Lets look at the facts.

Johnson- turned into a headless chicken channel runner.
Beattie- See above
Yakubu- See above
Beckford- Not good enough full stop.
Jelavic- Slowly going the same way as the first two.

FFS ! Moyes does not play attacking football or play to a strikers strengths, he plays % football in that we get a goal and protect what we have.

Why have so many strikers failed at the club ? Because they are not allowed to play to their strengths. We do not create enough chances or get into the box enough.

Look at Rat face across the park, if he had buried every chance he's had this season he would have smashed Dixies record by now and the reason he is scoring is because the shite create a lot of scoring opportunities.

It's not fucking rocket science, you have to create chances for your strikers to score.

Same applies for Beattie, he had so many chances for us, he scored a few belters for Southampton that caught the eye but he was slow, often looked overweight, and used to miss a load of sitters, I don't think it was Moyes telling him not to be bothered in every game was it? Where is he playing now? For Accrington or somethign isn't it? Funny how no other manager could get him playing either, maybe Moyes lingered over his entire career?

Moyes had Yakubu in his best form, 20 goals for us in one season, no channel running or whatever myths people like to invent. He then snaps his achilles (surely Moyes is probably some way responsible for this too) and when he comes back cannot get back to full fitness. A selling opportunity arises and we cash in. How did Moyes ruin him? He gave him the best period of his career.

As you rightly said Beckford was not good enough full stop. 10 league goals coming off the bench though - clearly not ruined, and clearly can't hack it anywhere else. Once again probably the highlight of his career. In what way did Moyes ruin him?

The one I will agree with you on is Jelavic as Moyes seems to persist in putting him on the wing in order to accomodate Fellaini. Last night without Fellaini he looked far mroe likely to score even though he didn't due to bad touches and a lack of confidence. If we keep with that formation without Fellaini behind him he will score again.

What good owuld selling Jelavic do? We all saw what he could do last season, if there's even a chance of him recapturing that form its worth persevering with as Anichebe's best is well well below Jelavic's best. A lot of strikers this season have struggled in the league in compariosn to last season including Cisse and even Aguero. He's a quality player and will come good and I can't beleive after last season that some people are so fickle to discard him. Once again, Fellaini got 4 seasons to bed in whilst it seems everyone else is allowed a couple of months of bad form before they're deemed worthy of the scrap heap. Bilyaletdinov wasn't even treated this badly.

As for the strikers that Moyes has 'ruined'... Johnson was a one dimensional player when we bought him who ran the channels for Palace occasionally bursting into the box.

Beattie had one great season for Southampton scoring all kinds of goals and we were one of the clubs hoping that he could keep that going, he couldn't. That one spell of good form earning a striker a move happens all the time.

Yak, are you talking about twenty goal a season Yak until his injury? After his injury he couldn't run the channels or for the fucking bus.

Beckford could have been a good player for us but he suffered from Nugentitis, thought he'd made it before he'd actually done anything in the premier league.

As for Jela, it's such a shame he's not scoring. A striker who goes through a barren run starts trying to justify his position by 'working hard for the team', once he goes on a scoring run his overall contribution will drop off as he'll justify to himself that he's doing enough by scoring. This is natural and Moyes is doing well to allow him the space to find his form.

I remember seeing an interview years ago with a manager (maybe Clough?) and the interviewer asked if the striker should be dropped because he was out of form and the manager said no, 'he won't his form while he's watching from the directors box'.

Beattie turned-out to be a big disappointment, and has done sod all since moving on. I can't see how Moyes ruined him. Or... maybe it was Davey who sent him out with instructions to get an early red card by head-buting Gallas in the back of the neck? What a dick.

To answer Dave's aggressive retort, I agree with James' analysis. Some had purple patches but weren't that good and have done nothing elsewhere and Yak was excellent until he snapped his achilles.

They say form is temporary, class is permanent. Well we need to define temporary then as all I have seen this season is a mediocre player wasting chances I could tuck away witjhout adding much to the team.

