Haven’t posted on here for a while, but thought I would come on to give my thoughts on events over the last few weeks…
Quite simply, Moyes has fucked up big time. European football was there for the taking. Before yesterday, four games stood out for me which have cost us: West Ham, Crystal Palace, Man City and Sunderland.
West Ham were a team fighting relegation, were basically shite, and yet we sat back and invited them on. They were there for the taking, but no, Moyes probably thought he would give them an early hand in their relegation fight.
We can moan all day about the penalty decision, but we still had to score it, and I think had it been given, and scored, the goal we did score wouldn’t have happened because the whole pattern of play changes.
Crystal Palace away, a place where we have a decent record, against a team in-between two European semi-final games, a team who would surely have their minds on nothing but a probable European final…
Yet incredibly we again sat back and invited them on, hoping we could snatch a winner on the break. For the last 30 minutes of that game, we couldn’t get out of our own half, and only one team looked like winning it, and it certainly wasn’t us. You’d have thought we were the team with minds elsewhere, other than in Selhurst Park.
The Man City game, I actually thought Moyes managed that game quite well. Had he attacked from the off, we would have been down and out by half-time. We did superbly to get a 3-1 lead after trailing at half-time, but the killer was their second goal, about 10 seconds after we scored our third.
Keep that out and we win the game, but you simply cannot allow a pass like that from Kovacic to split your two centre-backs and give Haaland a free run on goal.
Again, we can argue all day about the penalty decision, but it still had to be scored. So overall, not much criticism aimed at Moyes on this game.
Last week against Sunderland was just a shit show. There wasn’t much in it in the first half. We were leading 1-0 at half-time, which at that stage put us 4 points above Sunderland, and hopefully in a European place…
But no, a mistake by a centre-back playing right-back lets them in for an equaliser, a goal scored by a player who strolled through probably the slowest centre-back pairing in the league.
Jake O’Brien should not be playing right-back. We have two right-backs on the books who, whether you agree or not, one of them should be playing, which allows O’Brien to play in his natural position.
Nathan Patterson would have been my choice. He had decent games at Aston Villa and Nottm Forest earlier in the season, so why suddenly discard him?
I’ll tell you why: because Moyes wants to shoehorn his favourites into the team, and if that means moving players from their natural positions, such as O’Brien, or taking them out the team altogether, then so be it.
Anyway, we then find ourselves 2-1 down going into the final few minutes. An equaliser would put us back above Sunderland and Europe within touching distance, so let’s go for it, and put an attacking player on.
But oh no, not Moyes… his sentimental mind appears and throws Seamus Coleman on. Point(s) and European place gone — and all because our captain is retiring!
All this tells me that Moyes simply cannot manage a game out. How many times did we concede goals late on, or in added time?
His substitutions are a joke. He might as well write them down on a piece of paper and hand it to the opposition manager. “Here you go, these are who I will be putting on and at what times.” It’s always like-for-like, the opposition manager doesn’t need to think about anything.
Why have the likes of Tyrique George, Tyler Dibling, Merlin Rohl and Harrison Armstrong not been given more playing time, regularly?
Some may say it’s because they have little or no Premier League experience. Doesn’t cut the mustard with me, that one.
In case Moyes doesn’t know, a team whose entire playing squad, bar one that I can think of, who have spent a good few years out of the Premier League, has just finished above us, qualifying for Europe!
I feel sorry for West Ham and their fans. Despite his promise of doing his former club a favour, Moyes threw the towel in yesterday. Spurs were there for the taking.
They were shitting themselves, one goal for us and they would have been building a brick wall in front of their goal. What did we have to lose?
Try two up front, try attacking teams, tell your players to attack, not pass the ball backwards or sideways, tell them, god forbid, to try a shot and try and score!
Then we have our CEO with his: Are we “Happily dissatisfied” quote. Are we fuck, we are very much dissatisfied.
I’ve looked at the final league table and I’m horrified to see Leeds Utd, a team fighting relegation for most of the season, only 2 points behind us. In fact, West Ham, who eventually went down, were only 10 points behind us.
We finished one point better off than last season, and in exactly the same position, whilst making our usual early exits from both cups. How can you call that “Happily dissatisfied?” How can you call that progress?
Moyes has hit his glass ceiling very early in his second stint as manager, and he should do the honourable thing and Fuck Off. If TFG are happy with him, then fine, expect more of the same shit next season. If they are not happy, then sack him.
God knows how many managers, when combined, Spurs, Forest and West Ham have been through this season, but they’ve made the changes because the ones they had weren’t good enough, and Moyes is not good enough for us. Simple as!!