Season 2011-12 Fan Articles
Moyes: More Conservative than Negative
By Gavin McGarvey :: 10/08/2011
48 Comments (»Last)
There has been a lot of anger recently after the abject display in the second half against Villarreal. I notice that a lot of people have been criticising Moyes for his ?negativity? and also playing players out of position. Now I find myself frustrated with Moyes at times as well, but personally view him as conservative rather than negative. He is reluctant to start youngsters, preferring to bring them on late from the bench. He also likes his teams to have a bit of fight about them, though how much of this is due to playing in England where the game is fairly physical is debatable.
As for playing players out of position, well I think this is more to do with financial constraints. There are a lot of problems with the current squad in my opinion. These are Everton?s main problems as I see them.
The right hand side
Coleman was a stop gap playing further up, down the right, whilst we waited for him to take the right back slot from Neville/Hibbert. To be fair to him, he did really well, although I still think he is more suited to the right back role in the modern game. Now he?s injured and I can?t see that we really have any options there. The thought of seeing Osman there is painful, and although Arteta can play pretty well there, he?s injured at the minute.
The left-hand side
We really have no experience going down that wing. Leon Osman isn?t really an option. Gueye is ok but still a kid really. In an ideal world he would be coming on from the subs bench. I, like many, was disappointed to see Pienaar leaving. Will Fellaini do the same?
Strikers
Saha will be injured again and even when fit he doesn?t play best in the 4-5-1 system that Moyes uses to paper over the cracks in his squad. Yakubu was great as the lead striker in the 4-5-1 but unfortunately after that injury his best days seem behind him. Beckford is OK but still has a long way to go in my opinion.
All our best players play just off the striker Tim Cahill, Ross Barkley, Leon Osman, Bily, and to a degree even Mikel Arteta; all these players seem to profit best when played just off the striker, in the space between midfield and attack. This really annoys me.
I can?t help but think that Moyes got a bit carried away when he bought Bily by his skill and thunderbolt shot. There?s no doubting his quality but I can?t see things working out for him when his best position is the most hotly contested in the team. It was great seeing Osman playing there last season, and I hope this wasn?t a final hurrah for him, and he can take that form into next season. Cahill though seems ? and not without good reason ? to have that place sewn up, so that will leave the others to cover in a fairly inadequate fashion for those we have failed to buy/replace down the right and left wings.
Anyway, is this all Moyes's fault? I think some of it is, but not that much. In my opinion, Moyes has his heart set on turning us into a hard- working, passing 4-5-1, playing attacking football. Unfortunately he has never really had the money to buy/keep the right players to make this work other than for short periods of time. It?s a pity really. I would have liked to see the kind of side he would have built if we had the money to buy Moutinho, Banega etc? Maybe he would have wasted all the millions it would have cost, though it would have been nice to see him try.
Reader Comments (48)
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2 Posted 11/08/2011 at 08:03:17
And also I have said for years that Moyes HAS NEVER KNOWN what his best 11 is or how best to play them.
3 Posted 11/08/2011 at 08:03:13
Also, 9 times out of 10 no one is even on the D, the amount of times Gerrard, Lampard or Scholes have stood there all alone waiting for a free shot on goal does my head in.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Moyes needs to do himself a favour and sit in the Top Balcony. It's just like being on stage, you can see exactly who's hiding, who's not moving and who's picking their nose, he obviously can't see it from the bench.
It's diabolical
4 Posted 11/08/2011 at 08:21:05
5 Posted 11/08/2011 at 08:56:25
why isn't it Moyes complete fault for buying only central midfielders? when every man and his dog that watch Everton know we need specialist wide players, pace and a striker who can play on his own up front in Moyes' predictable 451.
Feel free to stick up for him all you want but I dont think this is one of those times. I cringe watching Moyes bellowing out orders like a PE teacher with every kick, surely the players should know what they have to do already! He is both negative and Conservative, I bet he even hangs his underpants on coat hangers.
6 Posted 11/08/2011 at 09:17:17
We are still awfull to watch and play shit football for the most part.
7 Posted 11/08/2011 at 09:38:33
8 Posted 11/08/2011 at 09:47:20
It grieves me to see our ageing senior players allowed to play every week because we have no proper choice, whether they are playing well or not !! So long as DM carries on finishing above midway with what he has got then I dont think anything will alter.
I reckon if things dont alter soon we will be back battling against relegation in a couple of seasons.
Nothing is being done to replace... Neville, Hibbert, Arteta, Cahill, Distin and Saha in the short term.
