set. And while Kenwright retains his train set, and those in football are under the laughable illusion that Moyes is still working miracles, he is beyond reproach. Moyes is free to carry on stuffing his pension pot with your hard-earned wedge ? no questions asked. Much of the Goodison faithful are sick to their eyeteeth of this media hyped self-perpetuating illusion of ?over-achievement?.
It is time for a change at Everton, but we have a typical cosy club with no internal impetus or external drivers for change. We will carry on lurching from crisis to crisis until one of Kenwright or Moyes leaves Everton. And neither of them wants to leave.
Reader Comments (24)
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2 Posted 30/12/2010 at 14:36:06
Money is the biggest problem at Everton; it is not an excuse, it is a valid glass ceiling that now exists.
Change does need to happen - in the boardroom and not in team management. Kenwright needs to accept that if he can't find investment then he needs to step down as Chairman and get in a businessman like - dare I say it - Martin Broughton (or someone of that ilk) who can actively sell the club or at least find investment for Moyes.
David Moyes is not the main problem with Everton Football Club at this time. Nick, I know several people like yourself. It is football itself you are falling out of love with, not Everton. You have clearly reached a certain point in your life when cynicism takes over, and it will probably happen to us all. I remember talking to an old fella who was actually at the game when Dixie scored his 60th. This fella had a season ticket for 50 years, but stopped going in 1983 because he'd had enough. I asked him if he ever went 1984-1987 (the glory years). He said no, not even for a one off. When your time comes to call it a day, you just do. He was sick of the players spoilt attitudes in 1983 when he stopped going to. Blaming Moyes for an endemic football culture of 2010 is not really fair.
5 Posted 30/12/2010 at 15:33:27
The title says enough without you even needing to add an article. I agree with it all by the way.
I only hope that when attendances inevitably start dropping Bill is forced to act due to the obvious financial implications.
6 Posted 30/12/2010 at 16:25:36
Even Martin O'Neil could only manage to get Aston Villa to a 6th place finish and during his time there he spent more than Moyes ...
The truth of the matter is it is pointless replacing Moyes at the moment as there is nobody better out there who would want to come to our club ....
7 Posted 30/12/2010 at 16:50:21
You wanna rein your neck right in.
If I'd written this and you come on telling me about how it was time for me to go because of age or whatever smart arse analysis you come up with i'd have told you to fuck right off, cheeky little twat.
8 Posted 30/12/2010 at 18:16:01
Having just defeated the blood-stained petro-billions of Man City on their own patch, and outplaying an admittedly shoddy looking West Ham on their own ground, currently sitting above the Redshite who we soundly whooped this season, and sitting 12 points behind Chelsea, things are looking better for 2011 and I believe that us moving up the table is inevitable this season.
However, maybe like you say, Kenwright should derail his 'train set', sell our club to some chicken farmers, get rid of Moyes, poach Alan Pardew from Newcastle and sign a few big players on £200,000 a week who will subsequently fall out with the new poultry-based regime and go on strike and we can all start complaining about boardroom wrangles and the chicken shit we've got ourselves into.
Any club that has to play Tony Hibbert at centre back is clearly looking for investment but there is a recession and our stadium is made of wood. I don't understand what else is supposed to happen to the club we love, and sacking Moyes would be an unmitigated disaster as most people who know anything about football would be able to tell you (I reckon even Alan Shearer might be able to tell you that, just maybe).
Maybe you should move to Surrey and start supporting Chelsea, then you can call for Ancelotti's fat head on a plate every week. Other than that, see who we get in on loan in the transfer window, sit tight, and trust in Moyes that we will again finish strongly as we do every season.
9 Posted 30/12/2010 at 18:56:40
Plenty of managers would love to manage Everton, lower league managers who have showed promise and there are lots of these (Poyet, O'Driscoll, Lambert to name just three)...
And Poyet espeically would see us playing much more pleasing football. Sure, it's a gamble... but so was employing Moyes in the first place.
10 Posted 30/12/2010 at 19:16:46
11 Posted 30/12/2010 at 19:10:38
If you chose to denigrate this website with your opening salvo, then why bother browsing to it, reading an article and commenting? Are you really Ian Ross by any chance?
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12 Posted 30/12/2010 at 19:29:58
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13 Posted 30/12/2010 at 19:33:36
I think that we can do something though. As a club, we have to insist on a change at coaching level. As I have mentioned on another thread, I am sure that there have been little changes since Moyes took over, other than Round.