James, Jeli isn't treated badly at all. In fact he is forgiven some god awful misses when others (Osman to name one) would be castigated yet it isn't their primary role.

My point is he's obviously got ability as seen last season, he's playing like a league 1 player (comfortably shackled by Oldham) and yet has played the majority of games.

We need another striker as Anichebe and Jeli (Velios clearly isn't fancied) are not enough

You can say it's all about running channels, but the sitters he has missed have nearly all been in the six yard box, nowhere near the wing.

The problem he has, is that he desperately needs a goal so he is going to look for the ball and goes wide, the balls aren't putted down the wing the way it was with AJ, he moves out to look for the ball.

Also if he could remember every now and then to stay onside, he might get a few more chances....that's running through the middle, again not on the wing

I made a point of watching him off the ball from the Bullens and quite a few times he was ready for the run indicating time and again for Pienaar and co for the early through ball but every time it never came with players dawdling and piss-balling around.
Also add the fact against mighty Oldham we played him up front on his own with two holding static centre midfielders as well as two centre halves on the bench and another static holding midfielder, it was fucking Oldham for crying out loud.

I have always said I'd give Moyes 7.5 out of ten and I am pretty worn out with his negative ways, everyone back for corners etc.

I know he has it tough with finances but surely trying with a kid coming off the bench is better than the shite he seems to bring on with minutes to go each week.

There are lot more blues getting pretty fed up when you go the game and Moyes has a lot to do with it.

Yakubo was called Lazy in his 20-goal season for us we should have bought him for £7 Million instead of buying Beattie, he did score for Leicester and Blackburn when he played for them.

There is a good argument for Moyes's strikers not performing because of him and we played better when we had that spell when we had no recognized striker .

Latchford often gave the same impression – that nothing but a goal could give him that intense great to be alive feeling. Jela needs a goal (states obvious) and it's my guess that when he does score, more will follow. I just think he's that...type.

There's a lot I could (and do) criticise Moyes for, but I actually agree with Tony on this. I simply can't blame Moyes for Jelavic missing sitters. Oh and at least we didn't pay £50m for him.

Look we're not playing well certainly nothing like when he first arrived and I reckon the necessity to score and turn things round for the team is making him snatch at chances. It's like Pienaar the lad is bereft at the moment the player returning from Spurs has mysteriously vanished but both are excellent and simply should be rested until form returns. I wouldn't be in favour of trying to offload either.

Moyes doesn't have or doesn't trust the replacements so I'd give Lineker a call and get him down to Finch Farm. Get him to do a few days with Jela and Vic, Lineker was the epitome of next to useless outside the box but by god inside the box!

In defence of Jelavic some of the touches and crosses into him this season have been woeful he is often in the right place but the wrong ball is played to him so he will drift and try to find the ball once he does he crosses to.......yes that's right the area he should be.

Last season the ball was played into the box half a yard ahead of him, which meant he just glided onto the ball and scored more often than not. This season the ball is into feet or just behind and it makes his job so much more difficult. Good service is all any striker needs, he just aint getting that from his team mates. The ball being played behind him is more the type of ball that Felliani prefers.

confidence, team spirit and something we tend to forget; if I've things on my mind, sometimes pretty minor things then I can be shite at my job, why should footballers be any different?

Believe it or not the great Bob Latchford was distinctly less than impressive if he had to take two touches!

It's just a matter of form, confidence and to an extent luck. All strikers go through barren spells; some longer than others. Jelavic scored some outrageous one-touch goals last season - goals that in some cases he had no right to score. Luck, form and confidence at a high. At the moment all 3 are low. He needs one of the three to improve to grab a few before the end of the season.

I have faith in him - I don't over-expect him to be a 20+ a season man - just 15 would be one of the best strikers we've had in years. He is still fairly new to the premiership, and who knows - he may have an underlying niggle or some other short-term issues in the background.

He's the kind of player who could score 1 off his arse at the weekend then put wigan to the sword with a hat-trick in the quarterfinal.

