Everton have only got themselves to blame, says David Moyes

Or is he taking any blame?

I don't think you can blame Moyes for Barry falling over himself with a clear chance to score, can you?

I get the disappointment but, if Barry bags the 2 chances and we win 3-0, are you coming on saying Moyes got it right???

Without any different tactics, these players could have won this easily in my view.

And I didn't like the tactics, but the points were there to be won, easily too, but the players switched off, dropped off, lacked concentration, intensity and just the desire to shut up shop and take an easy 3 points at home.

I posted earlier: under Moyes's first go, our top scorer scored an average of just over 10 goals per season. There has to be a connection to the manager's tactics.

Not suggesting Barry's misses were connected, they were just poor efforts.

She could have been your uncle before becoming your aunty.

So, if he now states it wasn't him, who actually decided to spend nigh-on £100M on Beto, Barry and Dibling?

And if it was him, why?

Why Barry and Dibling? Well if you've got a choice between getting in bodies or having no back-ups, then it's Hobson's Choice.

It's what the recruitment team came up with, so take it or leave it.

Do you think Slot would say Liverpool have no chance of getting Champions League? Well, in case you didn't see, he said yesterday not getting top 4 would be a disaster.

Meanwhile, Moyes before this game (during which we went ahead of Liverpool, temporarily) talked about avoiding relegation and said people “In a few weeks might say I'm mad but I'm thinking about Europe.”

What kind of loser mentality does that reflect?

Even the most cantankerous of ToffeeWebers have long since stopped worrying about relegation this season, yet he is our dynamic manager before a home game talking about “the R word,” and thinking it's lunacy to talk of Europe when we were literally in one of the European spots.

So yes, as per usual, our useless lumps across the back line did what useless lumps do and conceded soft goals. Yes, our other useless lump up front fluffed his lines again. But why would they feel motivated to better themselves with this miserable prick of a manager constantly lowering the bar?

So who's the scapegoat this time?

I thought his bringing up relegation after beating Fulham was old-school Moyes dumbing down expectations.

He learn't it from the Master during his last tenure.

Moyes should have been pressed on the defence breakdowns and the turning point when Bournemouth upped tempo and we had no response.

If he doesn't he has already sown the seed of it "was mad" to even contemplate us achieving European qualification.

He had the perfect teacher in the bullshit game.

Mine has been burnt from the moshiri years.

I think it's definitely one of the problems Moyes had first time round, finding that striker who could get 20 consistently or close to it.

Wouldn't necessarily say was his tactics, more the club not spending on top quality, back then and now !

How many strikers did he go through trying ??

Yakubu, Johnson, Beatie, jelavic, etc etc.

Even if you do go and find a 20 goal man, like lukaku, keeping them is the next problem !

Now look at the prices too, larsen from wolves £48m !!!

25m for Barry isn't alot.

It's the 1 area where we need to go big, get the player who takes the chances like Tuesday, turns draws into wins, losses into draws or wins.

If Palace, Forrest and others have that kind of money, surely this summer we have some clout to spend on real quality!

It’s not just about money though Moyes has had seemingly good strikers, some of them quite expensive who did well elsewhere. But Beattie, Johnson and Jelavic all got decidedly worse over time under Moyes. I can’t think of a striker at any club he has been at who improved in terms of goal scoring under Moyes’ tenure. It has a lot to do with lack of service and him running them into the ground in channels.

As Moyes defensive coach?

Moyes

Jelavic 11 in 16

8 in 43

Martinez

2 in 10

I would not have liked to be in the dressing room after that game.

Of course it's about money, yes some were big fees, but I'd argue that's because we were over paying from other PL teams for their best players.

Moyes tactics didn't let 2 men wander in off crosses to head in 2 similar goals.

Moyes tactics didn't let Ndiaye down tools and let his man walk by him and get the cross in.

I'm not even defending the tactics, but the players let this one go, it wasn't down to tactics, the game was there to be won easily if the players stayed switched on.

Anyone who has watched Bournemouth this season will have seen a team whose coach tries to effect the game when behind. They make subs, they go on the front foot, the change shape etc. It doesn't always work, but they do try different approaches.

Our lads looked as if they had no idea how to cope with the opposition trying something different. Whether that's on the players or the manager can be debated all day.

The truth is it is probably a mixture of the two. The players are undoubtedly limited and the manager has all the flexibility of an octogenarian.

Give Moyes his due he is overall getting points we have no right to with some very limited players in the squad and losing players to second injuries and sudd sad pensions for 6 or 7 games.

Get 2 decent fullbacks and a couple of goalscoring forwards and watch us rise despite Moyes pragmatism.

says alot ariola lauded and rightly so for his work at Bournemouth, Brighton always come up, why they get these players Everton don't?

