Hold Your Horses People...

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Tubey said:
Look, I criticise Moyes as much as anyone, and he deserves a lot of it.

But you can't blame him for tonight. He was completely undermined by three injuries, played a fairly positive line-up considering what he usually plays.

At the end of the day, there were three players on the pitch at the end that wouldn't have been under normal circumstances. Donovan would have played 60 minutes, Stracqualursi not much more and Saha would probably have been withdrawn at some point too.

Mindless calling Moyes for all sorts when it's clear he wasn't to blame for what happened tonight is just stupid. It undermines the times you can have valid criticism of him.

You can't have your cake and eat it. He played 4-4-2, he started Donovan. That's what most fans wanted, and yes, the centre of midfield was still not ideal, but other than that, let's be realistic.

So, in short, stop having a melt and think about what happened.
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A sensible and considered post.

To be fair to Moyes I didn't ( apart from Neville ) have a problem with his starting XI. Denis looked decent when he came on last time out and probably deserved a start, and, for all his faults, Saha, if he could be arsed, still has quality about him. The main criticism would be who he had on the bench. Rodwell was subbed in the last match and plainly wasn't fit. Personally I'd have had Barkley on the bench. Would it have made any difference ? Probably not.

We also had McFadden and Vic on the bench, but no Vellios. Although Moyes sees them in training and we don't, this still seems strange.Again, unless Barkley had come on for either Jags or Osman, this wouldn't have made any difference cos we'd still have used our subs to replace injured defender / midfielders, but you do wonder about the thinking behind all this. We have an aging team which could do with young, fresh, fit legs on the bench to freshen things up but we have Rodwell and McFadden on the bench when one was obviously not fit and the other hasn't proved his fitness.

*sigh
 
MoutsGoat said:
Fair play Tubey.

I said to my mate on the way Home, bar not playing Barkley, there wasnt much else Moyes could have done tonight.

Saha is a horrible specimen and the sooner he leaves the better.
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Saha: Yeh, minus the smile you basically have him as an avatar.

Sock for Saha shocker?
 
ijjysmith said:
Can someone, anyone tell me why Howard didnt catch that cross at the second goal?

And can anyone tell me why Saha was back to deflect the ball to Ngog.

Probably more individual mistakes.

Is it me or do we have terrible players?!
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Mate, the ball was doing crazy things tonight. I don't blame Howard for punching. He got decent distance on it, but we failed to clear it properly from the punch. If he'd tried to catch it and spilled it he'd have been crucified. Howard made some decent saves tonight.

Nothing happened in the first half that was worth mentioning but Bolton were the better team in the second half, played better football and it would have been a travesty if they'd lost to that freaky goal. Overall, maybe we deserved a draw, but we can't really complain about the result.Bolton edged it.

Hibbo was terrified of Petrov btw.
 
It all stems from zero investment and Moyes wasting the only money he's ever had for transfers. Look at the team we played tonight, none of our midfielders or attackers are worth anything at all, two of them aren't even our players.
 

Meh.

Its when you do get **** on with injuries like tonight and lack of top quality players that you need to try and win the game through tactics and creativity and inventiveness when trying to score goals.

Its been obvious for years that Moyes sucks at that sort of thing.

What exactly was our game plan at any stage of the game tonight when it came to actually scoring goals?
 
The wind doesn't stop you getting the ball on the ground and passing it.

So what do we do? Get it and thump it as high as possible to big Denis.
 

Gueye should have started on the left, Osman in the centre with either Cahill or Heitinga, Donovan wide right, and Bily behind either Saha or Stracqualursi. We've not been scoring goals so it has to be addressed somehow. Knocking balls over the top for a clogger like Stracqualursi to run onto is not the solution. Heitinga & Neville centre mid with Osman on the left certainly isn't either.
 
Azzurri said:
The wind doesn't stop you getting the ball on the ground and passing it.

So what do we do? Get it and thump it as high as possible to big Denis.
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Very much this, Bolton played in the same conditions as us with worse players and outplayed us.
 
He keeps neglecting the centre of midfield which is the hub of the team. We have always enjoyed our best periods playing with a footballer in there, whether that's Gravesen, Fernandes for a spell, Arteta or Osman, even when Pienaar was occasionly played there, the team functions better. Heitinga and Neville at home to Bolton is ridiculous, I could accept one of them alongside someone like Osman, that would be fine, but together? It's no surprise the team played the way it did.

Until he sorts that area of the pitch out we are going to have similar problems. Throwing forward type players (Straq, Donovan) in various attacking positions isn't going to solve anything.
 

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