All of these have seemingly kept a Championship mentality if performances over the last 6 years are anything to go by. The board should be telling Moyes that fresh blood is needed. we need people like Poyet etc on our coaching staff ? all of our staff are simply old-school English lower league players. No wonder we have no creativity.
14 Posted 30/12/2010 at 19:33:21
Granted there have also been some poor Everton teams over that 45-year period and some I have expected to lose at West Ham but not this one. I was gutted when the line-up was announced but it seems to me like you must have been dancing round like we have won the cup.
What drives guys like you to follow Everton and be so happy with your lot? Go do yourself a favour and go and support someone whose main ambition is to stay in the Premier League.
15 Posted 30/12/2010 at 19:47:27
I would love to see what Holloway could achieve with this squad.
16 Posted 30/12/2010 at 19:08:12
17 Posted 30/12/2010 at 19:50:04
18 Posted 30/12/2010 at 19:58:51
I agree with Mark, the problem is Moyes is here to stay... so to debate potential new managers is rather pointless.
19 Posted 30/12/2010 at 20:30:16
So I would much rather have someone who is prepared to attack.
20 Posted 30/12/2010 at 20:33:29
Truth is, if Holloway took over a club with bigger expectations, he'd be more cautious and I'd wager he'd fail miserably as he did at Leicester.
21 Posted 30/12/2010 at 20:41:51
1st Point: 4-5-1 or 4-1-3-1-1 as was the then version of it introduced to Everton when Cahill arrived and Rooney left. That was 2004 ? 6 years ago, not 9. I think it was more a reaction to the squad of players (mainly inherited) that Moyes then found himself with.
He had played with a 4-4-2 (diamond) formation before that and it had generally worked. Actually, Moyes had proven able to generally get the best out of his squad by picking a formation to suit the players abilities / limitations.
His most recent version of 4-5-1 which was successful against Chelski and Shiteh was closer to a 4-2-3-1 (double pivot) ? a different kettle of fish entirely and probably suits the players we have the best. Ideally, with the right one or two players in or out, Everton could have the option of playing an attacking 4-3-3 aka Chelski as an alternative. Why did he switch to 4-6-0 for West Ham with (was it) 4 strikers on the bench? ... I don't understand.
My point is that it has not been always as singular and dour as you say.
2nd point: what, if not good, exactly was the FA Cup Run of 2009? We beat the Redshite in a replay, Aston Villa were walked over, Manure narrowly and Middlesboro after a bad start and I think some Championship team before losing not too disgracefully to Chelski in the final. Villa, Liverpool and Manure were all ahead of us in the table when we beat them. I dare you to find a cup winner who beat more than four Premiership teams or old Division One in a cup run in recent history.
22 Posted 31/12/2010 at 00:30:38
A couple more points for you.
Moyes has virtually always employed a 4-5-1. Radzinski ran the line as a lone striker and he was replaced by Bent. AJ then followed and did the same job. The only time I remember a 4-4-2 was on the few rare occasions Ferguson came on as a sub or Rooney or McFadden came on as a support striker. To say the 4-5-1 is a recent invention of Moyes's is plain wrong.
You confirmed my assertion with the abject Cup Final display ("not too disgracefully" ? did you even watch that game?). I said that a Moyes team cannot sustain form for an entire cup run ? there is the evidence. I was virtually on the touchline at Wembley and the body language was all wrong from the off. We lost it before the KO and again, all his usual favourites in a negative 4-5-1 was employed, and Chelsea ran us around the houses.
Everton will never win a trophy under Moyes, if you are happy watching him coach all flair and skill out of players then good luck ? you have got the dour and negative manager you deserve. I expect more from the club I have supported for a lot longer than he has been employed here.
Moyes has had his chance, for fans to say "who else could we get?" is a pathetic kop out. Don't tell me there is nobody in world football who would not be willing to coach that squad to go out and try to win games and entertain a very disinterested Goodison faithful. That is all I want.
23 Posted 31/12/2010 at 01:38:16
24 Posted 31/12/2010 at 08:34:19
25 Posted 31/12/2010 at 11:28:07
There's no point in playing Cahill as a lone striker. His goals are scored when he attacks the ball from midfield, unmarked. Playing as a lone striker he is permanently up against 2 centre-backs.
Now I am not a tactician, but it's there for all to see. Moyes is too negative. How can you play West Brom & Wolves at home with one lone striker???/ Defies logic!!!
26 Posted 31/12/2010 at 16:28:16
It needs saying, and you say it far better than I ? thanks for posting.
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1 Posted 30/12/2010 at 14:15:03
But im sure BK will give Gollem another massive contract anyway, so as much as I do think its time for a change its not happening untill Moyes decides he wants to go.