Why it's time for Everton to move on from Idrissa Gana Gueye

I can't for the life of me see why Röhl isn't in there now? Considering he had his best game for us at Villa, his reward is the bench!!

Moyes does like his favourites though!

It doesn't make sense for Moyes to move Armstrong out to the wing now, to accommodate Gueye, considering he was so impressive beside Garner and Dewsbury-Hall in his absence.

Sadly Moyes's stubbornness has cost us valuable points.

I'm never quite sure where he's supposed to be playing. He seems to have licence to roam but not the legs anymore to do so.

If he simply sat in front of the back four, did a pure holding job, he'd be more effective.

The modern game is a running game; I'm sure Röhl covered the most distance out of any Everton player that day.

The midfield trio used also seemed to have much better awareness and a total understanding of each other's roles that day.

Either way, if this is what we (Moyes) want from a player in that position, then Gueye isn't creative enough to be taking on this role. Rohl, Dewsbury-Hall or Armstrong would be far better taking on that role.

Moyes wouldn't trust Rohl or Armstrong here due to their inexperience. But Dewsbury-Hall did play here in a recent game and I thought we looked far more in control going forward.

If he did step into that role, then the question would be: Who would step into the Number 10 role? With Grealish injured, it makes it more difficult, but Rohl, Armstrong or Alcaraz (when fit) would do okay. Maybe even Ndiaye if Dibling decides he wants to put some effort in and get a game.

I've sadly come to the realization that Moyes is not the man to take us on to the next level. He was a breath of fresh air after Dyche, saved us last season, and has got us nearly to safety this season. However, he is way too loyal to old warhorses like Gueye, Tarkowski, Keane. But that's just part of his problem. He persists in playing players out of position.

Admittedly we have at best a squad of average quality with one or two standout players. Why, then does Moyes think the way to get the best out of average players is to play them out of position?

Branthwaite is not a left-back, nor is O'Brien a right-back, and Armstrong is in no way a left-winger. During the dark winter days with Afcon and injuries, I could understand it to some extent. But, with a full squad, surely the best performance will be achieved by playing everyone in their recognized position.

One definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. But Moyes persists.

You could see this mindset against Man Utd, where quite frankly, I thought we were becoming a laughing stock piling on top the keeper corner after corner when he caught it every time. A short corner, or pulling back to someone on the edge of the box might have caught them by surprise.

Final thought, the last time we actually won was when Moyes was banished to the stands and prevented from micro-managing every move in the game.

Moyes will stick to Gana with O'Brien at right-back and that is why I am drifting nearer and nearer to the "get rid this summer" camp.

Gana has been poor since Afcon and he was not exactly great before he left. It is time to part company -- great signing -- and that's always sad to say but necessary. That said, Moyes will engineer a one-year extension.

I agree with that but the original wasn't very special, either 00 I'm talking about Moyes here, not Gana... I just thought that your beginning line shouldn't be wasted!

But yes, sadly he is shot and our future central midfield needs to be Garner and Armstrong with Dewsbury-Hall up ahead. Might as well start that now.

And we might as well also start with our future centre-backs O'Brien and Branthwaite playing together. Mykolenko is plucky but a second string, so now is also the time to find out once and for all if Patterson and Aznou are up to snuff. It will help recruitment plans to know that and frankly we don't as it stands.

As for up front, I'd take the same tack and play Dibling and George, with Ndiaye taking central. He is our most natural finisher until we get a proper striker. Give this line-up time to get used to each other, it might be our future (or much of it might be).

Moyes won't do it because I think he is on some sort of points or finishing position incentive.

But pigs will fly before that happens.

Same for Tarkowski, the O'Brien & Branthwaite partnership needs to be given the chance to make some mistakes and develop.

So it is that he will shoehorn his favourites into a starting eleven for fear of the consequences should he be positive and forward-thinking and do otherwise.

Oh, and my numbers didn't come up tonight. Should I change them?

Next season, Rohl, Armstrong or Iroegbunam may be fighting it out for the same role alongside Garner. It is a squad game and I wouldn't be too hasty in dismissing Gana unless we bring in better.

We do need to find more goals across the entire team if we are to improve.

I have never done the same numbers and can't understand people who do. Imagine forgetting to buy your ticket one week and your numbers came up -- Suicide City, Arizona!

Rohl was great when he played a few games and had more attacking threat around the opposition box. And he's about 6'-3”…

Gueye has always offered very very little going forward and goal wise. Get Rohl next to Garner and Alzaraz up front, for fuck's sake.

If they both perform highly until the end of the season they may both make the squad. But now Moyes is playing them out of position and exposing them less than 6 months before the World Cup!! That's bloody owl ass!

He considers himself a defensive midfielder according to his interview on the club site -- "I think my more natural position is probably an eight, box-to-box" -- and I loved what I saw of him back there against Bournemouth and Forest. He triggered the attack from deep and scored himself, and we didn't give up a goal in those two wins.

We haven't seen much of Armstrong in that role but he got strong reviews at Preston. Based solely on the Villa game, Rohl can play there too, but I believe most of his experience is farther up the pitch and he could wind up there.

Mark #9, that could be, or perhaps he has not yet given up on getting us into the Conference League -- 7th might do it, and we're 3 points back. If and when that's no longer a possibility, I would expect to see more of the youngsters. But not until then.

His experience and running ability would be invaluable to protect a lead.

I think there is an option for another season for Gana but you think we should keep a player for "44 goals a season" Moyes to bring on, should we not only have scored but lead by the 75th minute?

If Armstrong, Rohl, Dewsbury-Hall and Iroegbunam can all play that role and given we may have Grealish, George, Dibling and Ndiaye to fit in somewhere, I'd suggest we have the 75th-minute option covered.

