First things first, I am a Toffee/Evertonian/Blue. Before any accusations come in about me being x Y and Z. I thought it would be of great interest to everyone here to write an informative and genuine view on your new Messiah David Moyes. This is not a rant or gloat or anything like that, this is simply an honest reflection on our former manager that has moved onto bigger and better things.
Right, When Moyes took over at Everton we were falling apart under Walter Smith. An aging crap team that was treading water every season was the norm whilst you were winning titles and cups. The change Moyes brought to the club was refreshing and apart from the second full season (2003-2004 I think) we enjoyed prosperity. I think during this time Moyes had some of his most inspired signings such as Cahill, Arteta, Pienarr, Lescott, Jagielka, Baines to name a few. The quality of the team back then was fantastic and with a bit more investment (story of our club) we would have broken the glass ceiling well and truly. As the years passed the terrible way the club was ran started to take effect and Moyes was given the lack of investment he truly needed to advance us on, but in light of this still kept us going at the right end of the table. This is to Moyes’s credit to be fair as most managers would have walked (O’Neill anyone). By the end, quite the majority of fans were happy to let Moyes leave for many different reasons and I feel like the change-over to Martinez has been refreshing for us. For any sceptics or doom merchants amongst you, here are the reasons why I felt the change was needed.
1. Moyes was not a winner. The most frustrating thing about Moyes was the lack of bottle when we needed it by the end of his tenure. We had a league cup semi against 10 men Chelsea (2008) and we bottled it. We were 1 nil up against Chelsea in the F.A cup final 2009, and bottled it. The F.A Cup semi Final against the Kopites (2012) was embarrassing for us and it was not the fact we lost, it was David Moyes’s role that got to the fans. In I think 44 trips to Old Trafford, Analfield, Stamford Bridge and Arsenal’s grounds we won exactly NONE. We went there to play for a point rather than the win. I think Moyes only won 3 derbies in his whole time on Merseyside because of the way we approached the game. When it was all said and done, in 11 years, Moyes never sent us out to actually be winners and this is the biggest reason why we are glad to see him gone.
2. His refusal to play his squad. This was fantastic by Moyes over the 11 years in my opinion. As each year passed, it became clear he stuck with the same 11 every game no matter how they were playing. I think in 2011-12 we spent the first half of the season with Saha and Cahill as our strikers, after selling Arteta, Yakubu and Beckford that summer. Saha and Cahill between them must have scored like 2 goals, yet played every game. Moyes threw the same tactics at every team and it meant every season, every game the other team would have us sussed out before the whistle had gone. Everyone knew the ball would go to Baines and before him Arteta so every team shut those players down and it cost us. The likes of Yakubu were shipped out the club for, to this day unknown reasons despite him being our best striker since Tony Cottee in the 90’s. Youth players never got a look in under Moyes despite the general view of them doing the opposite. Rodwell when fit was played wherever he was needed, so central mid, left wing, behind the striker etc., Rooney was in and out of the team, Barkley was apparently not good enough a few months ago and that is about it. No-one else has genuinely broken through into our team under Moyes and as a result we have watched our younger players drift away from their potential. The best example of youth was Vellios in 2011-12; he was voted our young player of the season despite not kicking a ball after November. To this day we have no idea why he was dropped, as he played, scored a couple of goals including against Chelsea and then after starting against Fulham and not having the best game, we never saw him again. We have quite a few prospects coming through now so it is a massive relief not to have that man blocking their development and if you are wondering why Zaha, Janjuzi etc. are not getting enough game time, this is why. He was always fearful of taking those sorts of risks, and that is why they never progressed out the club.
3. Moyes tactics were terrible. He won quite a few games for us so credit where credit is due he is not terrible at this, but his decisions and choices were one of the reasons we never progressed beyond the best of the rest. I will give three examples of Moyes as a tactician at his best to illustrate this point. Sunderland 2010, away. We scored after 6 minutes of the game and proceeded to defend like it was the last 6 minutes which inevitably led to Sunderland scoring, Welbeck I think. We then started playing again, which unfortunately against the run of play Welbeck scored again. Moyes then didn’t make a change for 20 minutes before bringing Beckford and Yakubu on in the 83rd minute, by then we were out of the game almost. We pegged them back again but 15 minute earlier we could have won. Example 2 was Newcastle away, the same season I think. Ryan Taylor scores a wonder goal to put us one down, which Jagielka then equalises and we concede another by 40 minutes. Neville pulls up injured and we need to make a change, losing still Moyes brings him off and brings Distin on, moving Heitinga our centre half into midfield. End result, we create nothing in the second half and lose by that score line. Now the third example is the best and I will be fearful of this happening to you. We had Sunderland in the F.A cup a couple seasons back and in midweek a Derby game. The Kopites are terrible and there for the taking, but Moyes plays our second string team and sends them out without any direction. We lose 3-0 Gerrard hat trick and a lot of pride in the process. We go on to draw Sunderland after all that and go to a replay so the Derby surrender was for nothing in the end. We get to the semi-final and play the Kopites again, who were still no better than they were a month earlier. We go one nil up thanks to a Carragher mistake and lose the game two one due to a mistake by Distin and Rat boy’s typical derby goal. The reason I mention this however is that when we came out for the second half, we were defending deep in our own half. In the end we basically waited for them to beat us rather than outclassing them like we could have done.
Hopefully this is a good indication what awaits you with David Moyes in the coming years. There are a million and one things I could say but hopefully this is a good indication why our former manager alienated the fan base. If anyone was interested, Sunderland away was the moment I stopped supporting him, and Liverpool the following season is when I wanted him out. I am happy he walked because he did a great job under his circumstances with the board but ultimately the only thing that stopped us progressing was him.