It is amazing how different a player he looks, I posted last night saying I felt we were really trying to give him an opportunity to score but it just isn't happening, I think it was game 14 without a goal last night. He looks so tense and uneasy on the ball and basically scared when in a shooting opportunity.

I for one think Moyes is right to keep working with him, drop him and his confidence may never come back, and for all the doubters, he has proven his quality over last season to be one of the best in the premier league

I noticed in the OP that you are not saying stuff like every time Jelavic runs on to a lovely through ball from midfield he fluffs the chance or when in space in the box and the ball is pulled back he never hits the target,The reason it doesnt say this in the OP is because it doesnt happen.When jelavic has missed chances this season they appear more glaring as they are so few and far between. Most strikers will convert around one chance from around 4 or 5 opportunities presented to them in a game.Jelavic is getting maybe on chance a game and is expected to bury everyone .

.It's a joke if Jelavic played for Spurs, Arsenal or the Shite he would have 20 plus goals by now this season no danger. Blame the Manager and his shite hoofball for Jelavic's dry spell. A gun with no bullets is no danger at all.

Fuck knows how he scored 17 league goals for a relegated side when we let him go.

Mind you, we did get £1.5m for him.

Like many, I'm of the opinion that the way Moyes is using him is not to his strengths. He is a poacher. If you look at all his goals from last season, they were all scored in and around the 18 yard box.

He shouldn't be "working back" or running channels, or trying to receive a 50-yard punt from Jags while under pressure from two centre halves, 40 yards from goal, yet those things are all I see him do now.

When we go a goal ahead, the team too often stops attacking at Jelavic is basically isolated too often. If we want him to score more, we need to ensure that he remains in the centre of the pitch in or around the 18 yard box, and we need to get 2 or 3 others to get in close and help him.

Our midfielders seem to always take an extra touch, whereas last season the football was very quick, 1 or 2 touch then play him in, now it's 4 or 5 touch then it's too late, Osman is one of the worst culprits, it does my nut in!!!

His control, pace and aerial ability look shoddy and without good finishing i'm not sure his good work rate and movement are enough to merit a starting place.

On the basis of the last 6 months Big Vic deserves to start ahead of Jela.

Essentially Jela's strength should be his lethal finishing. At the moment though that is one of his weaknesses.

We don't create enough chances for him to be prolific !

How difficult is that to understand, we are SHIT as an attacking force. Moyes does not know how to play an attacking game hence the striker has to come looking for the ball.

Therefore he fucks their natural game and instincts up.

The quicker he pisses off the better IMO, 11 years of this shite.

He was sent through against Oldham but miscontrolled and then handled (hard to watch). It's almost as if the only chances he converts are the one touch ones but the last 2 I can remember hit his standing leg when he missed the ball.

The best thing he did last night was work a yard in the area only for Jags to steam in and smash the ball 20 yards over.

I really want to see him hit the form he enjoyed last season and help us in the run in, but at times it's uncomfortable to watch.

Currently Big Vic is playing better so why not play Vic and Jeli up top (still got a big man there for the inevitable hoof from Jags et al and takes some pressure off him) Gibson and Felli centre mid and Mirallas and Pienaar out wide against Reading. Worth a go?

Jelavic works his socks off and without doubt like some other players is struggling to make the impact they made earlier in the season.

Yes, shift him to the bench and start a fit Anichebe who is very limited also and maybe Velios whom Moyes doesn't seem to rate. Everton don't have much in the way of offensive options but much like Torres at Chelski, Jela should be left in to play himself out of the ''dry spell''.

Maybe the game against Reading could be a turning point for Jela unless one of the other two is selected ahead of him.

As for how much of this is Moyes fault, well, when things were going well, we didn't worry too much that Jelavic wasn't scoring, now it's obvious we won't win anything unless it's sorted, he needs to get a grip on the situation. In Moyes defence he did buy Mirallas because he felt there was too much reliance on Jelavic, funnily enough though that is one of the things that has made things more difficult for him.

If I were Moyes, I'd be working hard at trying to sort out the service to Jelavic because I really don't think it's been as good as it was in the second half of last season.