We dont seem to have many of our youngsters pushing for first team starts.
Our reserve side is poor..
9 Posted 11/08/2011 at 10:05:18
Robbie and Dick, you are spot on and I guarantee. Tim Cahill has saved more goals with his head than he has scored with it.
Let's face it, overall Moyes has done a good job and let's hope we have some luck for a change. Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion but, if it wasn't for Moyes, we would all be writing about hopefully getting back into the Premier League.
It made me sick looking at the money spent by some clubs over the past couple of seasons: City have spent in excess of £230M just on strikers; the Shite over £100M since Dogliesh took over; and United over £50M so far this season. So don't anyone give me the 11 players on 11 bullshit and we should be able to compete.
Fact is the top clubs are the ones that spend the most. We are the best of the clubs with no money.
10 Posted 11/08/2011 at 10:11:51
11 Posted 11/08/2011 at 10:58:53
12 Posted 11/08/2011 at 11:06:57
13 Posted 11/08/2011 at 11:41:43
14 Posted 11/08/2011 at 12:04:13
15 Posted 11/08/2011 at 12:11:37
16 Posted 11/08/2011 at 12:24:49
"I, like many, was disappointed to see Pienaar leaving. Will Fellaini do the same?
Of course Fellaini will do the same and why would he not?
I mean lets be very very honest,if you have any ambition to win anything and play at the top level ,then at this moment it is hardly going to happen with EFC with the current situation being what it is.
If Fellaini can stay injury free,and plays the way we all know the way he can do,and a club with money who are capable of challenging for honours came in for him,it really should not be a surprise to anyone if the big fella was interested...never mind him trebling his wages !!
17 Posted 11/08/2011 at 12:42:43
Pienaar and Gosling.
He should be given an ultimatum NOW.
Sign or be sold in January at the latest.
No doubt the club will tell us that he wants to sign/he loves the club etc etc.
But at the end of the day Everton's Management will be taken for mugs once again. Its not like this will be the first time is it?
18 Posted 11/08/2011 at 13:10:01
But to me there was no surprise when the season before last our best football came when we had Pienaar on the left and Donovan on the right... two naturally wide players who gave us new options!
19 Posted 11/08/2011 at 13:26:00
That's the problem we face, we can't but any decent wingers, when we try others buy them. Moyes was in for Reira then the redshite snapped him from under our noses.
We have no bargaining power and no money, Heitinga and Bily were panic buys. Moyes must have known that had he not spent the money it would have disappeared into "running costs"
20 Posted 11/08/2011 at 13:43:11
21 Posted 11/08/2011 at 14:36:28
22 Posted 11/08/2011 at 15:20:32
Re the 'not having the players for the right positions' issue, I understand the overall point of lack of cash but no-one can say, hand on heart, that this has always been the case.
Example would be Gueye: first of all, he is not actually that young, he's 21! In the year or so he's been with us, he's only made 5 appearances! What's that about when we don't have a left winger?
Maybe the manager thinks he's not up to it, but if he does then stick him in. Also next time he's looking for a midfielder, how about signing a WINGER who can play central? ...just a thought.
Also we do have back-up for Baines: Neville can and has played left back many times. Yes, this may not be ideal, but it is a fall-back position if the worst happens and Baines gets injured.
23 Posted 11/08/2011 at 20:20:27
Leaving Essex tomorrow, for a hol in the lakes, catch the QPR game on the way back. (Spurs game right to be off - the buildings may fall down and the side streets are still unpredictable with undesirables).
The corner thing has pissed me off for years. How mant teams "do us" from our own corners. The shite with Gerrard have focused on it as a weakness for years.
The only question is - WHO, IF NOT MOYES?
24 Posted 11/08/2011 at 20:54:20
25 Posted 11/08/2011 at 20:54:20
27 Posted 11/08/2011 at 21:58:59
"Van der Medye never got a crack of the whip."
You must be drinking as much as Shandy Andy was when you write some of your posts.
28 Posted 11/08/2011 at 22:48:53
It's great, maybe we could give Moyes some credit for spotting a good one, rather than saying it was lucky? Plus he had t get Pienaar on loan for the first season because he had no money (again).
But anyway, you can't have it both ways. Maybe credit where credit is due for Moyes?
29 Posted 11/08/2011 at 23:06:50
30 Posted 12/08/2011 at 00:55:16
166725-346554
31 Posted 11/08/2011 at 23:12:31
He at least got to sign Beckford, Gueye and Vellios last year, and to be frank he has had 9 years in total to build a proper side.