Ahead of those two, I would select Rohl or Armstrong as they can support the attack with runs into the box or drop into a midfield 3 when we need it away from home.

Ian put up a set of stats on Patric's recent thread (The one making exactly the same point as this one) which led him to believe that Gana still deserved to be bracketed with the elite midfield players. Yet this article (using different stats) makes him sound like the arse end of a pantomime horse. Which is it?

We none of us know Trevor Steven's stats for the Bayern Munich game because these accursed "stattos" hadn't yet started forming people's opinion by re-writing the facts after every game.

However, if we had analysed Tricky Trev's passing and tackling stats that night, it would have looked like he didn't put a foot right all night. The facts tell a different story.

'Stats' -- A tool used by footy fans who think somebody else's opinion has more credibility than their own.

I read people say, “He's worth a start," or "He's worth a start.” I think to myself that, even if a player is only getting 30 minutes, then at least he still feels a part of the team.

There aren't many worse feelings in football than sitting on a bench, watching a player in your position struggling and looking tired, and knowing the only way you are going to get on the pitch is if that player gets fucking injured.

You don't want him to get injured, he's your teammate, but you do want to play and feel part of it though. In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, it was called medication time; sitting on the Everton bench for a lot of players must surely feel like isolation time.

Scathing that -- that's me done with stats then, especially since I have discovered that Roberto Martinez's points per game at 1.56 is only 0.01 higher than Moyes at 1.55.

But nearly all of his passes are in the range of - what? - 5 yards or so.

I never believe any statistic I didn't make up myself.

There are Lies, Damned Lies - and Statistics.

We need to get away from a central midfield duo that can't pass forward nor create enough nor score.

Iroegbunam playing there with Gana was nuts. Tim may have lots of energy but he's terrible going forward and his passing is very wayward mostly.

He worked hard the other night but I'm not sure he was playing his own natural game, which might explain why his passing went astray quite often.

The player with the highest successful passing stats in the Premier League is a centre-back; the second highest plays the same position.

Shall we sign one of them to play as a centre-midfield playmaker?

Use your eyes to tell you what's happening in a game.

The problem that we have had for a long time is a lack of goal scorers all over the pitch, the last proper goal scorer was Lukaku. Since he left, we have had a succession of very average to poor strikers and have hit a new low with Barry and Beto -- even if you took the both bits of each, you still wouldn't have a decent striker.

We have a decent goal scoring midfield player in Dewsbury-Hall but neither Garner or Gana get into the opponent's box, never mind become regular goal scorers.

Ndiaye... lovely footballer but, for a front 3 player, doesnt help in the goal scoring department; he has 5 goals but 2 of those are penalties so 3 goals from open play. Grealish again 2 goals just not good enough. Also, considering the height of our back 4, their goal return is poor.

So I would suggest that, when we recruit in the summer, two priorities are buy players with pace as, apart from George, we don't have any, and buy a striker who knows where the goal is.

I would imagine the natural successor to Gana is James Garner; let him sit in front of the back 4 and also give him the captain's armband. He has just signed a long-term deal and has been our most consistent player all season.

Gana has had a reasonable season and needed resting since he came back from his country's cup competition. Tim Iroegbunam is definitely no better but time is on his side to prove he can improve and play for 90 minutes. Armstrong has been messed about by the manager... who messes around too much.

What was wrong with keeping the midfield that played Villa? All young players with energy and movement.

Yes, I agree the team that played very well to win that game at Villa should have started the next game. Moyes is the reason we didn't.

He took the credit for the win and has to accept the criticism since but he will always put the blame elsewhere, never puts his hands up and admits it is down to him.

Even against Man Utd on Monday night, they counter-attacked and scored from his poor cross. I don't know why he was so far forward, and why Moyes hadn't replaced him at that stage, considering how poor he and Iroegbunam had played.

The bigger picture, as we have already said: Why Moyes didn't play our strongest midfield of Garner, Dewsbury-Hall and Armstrong?

I think we need a solution, anyone playing the Gana role sacrifices a bit of their attacking license in this system.

Change the system to a genuine 2 CMs and 1 CAM.
Instead of 1 DM & 2 CMs.

Patterson
O'Brien
Branthwaite
Mykolenko

Dibling
Garner
Armstrong
Ndiaye

Dewsbury-Hall
Beto

I hope this would not cause Moyes any health problems.. ha, ha. Play these to the end of the season, see where it takes us, we have nothing to play for.

Also, get your bench sorted out early. Most games last 100 minutes now -- just use your subs. Simple really.

Garner is the closest because he is definitely a dogged tackler, but we also need him to be orchestrating attacks so it's quite difficult to not want to use both at the same time.

I see ‘defensive mid' as different to ‘box to box' and actually think it would be a waste of his tendency to make darting runs to put Dewsbury-Hall in the deepest role.

Iroegbunam has athleticism but forgets to move the ball on to players who are better in possession as soon as possible after he's won the ball.

I haven't seen enough of Rohl to fully grasp his best attributes.

Gana should definitely be spending a much greater percentage of his time on the bench, but I'm really not sure of the best midfield recipe we should be seeing much more of.

We have done, for the most part, brilliantly with these players this season. They have been stellar warriors... but time moves on and, for athletes, the time comes when the body just will not work ever again at the opposition's level.

The most important thing for Everton at this moment is that we always look forward. Surely Branthwaite and O'Brien should start to play from now on in their natural positions. Surely Rohl and Armstrong should be playing every game in their natural positions. If George and Alcaraz and Dibling are our futurem then surely they should be getting significant minutes.

I couldn't give a flying fuck where we end in the standings this season but I really hope that, rather than claw for a European place this season, we spend our time carefully exposing our younger players and all of our worldwide supporters to our future.