The Mail Bag
An inferiority complex
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We have a decent enough squad. We can get results against the best sides... so why do we languish where we are?
In my view, David Moyes doesn't believe in his players.
We go to Chelsea like a Conference team in the FA Cup. Suddenly, it seems we realise we are not playing supermen and a positive approach brings a reward.
We approach every game like an underdog and when, suddenly David Moyes decides to go for it, we look like a proper side.
How about a positive start? How about David Moyes showing that he believes in his side? How about some attacking football? How about showing some arrogance, Beckford is the man to do it?
Why not against Wigan, forget the usual negativity and show just what we can do? David Moyes must get a spine and earn his money.
Andy Crooks, Posted 05/12/2010 at 17:42:29
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In the second half against Chelsea we looked like the budding champions and surely at last the penny must have dropped and Moyes will now go out to win every game ? home or away. Let's play attractive football and reward the fans for their loyalty.
Come on, Moyes ? go for it.
Yes, it's an inferiority complex that is MADDENING.
When all is said and done, if we have to finish between 5th and 15th, can't we play attractive football? Can't we try to beat these teams?
I can accept losing but I can't accept 'not turning up'. I can't accept 'trying to nick one' as a default tactic rather than the occasional tactic.
It's for those reasons that I'm tired of Moyes.
I just wish Moyesy would think about his team selection instead of continuing to play players who are clearly out of form ? especially ones carrying the burden of a lucrative new contract.
Garbage..... at this level individual motivation is the key, it matters not a jot if a player is the devil incarnate or the shy retiring type ? you've got to have 'em on that pitch prepped, confident and eager to go.
Too often in Moyes's reign we've been frightened rabbits, those of you interested in such things, look at his interviews. He is always guarded, never relaxed; if he can't get the fear out of himself after nigh on 9 years, how on earth is he going to get it out of the players???
The players are good enough to sort it, they show it in patches... but they're not being managed well enough, it'll remain so until a different mindset takes charge.
We'll beat Wigan 9-2.
I know Beckford missed chances against West Brom, but he still had the movement to help create them which is more than Saha is doing. I'd like to see him start against Wigan but then Moyesie does sometimes confuse us with team selection.
Why o' why do we have to go behind before letting loose the dogs of war??? Does Moyes need to face defeat before he is able to motivate the team?
A few, like Cahill, require little motivation but some need to be fired up before a ball is kicked. The trouble is that when we finally hit our straps we are unable to keep cool heads in the finishing department.
'See you Roundy, another 10 minutes and we would'e had yon London poofters.'
'Och weell, onward and... well onwards anyhoo.'
'Who's ra next problem?'
' Wigan Boss, they just drew 2-2 with Stoke.'
'Jings, Stoke eh, their nae mugs, If we lose this one yon pie eaters will be above us, best keep it tight then.'
(Pauses is if weighing up the forth coming game.)
'Any tea going?'
After this candid look behind the scenes, hands up who thinks that...
a) The same team but with Beckford in for Saha will start, and that...
b) We will go out and attack them and you will be coming out of the ground saying to your mates 'well that was well worth the money and no mistake!'
Nobody would have dreamt of Arteta being dropped but his form has warranted that; however, if one player deserves the chance to play himself back into form, it's Mikel. He's been loyal to us when he's been targeted by our more affluent opponents every season since he was signed by Moyes for £2.5M.
Heitinga's contribution this season has been woeful but his natural alternatives, Fellaini and Rodwell have been injured or suspended . Don't you think that players should hold their hands up when they are playing badly?
Finally, the football we play now is light years ahead of the hoofball we were known for in Moyes's first few years here, demonstrated by the majority of games we play we have more possession and more attempts on goal than our opponents. I have been to most of our games this season, home and away, and in some of our reversals I've been astonished that we've actually dropped points because we were so much better than the team we've just played.
Once those players cross the line, if your centre-forward is going to miss from 5 yards or a great shot from outside the area hits the post, it's hardly Moyes's fault, neither is it his fault when the ref awards a blatant offside goal. I think some of you should attempt to be a bit more objective and try to look at the whole picture not just the little bit that suits you.
I seem to have broken into your little anti-David Moyes rant. I won't apologise.
Jay Harris (4) I agree. No Arteta; Fellaini and Rodwell bossing things. Both Rodwell and Fellaini have physical presence, are skillful and can pass the ball. They should now be the two mainstays in the midfield around which the rest of the team is built.
But I will wait, and see if Moyes has learned anything from it?
You missed the point. Moyes should be singing the praises of his players not even referring to the oppositions team. Anyway, as Seamus (#12) pointed out, on the day Baines was far better than Cole!