Look at the high cost buys he has made, in total they have all failed. For example: Yakubu who only delivered the first season; then he bought Bily who he plays out of position; and then he buys Felli who is as much of an injury problem as Saha. Also, Heitinga is useless in midfield and should never have been bought. Look at the money these guys cost: Yak £11.25M; Bily £9.25M, Felli £15M and Heitinga for £7M. That is over £35 million on just three players, that is abysmal value for money. Think about all the wingers and strikers we could have had for this money, I bet you would jump through the roof have this money now!!!
So, to sum up, Moyes has done piss poor when spending big and Kenwright is smart to say Stop as I agree with his decision to stop throwing money out of the window, and that Moyes just has to sell some of his players and start over as it is his own fault that they haven't quite fitted in.
We need more wingers and strikers than central midfielders and we have been needing them for a long long time, and that is the end of story. Stop defending his piss-poor tactics and his big buys gone wrong! You only show that you don't have a clue what this team needs!!!
32 Posted 12/08/2011 at 03:06:28
In a world of nearly 7billion people, with football being the most played sport, can anyone honestly say that David William Moyes of Glasgow, Scotland is THE ONLY person who can manage Everton with some success?
33 Posted 12/08/2011 at 09:36:44
I admit that Bily was a panic buy, with Heitinga, I think we bought a very decent player who covers two or three positions (admittedly central defence is his best).
Like everyone else I want to see SOME investment. And to Jimmy's comment - yeah we got Beckyford, Gueye and Vellios last year. Vellios was always for the youth team, Beckford on a free and Gueye an untested young player who had had no taste of the premier league. When we talk investment, I mean £20m like Sunderland and Stoke. Where we can get two or three significant additions to the squad, not bargain basement "have something to prove" players. Thats all.
34 Posted 12/08/2011 at 12:22:10
Jimmy, look at Moyes's record buys. Our most expensive player is Felliani, he is not injury prone, he keeps getting crocked by terrible challenges, because he is, in my opinion, our best player. Biggest fee and best player, strange that.
Our last record buy, Yak, first striker to get 20 in a season for a decade or two, such a failure....!
Heitinga, lauded on here as being fantastic his first season but now he is a failure because he is played out of position to accomadate the Buzz/Jags partnership.
Can't argue about Bily, there is a great player in there somewhere but I doubt we will see it when he is stuck on the wing.
The record signing before that was AJ, scored well and we qualified for Europe the time he was here.....massive failure, despite getting more than we paid for him when sold, even though he was crocked.
Before that Meattie, again qualified for Europe.
How can they be classed as failures?
Our most expensive player is our biggest asset at the moment, so I can't agree he squanders money on the "Big" signings.
As a reference point Arsenal bid/have bought? an untried championship player for the same amount we bought Felliani for.
35 Posted 12/08/2011 at 13:51:08
Good buys or baad buys the manager has been at the helm for going on 10 years and in that time he could/should have sorted out this issue. Lack of money is not an excuse to not have signed any wingers especially in that time. Over the year he has had money to do this (maybe not know but certainly before), the side has lacked width for quite a few years.
Our midfiled is full of central midfielders. When we had Donnovan for a couple of months, everyone could see what difference some pace out wide made.
Anyway, we dont even have enough cash to get people in on loan let alone on a free so we may as well focus on who can actually play there from the squad we have.
I still think he should give Gueye a crack on the left flank before even considering playing Anichebe there!
36 Posted 12/08/2011 at 15:00:52
Of course, I defended `Our Davey` to the hilt but what the hell do I know? Could said ex-player have hit the nail on the head?
37 Posted 12/08/2011 at 15:15:38
That is all...
38 Posted 12/08/2011 at 16:16:01
He knows as much as we do that he needs wingers but when he tried to buy them, he either gets outbid, can't afford wages or they flop.
Look at the prices now for them and then look at how much we have had for transfers the last 6 years. I have agreed in other posts that Bily was a panic buy, in the sense the money would have disappeared into "opeating costs" if he didn't use it there and then
39 Posted 12/08/2011 at 17:43:20
Anyway, think the discussion is not really that relevant at the moment as we cannot sign anybody at all at the moment, which is just ridiculous. To see the likes of stoke going in for numerous players and us just having to watch does really beg the question wtf is going on - but I guess that is not a moyes issue.
All we can do is hope but given the choice I would have taken 15m from Arsenal (if it was ever offered), played JH at CB and used the cash to bring in a winger (or two!) and the likes of DJ Campbell (1.5m!) and maybe Barton to add some much needed bite in the middle.