Patrick — made me laugh! :)

Mirallas is the quicker player but is better suited to the right flank linking up with Coleman much like Pienaar links with Baines.

The better early season performances before the injuries hit featured Jela, Kevin and Fella linking up well and I am hoping this will bear fruit during the rest of the season if they stay injury free. Champions League position has gone and so finishing in a Europa League place ahead of RS and reaching Wembley seem like the the only targets now.

I would have Jelly playing a bit deeper behind the striker and that means a more conventional 4-4-2. Against Oldham, he was out wide on so many occasions I thought, "WTF is going on???"

And to blame Moyes for Jelavic's lack of form is stupid, again Tony Marsh, blaming Moyes for everything that goes wrong at the club.

Jelavic is under more pressure than any other player at the moment.
After last years performances and nonchalant finishes he's expected to replicate at least some of that again.

He works incredibly hard but I couldn't begin to imagine how difficult it would be in that position.
I agree he is isolated at times but he often runs into channels by himself, he needs to be in the box when the ball comes in. We all know the guy has a fantastic finishing touch and header of the ball, hopefully he'll get more opportunities in the upcoming games next month. I'm looking at the Reading and Wigan (FA cup) home games for example.

But we need to utilise his abilities, earlier on in the season from last years 2nd half we were playing through balls to Jelavic, now I hardly see that. Look at all the goals from the last two games, supplied by crosses (except a penalty.)

Iit's all Moyes fault for not being able to spot a good striker and always buying rubbish.

He has only scored 1 goal in last 11 league games.

Does no-one remember Suarez last year. He couldn't hit a barn door at one stage and only scored once in 15 league games.

Jelavic plays off the last defender and, if watched, is looking for the early ball, constantly pointing throughout the 90 mins.

Jelavic's dip is due to the team always taking that extra pass which is only ok when you are 2 up and want to keep possession.

For instance first game of the season went toe to toe with Vidic and was outstanding. But you cant keep that up all season. Physically I don't think he can maintain that level of work in the lone striker position all the time. He can do it, but I don't think he is big or strong enough to do it with out being rested. For me he was screaming "I need a breather" before the Southampton game finally forced the issue.

I stated on here early in the season Jelavic would dip because of the sheer physical demands of the lone striker role, but obviously I didnt think to this extent. He does look a bit confidence shot. I still rate him highly though. The way we play isn't helping. Fellaini is certainly an unconventional "10" and we havent played a through ball for about 4 seasons!!!

As the article Robbie references above points out, there isn't a great deal "between" Fellaini and Jela on the pitch. Very little combination play and they don't even communicate that much. There appears to be very little natural rapport in personality or understanding footbal wise.

We rely increasingly on the big man at the expense of the Jela and style. And its not even proving very successful. The main problem in all this is the mid. Its one paced and doesnt provide adequate protection or have the drive to take games to teams. So we are now by passing the mid in possesson.

The other problem is that if we don't play Felli in the "10" role and drop him back in who plays in that role? There isn't anyone really without compromising elsewhere. For example we could give Mirallas a run there but we lose his directness and penetration wide were he would probably be more effective.

The small squad is compromising us all over the pitch.

In the very infrequent occasion he does get something from our midfield, his tiredness from the increased work-rate probably has a fair bit to do with the fact that he's missing things.

Arteta once said that Moyes tended to overcomplicate things and over-coach the players. Where we get someone in who is a complete natural at something like goal-scoring, any normal person would leave him the bloody hell alone and let him do his stuff. But no, lets go asking him to do x y or z then blame the player when the goals dry up!

If we continue to hoof it to Fellaini and Baines continues to stand every cross up at the back post for Fellaini, then Jelavic will not score. If Fellaini persists in playing every ball he brings down on his 'world class' velcro chest backwards into midfield, rather than turning, then Jelavic will not score. If the midfielders do not play the ball forward when Jelavic is making a run, and constantly check back in and out before delivering a nothing ball in the air, then Jelavic will not score. It could not be any easier to see why he isn't scoring.