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The movement and pace of Jermaine Beckford opens so many attacking avenue's compared to the largely static presence of Saha. Louis obviously has the edge aerially and I think this will always be a factor for Moyes as he likes us to have an 'out' ball from the back when we are under the cosh. IMO we don't really need an out ball anymore as we now dominate posession against all but the best of sides.
I still think the Yak can be a good PL player but, with our style of play and Tim Cahill as prolific as he is, I don't see a place for him with us.
I think the amount of times we have crumbled in big games when we have gone out and defended for our lives when there was really no need to, i.e., Sporting Lisbon proves the inferiority theory to be true yet Moyes still talks of beating the big sides and winning things? Then again so does Audley Harrison.
What we have seen over his tenure is a reluctance to embrace change in terms of style, players and attitude. I can't see this changing anytime soon.
I think history will show a man who was capable of building a very good squad without the ability to extract the maximum from them. Hopefully it will also show the man who took over that squad knew exactly what he was doing.
Inferiority complex? WTF? You claim that all these so called "better" teams have more adventurous managers then act all agonised when we haven't dominated for ninety when we meet them.
This wasn't the Chelsea side that everyone has been "having a go at!" It was Chelsea with Drogba, Essien and Terry (their spine) and they were still more worried about us than we were about them, just as Harry's Spurs team were, and the Italian bus parkers City will be.
Our problems are against lesser teams setting their stall out. Give me the so called better teams and our so-called inferiority complex against them any day of the week.
If we'd won those two games, which we should have expected to, we'd be 6th.
Now look at home games we've drawn against 'lesser teams' and winning those puts us into 3rd/4th/5th, so I can't agree that the way we played against Chelsea away has anything to do with it, so I don't understand the 'SPOT ON' vibe.
Our biggest problem is a lack of dynamism when playing as favourites at home, in this I'll agree we're not positive enough, but I think its a case of moving the ball quicker and trying to make 'transitional play' (the bit where we first win it back) more effective rather than passing it around slowly side to side allowing the opposition to get their men behind the ball.
So, we need more pace at home to capitalise on the small amount of space there is. That means moving the ball quicker and starting Beckford instead of "King" Louis. This has been said a million times this week alone.
Hopefully Wigan will be a bit more adventurous as Martinez does seem that kind of manager and this will leave them open at the back. But I did say this against West Brom too. I do think we will win though. COYB.
What has been shown this season is that when we play positively i.e. against Man U, liverpool and Chelsea, we're capable of getting a result and capable of winning. The rest of the time we're crap because Moyes reverts back to his usual negative tactics. Why can't we attack the likes of Bolton and West Brom at home? Why are we so negative?
I think the author of this article is SPOT ON because Moyes does have an inferiority complex. It's why his priority every season is to avoid relegation. That's hardly the thinking of a man who thinks Everton are capable of winning anything.
I've always backed our players (and the manager) but at the moment, I don't think Saha, Yakubu or Beckford have the ability to score against a team with no goalkeeper on the pitch.
Saha hasn;t been any good for about a year, Yakubu couldnt score in a brothel and Beckford is an outright joke.
We fucking deserve better.
Top 4 is out of reach, Top 6 ain't... We'll finish 6th or 7th..
We're telling him about Saha and have been for a while... it does make you wonder why he's worth his salary. Personally I'd like to see him just once do something that surprises me (positively!) and that wasn't already obvious to 99.9% of people. Something that I think "yeah, that was a great move by Moyes".
If Davy was also watching, I hope he learned from Roy Hodsons tactics and for once show a bit of courage from the start against Wigan and not wait until things get desperate.
Truth is, I don't expect Moyes to try anything different to what has failed so many times this season.
My point was to disagree with the OP, and all the early responses who agreed, that our problem is the way we play against the better teams. Our problem this season is our failure to get the home points against teams who finished below us last season.
How can you think the OP is 'SPOT ON' when what you've said basically agrees with me? Very bizarre. You even say the opposite to what he says about the Chelsea game. He says we went there like a Conference side in the cup, you say we went there and played positively.
The OP is wrong, not 'SPOT ON' because our problem is a failure to pick up home points against lesser teams, not a failure to pick up points, home or otherwise, against the recently traditional big four.
You rhetorically ask me 'What about home to Bolton and Wolves?' but that's the exact point I was making, although I didn't mention them by name. So isn't it me that's got it 'SPOT ON'?
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1 Posted 05/12/2010 at 18:20:28
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I keep hoping and praying that Moyes will change from his abject negativity but I sometimes think he is actually getting worse, rather than better. At least Moyes, like me, was 'disappointed' that we didn't come away from Stamford Bridge with more than a draw ? we did come very close to winning the game in the second half, which is why for me yet another draw is not a good result.
We have to turn this around sometime, and the optimist in me (no laughing at the back!) believes at every kick-off that Moyes will finally get these players playing as a team up to their full potential. I think that's a positive thought... if only we could inject some of that into Moyes's boney head!