The whole yak and joey situation is also a mess, two players who the manager doesn't want that we cannot seem get rid of. They must be on a combined 80-90k a week!
As always, all we can do is hope and pray.....
40 Posted 12/08/2011 at 19:38:25
If you look at Fellaini's contributions to matches he's played in, we win more without him than with him (last season especially). Bad challenges or just injury prone is irrelevant when he is sitting on a fucking hospital bed depreciating in value. Or worse, suspended because of one of his 7000 fouls per season.
41 Posted 12/08/2011 at 20:33:28
42 Posted 12/08/2011 at 22:01:43
We can argue about tatics all we like but the evidence is there, at least in the amount spent on transfer fees, that Moyes has over achieved.
I'm fairly confident we would have been relegated without him
http://www.sportingintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/PL-decade-spending.jpg
43 Posted 12/08/2011 at 22:31:30
44 Posted 13/08/2011 at 01:30:31
An "EX-player" saying something derogatory about the manager....obviously must be true!!
45 Posted 13/08/2011 at 07:35:17
The last ex-player to comment on Moyes was Pienaar , who couldn't praise him enough. The fact is, the players have nothing but good things to say about David Moyes . ' Baz ' Rathbone couldn't have given him a better reference and he sacked him! Finally his fellow peers have gave him their ultimate accolade 3 times! Say no more.
46 Posted 13/08/2011 at 11:56:16
When Moyes had that meeting with our beloved chairman, and our Bill told him that the transfer budget was zilch, he shoud have taken a leaf out of Rednapp's book and started horse trading from the first day of close season. The lack of investment should never mask Moyes's stuborness
47 Posted 13/08/2011 at 17:48:31
When and if we hit the Championship and then Division 1 or even 2 we will be staggered that we ever made such a to do about "only" being in the top 10 of the Premiership with no means of ever being better.
Moyes almost certainly isn't the only manager who can carry Everton along at a decent level but he's the only one who's actually proven that he can do it. Every other potential manager is simply massive risk. Moyes is respected by other managers, all commentators and virtually every soccer fan in the UK yet he's not good enough for the mighty Blues? I've just watched Liverpool against Sunderland and there was many millions on display and what a load of shite. Football IS shite now so anybody who thinks we are ever going to take the Premiership by storm with total football is deluded. We simply do not have a squad good enough to play decent teams with anything but 4-5-1. Do we want good football and 7-0s against any decent team?
I fully support Moyes if he can get himself together and if there is any movement to get him out it isn't in my name nor, I believe, in the name of the vast majority of Evertonians.
48 Posted 13/08/2011 at 23:50:14
?...Heitinga and Bily were panic buys. Moyes must have known that had he not spent the money it would have disappeared into "running costs"...?
Made up and is basically an excuse for Moyes to hurl 20 million down the toilet, this may be why you have been labelled an ?apologist? Think about it logically, if we needed £20000000 above and beyond are normal ?running costs? to last 3 months until the January window, we would be in huge amount of trouble within a year. We would also be constantly selling are players trying to raise 20 million every three months.
Is it not possible, in-fact almost certain that Moyes just made huge mistakes? I have seen this theory of ?running costs? Used as an excuse by ?apologists? for Moyes to through away the Lescsott money and it holds no water.
49 Posted 15/08/2011 at 23:40:10
"So, to sum up, Moyes has done piss poor when spending big and Kenwright is smart to say Stop as I agree with his decision to stop throwing money out of the window, and that Moyes just has to sell some of his players and start over as it is his own fault that they haven't quite fitted in."
Take it thats the window marked 'operating costs', or whatever the fuck Bill's calling the dosh he owes the Cayman Islands' finest this week.
Un-fuckin-believable.
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1 Posted 11/08/2011 at 07:40:03
The money thing does not wash...it aint what you do , it's the way you do it.
How many times have we seen a team / formation come out at K.O. and be absolute shite in the 1st half...and to be fair sometimes shite in the 2nd half.
How many times have we had the too little too late subs.
Come to that how many times have we had the (crap) like for (crap) like substitution.
But also and lets be fair here, there have been times ( a few ) when the team HAS been re-jigged at half time and we have gone on play a lot better and even convert a potential poor result into a better one
So to sum up...
No money...poor 1st half....2nd half still the same no money, but a totally better fist of it...by who??
By Moyes,that who.
He bought them.
He picks them.
He,one presumes,tells them how he wants them to go about it.
He has a (small ) squad of decent players.
Let them fuckin PLAY..
I hate every one back for corners.
I hate keep it tight and pinch one.