Yes and couple that with the fact he has never once brought on a substitute which had resulted in us winning a game!
Uh-oh ... facts. Great post BTW. Can we expect those who whined about this to say "fair enough ... I may have overreacted" or can we expect them to ignore your post entirely and then bring up this game yet again as "evidence" in a month or two as if this reply had never happened and nobody ever set them straight? There is a disease in the way people think about football that your team is definitely going to win: if the manager does something which results in them not winning it's a result of his lack of ability but if he does something which results in a win that's just him doing his job (well of course he brought on "so-and-so," well of course we beat Wolves we should beat Wolves, well of course we beat City but we didn't beat United). There is no "of course" (see also: spoons).
In poker they say the pain of losing is ten times bigger than the joy of winning and you are therefore far more likely to remember the bad beats than the times you won. I think football is very similar.
That's how you have the third best defensive record in the country playing one style but if it doesn't work one time then we "can't handle pressure."
If nobody was saying Everton couldn't compete then nobody was paying attention. We couldn't compete:
1992-93 13th
1993-94 17th
1994-95 15th
1995-96 6th
1996-97 15th
1997-98 17th
1998-99 14th
1999-00 13th
2000-01 16th
2001-02 15th
Unless you meant competing for relegation. If we were bringing guns to those gunfights then the guns weren't loaded.
There is so much luck in Cups. I'm as thrilled as anyone we won one during that period but that aside the 90's and early 00's were an absolutely dire time to be an Everton fan. Let's not forget this was a much easier division -- you didn't have as pronounced a gap between the haves and have nots and there weren't as many haves. Despite that we were horrendously bad and I can't take the way we playing in 1995 and delude myself into thinking that was the way we played all decade. It was fantastic no doubt but by 1997, staring relegation in the face it seemed like a distant memory.
People want to make snide 7th place trophy comments? How about Evertonians, NSNO and all that, celebrating wildly because we avoided relegation on goal difference? Yes it was, in a sick way, a very good day ... but we never should have been in that situation. Best of the rest? We were best of the worst. Champions of the bottom 1/4 of the table.
Some may say "I'd rather have those finishes and the Cup." But that's silly genie in a bottle nonsense. You don't get that clear cut of a choice. If we did that 10 years over again in the 00's we are one unlucky bounce and one injury or two away from no Cup and relegated. That was our level and I for one wouldn't have wanted to ride our luck (we're Everton FFS has anyone accused us of being an overly lucky club?) with the same level squad in the 00's. The idea that some have revised history to such an extent that they look back on that period as evidence that we were somehow a more spirited and competitive team is mind-boggling.
We might lose Baines and Fellaini this summer and the reason we might lose them is not David Moyes. This squad should do better? *This* squad wouldn't be here for a new manager so it's a moot point. I'm sure another summer of rampant transfer speculation about our best players (and possibly losing them and having to replace them) will help us get off to another flying start.
How's the board thread going these days anyway?
