2025/26 David Moyes

Martinez’ first season was no better than Moyes’ last. The team the season before would have gotten Champions League with Lukaku up front. It was an excellent side from back to front, with the crucial missing ingredient of a top finisher.

To me it was like when Peter Taylor took over at Leicester from Martin O’Neill. The group still had that muscle memory as a team but it eroded the longer the new manager was in charge.

I'm a big Moyes advocate, but I think this is a bit far.

If you look at the regular starters in Martinez's first season, he effectively changed half the eleven from what Moyes left behind

Stones, McCarthy, Barry, Barkley, Lukaku - all nailed on 1st XI players under Martinez and they either weren't at the club under Moyes or weren't getting a game, and then you could arguably add Deulofeu to that list who played a lot in that 1st season
 

I'm a big Moyes advocate, but I think this is a bit far.

If you look at the regular starters in Martinez's first season, he effectively changed half the eleven from what Moyes left behind

Stones, McCarthy, Barry, Barkley, Lukaku - all nailed on 1st XI players under Martinez and they either weren't at the club under Moyes or weren't getting a game, and then you could arguably add Deulofeu to that list who played a lot in that 1st season
IIRC, Stones WAS Moyes' signing just before he left for ManU, and I think he was supposed to be a replacement for Tony Hibbert, because we already had Distin, Jagielks, Lescott and Heitinga at CB (Might be wrong)
 
My take is simply this...

We are where we are... After Moyes MkI, we tried a lot of different managers, I would say (everyone can say differently), none of those, were of the Moyes' mould, where did that lead us? 11 years of what exactly??? We HAVE tried differently, it just led us in a spiral, so let this manager try what has worked well in the past and is working well in the here and now....

Record against the big teams, sure it's a concern, Moyes setting up to defend sure it could be a concern for some. You dislike Moyes, becasue he doesn't allow you to dream big, sure you can-not-like-it. That does not make the manager a person to hate, that's stupid...
BTW, given free reign, somewhat, he DID win a European cup, what have we achieved, diddly squat. You can deride the Conference Cup as much as you want, it was WON by playing teams and reaching Semis of Europa is also not something to be dismissed willy-nilly.

He has proven, he has chops if allowed to do things his way, it was only when (rumoured of course), the owners started interfering that the results plummeted, even then WHU finished 9th in his last season with them. So He does do things right, just needs freedom to operate his way.

Let him do things his way, things don't work, sure replace him. It's a result oriented business after all. Don't judge because you don't and didn't like him at all. Look at the results and where we are....

In the whole of last year, how many weeks were we in top ten? 0/38. This year? 6/7 So must be doing somethings right.... Let that build first, before you declare your undying hate for the man....

I don't differ much on this. There are plenty of things I'd like my team to be in an ideal world, but in the here and now all I want is for us to get better. Build us some solid foundations and that means winning games, getting us up the league table and becoming a club where players want to come and play.

I don't care what the football is like, I don't care if he doesn't give kids as many minutes as some people think they should, I don't care if he relies on his favourites, I don't care if we approach some games negatively, I don't care which teams the points in any given season comes from, I just want us to get better. After a couple of years when that base is there, you can begin to think about styles and perceived negativity and everything else that people don't seem to like about Moyes. In the meantime, my stance is going to be that I just don't care as long as we are progressing up the table.
 
I think that some people can't fully comprehend is that some of the supposed teams Moyes has atrocious records with aren't even dominant anymore they're just a sky six team, Moyes record against Man United even recently is woeful , and it's not even about his lack of tactical prowess, it's the mentality he employs when he approaches certain matches like you alluded to. I personally think he's a solid manager but I do find it irksome that certain games he already has appeared to deem as an expected loss instead of making a go of instead of just capitulating beforehand.
this 100%

As this Saturdays game will prove, we will have a 75% go (if you know what i mean) Liverpool 40% they are not that good as proven by Palace.

we need to believe in ourselves more and play our game rather than worrying about the other team.

This is were Martinez was better than Moyes in his 1st season here, he played our way regardless of opposition, Arsenal away perfect example, I have never seen an Everton side play Arsenal off the park at their place like I did with Martinezs Everton side, they had to throw another ball on for Arsenal to get a touch 😉
 

I'm a big Moyes advocate, but I think this is a bit far.

If you look at the regular starters in Martinez's first season, he effectively changed half the eleven from what Moyes left behind

Stones, McCarthy, Barry, Barkley, Lukaku - all nailed on 1st XI players under Martinez and they either weren't at the club under Moyes or weren't getting a game, and then you could arguably add Deulofeu to that list who played a lot in that 1st season
Stones wasn't a nailed on starter that season, he only came into the side at centre half when Jagielka got injured in about March or April, he'd played 2 or 3 games at right back before that. I think the basic principle of what he was saying is right, the addition of Lukaku was the biggest reason we pushed that little bit further on in the first season after he'd gone, the extra firepower basically just meant we won a couple of games we'd have drawn in other seasons.
 
this 100%

As this Saturdays game will prove, we will have a 75% go (if you know what i mean) Liverpool 40% they are not that good as proven by Palace.

we need to believe in ourselves more and play our game rather than worrying about the other team.

This is were Martinez was better than Moyes in his 1st season here, he played our way regardless of opposition, Arsenal away perfect example, I have never seen an Everton side play Arsenal off the park at their place like I did with Martinezs Everton side, they had to throw another ball on for Arsenal to get a touch 😉
That didn't keep working though, and by the end we looked clueless under Martinez. I always thought that season we benefited from the blend of Moyes' discipline, fitness and solidity blended by a more expansive element from Martinez. The longer Martinez was left in charge, fitness, discipline and shape seemed to have gone out of the window (not practising set pieces etc) and we were a shambles.

This team will continue to get better over time if Moyes is left in charge, and give the time he will leave the club in a much better shape. I would rather that than role the dice on someone who will supposedly get us playing like Real Madrid with the squad we have today - even Carlo couldn't manage that.
 

I'm not sure you understand stats/probabilities.
If you've just missed 25 attempts why not try a different approach..

( that would get you relegated on football )

And no, I refuse to be a Statman, I love football not the cringe that fans have to follow it with, so they have something to add to a conversation..
 
Stones wasn't a nailed on starter that season, he only came into the side at centre half when Jagielka got injured in about March or April, he'd played 2 or 3 games at right back before that. I think the basic principle of what he was saying is right, the addition of Lukaku was the biggest reason we pushed that little bit further on in the first season after he'd gone, the extra firepower basically just meant we won a couple of games we'd have drawn in other seasons.
And Martinez had arguably a better squad than Moyes ever had. Most summers Moyes couldn't buy anyone but Martinez managed to get Lukaku, Barry, McCarthy and Delofeu in. If you gave Moyes that squad I think we probably would have got top 4.
 
Stones wasn't a nailed on starter that season, he only came into the side at centre half when Jagielka got injured in about March or April, he'd played 2 or 3 games at right back before that. I think the basic principle of what he was saying is right, the addition of Lukaku was the biggest reason we pushed that little bit further on in the first season after he'd gone, the extra firepower basically just meant we won a couple of games we'd have drawn in other seasons.
Think it was January - he played over 20 league games that season

I accept the Lukaku bit, but think the midfield gets overlooked - Martinez overhauled the entire midfield unit.

We went from Fellaini, Gibson and Neville/Osman to Barry, McCarthy and Barkley and I tend to think that had as much to do with it
 

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