Moyes may leave out Jelavic

Of course running the flanks and defending deep in our own penalty area are going to limit the number of chances he has to score. I have a feeling it's more down to tactics and Jelavic has suffered as a consequence. This is David Moyes... and the sooner he leaves for a new challenge, the better off we all will be.

However, one area I agree wholeheartedly with his detractors is his apparent favouritism of certain players to he detriment of others. At the moment, Jelavic does not justify his starting position; Anichebe does — and I am surprised by my support for Anichebe as, this time last year, I would have happily driven him to any club who wanted him...

Team today:

Howard
Neville Jagielka Duffy Oviedo
Mirallis Fellaini Hitzlsperger Pienaar
Anichebe, Jelavic

You can start by not insisting he closes both full backs down chasing from side to side. Then you can tell him you don't want him dropping into midfield when the opposition have the ball. He may then have the energy to get on the end of chances.

In response to above posters, I agree with Anton and add that last year Jelavic was an instinctive striker, almost like a loose cannon who fed of chances created by others. He was almost an adjunct to the rest of the team who flourished purely on instinct.

It is plainly obvious that he is now operating as a fully contributing team member with all the responsibility that role demands. Is Moyes capable of accepting the fact that what Jelli brings or at least brought to the table was a rare and natural goal scoring talent that cannot be described in coaching manuals?

That kind of lone wolf individual flair goes against everything in Moyes make up. It would take a Mourino or SAF to help Jelli recapture what has been sacrificed this year. I partly agree with Barry that Moyes cannot see beyond certain players who I will not name.

However, the contention that the decline of Jelavic is due to an additional work rate, required by Moyes, as a team player is a false one. Jelavic has worked hard and harangued defenders when they have the ball and worked back since the day he arrived at the club. Indeed this is how he played for Rangers and it is probably one of the reasons why he appealed to Moyes in the first place.

He is no Berbatov and never will be and we should applaud him for that. He will come good again, of that I am sure.

No, we won't. When David Moyes leaves, there will doubtless be a virtual party among certain sections of the fanbase. But it will be a disaster for the Club, in my view - unless we have been sold by that point.

But Moyes doesn't see it like that.

Kick em over THEIR line.

Not a one of us know what would happen if he goes, the same as no one knows if it will get better/worse if he stays. It's just all guesswork.

Why not play both? Mirallas on the right, Felli back in midfield and Neville at full back.

Totally agree with your view; I thought I had implied the same in my final sentence.

Completely agree. And dropping him would do his self-belief no good. Play him and the goals will come.

I would start Vic today, though I would not mind seeing Felli dropped back and Vic and jelly playing alongside each other.

Quite how people feel the need to express this idiotic opinion is beyond me. Suddenly we all know better than our own manager who analyses the players every day in training. Prior to last weekend he had no other option to play Jelavic because Mirallas and Victor were injured so who wold you have played? Now he has options he can now mix things up a bit and he's being criticised for being open about it.

However his tally is 7 in 24 , so if he can get a bit of confidence back and go on a bit of a run then that tally will look a bit healthier.

I don't think a breather today would do him any harm, but as an earlier poster said why not get someone up alongside him and see how it goes?

Howard
Hibbert Jags Distin Baines
Mirallas Gibson Osman Pienaar
Fellaini
Jelavic.

That's when I think we will see the best of Jelavic and the goals will come.

It has happened to lots of strikers in the past: Marcus Stewart and more recently Grant Holt stick out as players who in their first season scored for fun, but after that struggled to keep up the standards they set. I hope I'm wrong and he comes good but I really am beginning to worry that the lad is just average at this level and we are seeing that now every single game.

For me, ideally if we received a bid from a club that offered around £10M, or even around the £8M bracket, I would take it and put an offer in for the lad Long at West Brom who is very impressive, especially when playing the lone striker role that Moyes favours. He has performed well in the league now for a few seasons.