We are above them both, just over a year after Moyes came back!!

We don't have a young foreign good looking manager, we don't have a decent CF, we haven't got a half decent RB, yet we still sit 8th, 9 places and a million points above where he took over !

People want miracles, from basically the same players, I can't get my head round People not seeing how far we have come in a short space of time, it's clear to see the evidence of the improvement is shown in league position, it's not opinion, conjecture or debate it's fact !

I bet Moyes was boring in nursery school, the infants and when he went into the senior school, when he became an apprentice at Celtic and anywhere went in football. If he can't see that Braiden Graham is better than the two current strikers, he's bleedin' blind as well as boring.

Give the lad a chance — another game tonight with a great goal and two assists to help take us through to the next round of the FA Youth Cup while you dither who is best of the two expensive strikers we have at present.

He might even spill his coffee when we score.

It's not coffee, it's Horlicks.

Link

Moyes doesn't try to get the players playing in a way they're not capable of.

Precisely. Moyes is a genius if we win and absolved of blame if we lose.

I'm not anti-Moyes per se... I am just a realist and see his limitations. He's a boring, defensive-minded coach more afraid of losing than desiring a win.

He could stay here for a century and we'd bounce between about 6th and 12th. Never in danger if relegation never in danger of winning anything. For some that's good enough.

Personally I'd like to roll the dice, take chances and live a little dangerously. For all the shit managers we've had, we didn't get relegated under any of them.

So, if we are gambling and worst place is 17th playing good football versus and upside of maybe winning anything at all, I'll take that gamble.

Instead of looking at striker stats post-Moyes, how about their stats pre-Moyes before he ruined their confidence?

Beattie, Johnson, Jelavic, and even Franny Jeffers during his unsuccessful stint at Arsenal.

Isn't the reason we didn't get relegated under shit managers 'cos they were sacked before they could take us down?

Players win or lose football matches. The tactics can be spot on all game, but it counts for jot if you can't score or keep the ball out the net.

Somebody said that when we play at home, it's noticeable that our full-backs and centre-forwards are massively inferior. 30% of our out-field players are under-gunning us. That felt a fair statement when the margins to win the Premier league are tight.

Yes, it works away from home. Where you can defend, and strikers gets a bit more space. But when the emphasis is on you at home, we are sadly lacking.

Do you consider his tactics "spot on" this season?

He will never rid himself of his safety-first strategy?

We got lucky against Leeds (the Calvert-Lewin miss which would have made it 2-0 before half-time) and Fulham (when we got lucky with a fantastic Pickford save, 2 shots against the woodwork, 1 unbelievable goal-line clearance by Mykolenko, etc).

Our luck couldn't last forever, and the Barry misses, while very disappointing, should not be laid entirely at his door. Even the best strikers miss sitters and I hope he is supported by Moyes and his team-mates to get over the despair he must be feeling.

No that’s not the reason because each one who got sacked was replaced by another who got sacked to avoid relegation supposedly and so on. Koeman, Silva, Lampard, Dyche.

People want a manager to come In, have us top 4 in less than 12 months or they are screaming for his head it's a joke! Or they want us to lose games 4-3 because we are more exciting to watch.

There are limits to the players we have, myko is not cucurella!

We don't have a bernardo silva, Cole palmer, our captain was a free from a relegated team, there's a long way to go in my opinion and we could easily be in the mix for relegation with a lampard or dyche in charge.

Barnstonworth, Barnstonworth, Barnstonworth!

Home, I think weve looked clunky. I put that down to the plsyers we have are still generally better without the ball, and that we lack class in areas of the pitch that hurt teams.

I said Moyes would pick that team pre game, as I genuinely believe he's made his mind up that Patterson isn't the future of Everton Football Club. And once that's happened it usually doesn't change.

I want more from the left back, there's a question over Gana vs Armstrong, whilst the left winger and striker are kids. And that's with everyone back and fit.

We are working progress. Thats my head. My heart obviously wants top 4, Europe and trophies.

"Be careful what you wish for."

Moyes is more comfortable with the opposition in possession, prefers teams coming on to his teams. Not so comfortable when his teams have to make the running.

My own take is he is either too stubborn to change the tactics he has used all his managerial career, or does not have the tactical skills required to get his team scoring at a better rate.

16 in 13 home games this season.

But we got the dead cat bounce, avoided relegation, and the manager was sacked the following season when we were back in the position he inherited; rinse and repeat.

The only one that hasn't followed the same script most TWers want sacked because we're only 8th in the Premier League.

We play with defensive players there as a choice of the manager -- not because of necessity.

During the summer, Moyes wanted two midfielders in Rohl and Dewsbury-Hall. He only went for a stop-gap full-back in Tete who no doubt if signed would have played second fiddle to O'Brien.