I seriously believe that only the chances in the Oldham game and the one against Southampton are ones you can criticise him for missing. For most games this season, we've perhaps given him one half chance per game, no striker is going to score regularly with this.

The finishes off the chances against Sunderland and Tottenham show his class to still be making those runs that late in the game, and to still have the composure despite feeding off scraps all game. It is a truly ridiculous way to treat a class striker and all because Moyes panders towards his 15 million pound star signing playing him in the only position that he can work in to the detriment of the rest of the team.

Sell Fellaini, buy a real number 10 with pace and creativity who knows how to play a throughball and, surprise surprise, the hoofball will stop and Jelavic will score again. Why can't people see that the slow target man behind the main striker formation (currently played by no other team to my knowledge in Europe) is the root of all our offensive issues?

It is Moyes and the fans delusional clinging to this one player that is adored by the media that is stopping us from becoming a top club. Keep him out of the team and we get our star striker back.

Judging by the game intelligence of some of our players (ie, there is none) I'm not surprised Moyes has to constantly bark instructions at them. Do you never find yourself doing exactly the same thing?

Some of them seem so ridiculously stupid during the game that they probably require constant haranguing. I mean what does it come to when Moyes has to say 'get it down and play'? There are some massive bottlers in the team who panic as soon as placed under any pressure. I'd shout at them all day long as well.

Yes, he looks shot but, fuck me, people are making it so much harder for the lad – and you can include Peter Beagrie with that too. I couldn't've thought of a better way to sum all that bollocks going on at times the other night with thousands screaming shooooot as Mirallas and Co piss ball around.

Arteta's comments are given credence by watching Moyes bark every pass and tackle out to the players. I don't expect managers where I work to bark out individual instructions to me while I'm working. I'm a professional at what I do and they give me rough guidance about what they want and I get on with the small detail. If they told me how to do every little thing, things would fuck up pretty damn quick. If they generally leave me alone to get on with things, then stuff gets done and done properly.

But I have to disagree with you, I don't see stupid players when I watch us, I see scared players. Players afraid to take a risk. Players thinking "What would moyes think?" before they do any little thing. They're not playing their natural game, they're trying to process the hundreds of instructions Moyes has probably given them.

Thinking he was a half season wonder.

Some of his misses are nothing short of diabolical. He missed two sitters at West Ham away that everyone seems to forget because we won.

But its just not his finishing. His whole game as gone to Shit, touch, hold up play, need I go on.

Shift him off to the reserves til he livens up. Nobody is above being replaced.

No-one would deny he had got better in his time with us, just like Baines has just like Jagielka has, just like Lescott did, just like Fellaini has. If a player does badly with us then somehow Moyes has ruined them but if they get better then people try and make out that they were good anyway and would of flourished anywhere, the usual hypocrisy.

Detention at Finch Farm after training to enjoy a slide-show presentation of his brass-rubbings and the Moyes holiday snaps?

I happen to agree that the players shouldn't be scared by whatever instructions DM is trying to give them, but I personally don't see how it can be particularly effective. I am a great believer that every team needs some 'talkers' as communication can be crucial during a game, but to me that can only work in short bursts of concise information between players in close proximity (such as 'man on', 'coming right' or 'watch the runner').

Players should know how the manager wants them to play before the game starts, and any changes to those established tactics could easily be issued relatively quietly to the closest player to be passed on to those it is intended for. If you FIRST have to attract someone's attention and THEN give them some information / instruction then it is unlikely to give us an advantage in a rapidly changing game situation.

Si, it's obvious that the players don't listen to his shouting, definitely not the fans, as I have screamed myself horse with my pearls of wisdom, "Fucken shoot the thing you useless fucker" or "get off your line you dozy twat" are the two most used ones....... but do they listen?

Can you also tell us why Daft Davey isn't to blame, I mean he IS the manager isn't he, so he must be responsible for allowing Jelly to wander all over the pitch.

Or are you trying to tell us that daft Davey has no control on TEAM TACTICS because Jelly has been Flank FOUNDERING for countless games recently doesn't Davey see that or is he happy with it I wonder.