We brought in a left-back but this was obviously deemed to be a back-up, suggesting contentment with Mykolenko as he wanted other priorities which were identified for that window.

At home, never has he tried McNeil at left back. Patterson and Garner have only been used out of necessity despite our central midfield plethora. Aznou hasn't even come on when chasing a game.

The manager set up against Palace when playing a back three with four defensive players, two wide players who were tasked with covering their wing-backs as opposed to having licence to attack. He left the midfield bare as Ndiaye was playing like a second striker.

Then, if that wasn't bad enough, we come up against the same system against Leeds. Moyes set up both McNeil and Ndiaye to prevent Bogle and Justin. Ndiaye was 20 yards behind Armstrong who played like a second striker. Unbelievably, he used Ndiaye our dangerous player like this.

Mykolenko and Patterson were lost because they didn't have anyone playing up against them and they still have to keep the shape.

Would the majority of our fans seen the signing of Rohl as a necessity no matter how good he is likely to be? I doubt it. If anyone thinks we couldn't have found a right-back with £20m to £30M, then they are naive to the extreme. Every manager wants better quality but they have at times just to cope.

Brentford last season had their two left-backs injured. They could have used a centre-back there but opted to convert Lewis Potter who had a similar physique to Aznou. The lad had been an attacking winger for his entire career.

It's vitally important we stay in the Premier League, so everything sub-standard is accepted.

They only have to copy Kenwright.

Mr Stability

I’m not saying I’m completely right but that’s just the way I see it. I see it this way because I believe nearly every other club would have already been in the championship or even lower, if they’d had to put up with the unadulterated shite, we’d had to put up with for the previous few years of are existence.

I would just point out that while the new owners certainly brought instant stability to the club's finances, on the pitch we were only one point above the relegation zone, and they were actually going to keep Dyche on the job until he bailed... and reportedly recommended Moyes.

(I might be wrong, just a hunch, but I think most people in the spotlight develop an ego?)

Moyes quickly came in and moved us to mid table, to a similar position we would have also finished the season before if the team hadn't been given a points deduction, and with TFG taking over, things had already begun to look up.

I can't believe TFG haven't been to see us play in our new home, Mike... maybe they've heard the saying “Once Everton have touched you” and are way too shrewd business-wise to see if the saying might actually be true?

I have seen many of your posts gaslighting these owners especially with regards to their time at Roma which may have been a success from a financial perspective but has been an unmitigated disaster from a footballing perspective despite your attempts to big up this season for them. They may be finally getting a decent squad together but it's taken them an eternity and they are still behind the eight ball.

Their previous owners had them regular champions League qualifiers and title challengers with only finishing outside the first 3 on one of the proceeding 6 league campaigns accruing 3 second place finishes. They had 85,, 70, 80, 87, 77 and 66 points tallies. Even when TFG came in they were currently 4th in the table.

They have only oversaw 5th to 7th place finishes with points tallies all in the 60s except for when they arrived in half way through that first season.

I have decided to give them time and not prejudge them based on my knowledge of them and the appointment of Moyes was to me was a real lack of ambition in my opinion. Don't get me wrong the manager done an excellent job last season but his appointment was not the heralding of a bright new dawn but more of a nod to protect their investment.

I am in the minority in liking their attempt to build the club with talented young players and I feel many of the oversights in the squad are at the door of the manager who would have outlined his priorities. However if they entrust Moyes to do it next season I think that will show a real lack of imagination something which has blighted their time at Roma.

These calls for stability are fear mongering and expectation management at their very core and if you are right that all they want is stability then that is a very worrying prognosis.

Contrast this with Bill Foley who took over a tiny club in Bournemouth. They didn't inherit a squad of internationals just a bunch of journeymen who their manager Scott Parker had them dead and buried with the parting gift that weren't good enough to stay in the league. Then they appoint ONeill who miraculously keeps them up not once but twice despite their squad being inferior to Burnley now.

Most owners would have been delighted, not Foley, unbelievably he sacked ONeill and found the next bright manager and backed him accordingly. For a club of the size of Bournemouth to be where they are is an extraordinary achievement. No one told Foley about stability he dared to dream.

Check out the list of players they have sold recently:

Antoine Semenyo Manchester City £63.00M
Ilya Zabarnyi PSG £55.00M
Dean Huijsen Real Madrid £54.00M
Milos Kerkez Liverpool £41.00M
Dango Ouattara Brentford £37.80M
Jaidon Anthony Burnley £9.00M

If that wasn't bad enough they just sold their best player and goal machine yet they just carry on regardless and throw in another two kids with a young Hungarian signed for 10 million chucked straight into the team.

The fact they are level with us is astonishing