2025/26 Charly Alcaraz

[DualityNSNO]

Julian Alvarez isn't too, and? Even Charly is better header

I agree, Moyes I'm fairly sure doesn't.

 

[Zatara]

He just wanted the glory for himself. Top class players do what's needed to ensure the team wins. He wanted to be the hero.

Any player treated this way would be focused on "glory".

He has nothing to lose and nothing to gain.

Score a worldie = dropped
Fabulous assist = dropped
Mistake = dropped

He cant be happy.

I understand this, we’re in a low or mid block more than is healthy.

Beyond that this is still a massive coaching issue. The best attackers at attacking need to be the ones playing, even moreso if the shape you’re taking out of possession is essentially a 4-4-2. One of that 2 can’t be complete trash in the final third because he’s good out of possession. It’s on the manager to be able to coach the team enough to get whoever is good up there to do what he needs for the position or be adaptable enough to figure out how to construct something that the player can handle. Simply playing a deficient player because he “holds shape better” to the clear detriment of everything else you’re trying to do is garbage and Moyes needs to go if that’s truly what’s going on right now.

Keane cant play in anything other than a low block & with Tarkowski there, theres also no pace.

In the spine:

Pickford - Branthwaite/Tarkowski - Gana/Garner - KDH - Beto

Words fail me looking at that. Its a spine to defend your own half and then tap the ball around.

We need a CB with pace who can pass.
We need a top class CM in + Gana out
We need KDH out
We need a top CF

There has to be a few sales in January for a warchest.

If you watched Everton in Moyes first incarnation none of this should be a surprise. It’s why I didn’t particularly want him back.

It’s not just at number 10. Look at the fullbacks, it’s why we’ve got a 6ft 5” centre back playing right back and an extremely limited attacking player playing at left back. He wants the team to be solid in shape out of possession.

In his most successful Everton team he had Tim Cahill who was limited technically but worked so hard out of possession and made a 3 man midfield, he did however have a happy knack of scoring goals, a bit like Doucoure.

He’s ultimately very cautious and has never really been able to shake that instinct. I tend to find when he does get the attack working in his teams he tends to stumble upon it when forced by circumstance.

Is what it is while he’s here.

Agreed. Like with Cahill.

He has to use different players now in the front 4 and move them around until something clicks.

But he isnt even doing this, McNeil ???

I’ve said a few times over the years, I know somebody who played under moyes and he has always said that the one thing he demands of you is that you follow instructions. He’s not bothered about your talent level or your reputation, what he wants is to know that you will go out onto the pitch and do what he has asked you to do. If you do then he’ll stand by you, if you don’t he’s not interested. I don’t think it’s a massive leap to think that Alcaraz doesn’t do what he’s being asked to do and so isn’t seen as a viable starter.

Thats fair. But he "stands by" ineffective players that he has signed.

That isnt fair on the player, the team or the fans.

Its not too difficult IMO.

KDH and Alcaraz are fighting for one spot.

KDH has been poor. Alcaraz steps in.

Simple.

Unless we use a 6 KDH should be sold.

As i posted above, its not fair on him, the team or the fans.

Get £28mil back somehow, sell McNeil, Beto and one or two others then spend the lot on one top quality central midfielder and a centre forward.

 

[davids]

OMG its like being stuck on a roundabout with you..

I cant answer what is going on since, I can only say how it would have played out before the contract signing.

I think its a mix of having to many good players in the midfield, Moyes hasn't had enough time to work out which players compliment each other and his approach best..

He is also pretty stubborn ( and I like Moyes ) so for me to say that, shows it's probably one of his down points.

Having too many good options for one area is harder than having less, when you dont have time to find the best mix.

He needs time, but Football doesn't give you time, and fans certainly don't..


Put Branthwaite a New RB and a Striker that can put the ball in the net,
And we'd be talking a different story.

Will it take until are arse is hovering over the drop?

 

[Marius57]

OMG its like being stuck on a roundabout with you..

I cant answer what is going on since, I can only say how it would have played out before the contract signing.

I think its a mix of having to many good players in the midfield, Moyes hasn't had enough time to work out which players compliment each other and his approach best..

He is also pretty stubborn ( and I like Moyes ) so for me to say that, shows it's probably one of his down points.

Having too many good options for one area is harder than having less, when you dont have time to find the best mix.

He needs time, but Football doesn't give you time, and fans certainly don't..


Put Branthwaite a New RB and a Striker that can put the ball in the net,
And we'd be talking a different story.

Which are the good players we have in midfield?

 

[kenada_blue]

Any player treated this way would be focused on "glory".

He has nothing to lose and nothing to gain.

Score a worldie = dropped
Fabulous assist = dropped
Mistake = dropped

He cant be happy.



Keane cant play in anything other than a low block & with Tarkowski there, theres also no pace.

In the spine:

Pickford - Branthwaite/Tarkowski - Gana/Garner - KDH - Beto

Words fail me looking at that. Its a spine to defend your own half and then tap the ball around.

We need a CB with pace who can pass.
We need a top class CM in + Gana out
We need KDH out
We need a top CF

There has to be a few sales in January for a warchest.



Agreed. Like with Cahill.

He has to use different players now in the front 4 and move them around until something clicks.

But he isnt even doing this, McNeil ???



Thats fair. But he "stands by" ineffective players that he has signed.

That isnt fair on the player, the team or the fans.



Unless we use a 6 KDH should be sold.

As i posted above, its not fair on him, the team or the fans.

Get £28mil back somehow, sell McNeil, Beto and one or two others then spend the lot on one top quality central midfielder and a centre forward.

Dont think he should be sold. Hes a good player. But hes not performing in the role given, so should be swapped out.

He does it with Barry and Beto so dont see how it shouldn't apply to other positions. Hence why its called competition.

 

[Kevsleftpeg]

If you watched Everton in Moyes first incarnation none of this should be a surprise. It’s why I didn’t particularly want him back.

It’s not just at number 10. Look at the fullbacks, it’s why we’ve got a 6ft 5” centre back playing right back and an extremely limited attacking player playing at left back. He wants the team to be solid in shape out of possession.

In his most successful Everton team he had Tim Cahill who was limited technically but worked so hard out of possession and made a 3 man midfield, he did however have a happy knack of scoring goals, a bit like Doucoure.

He’s ultimately very cautious and has never really been able to shake that instinct. I tend to find when he does get the attack working in his teams he tends to stumble upon it when forced by circumstance.

Is what it is while he’s here.

And yet he did play a team with Baines, Coleman, Pienaar, Arteta and Osman all together.

 

[Swartzy]

Which are the good players we have in midfield?

Save that post until we see we have seen either some kind of change in structure ( which he doesn't seem to want to try ) or finding the right blend in the middle.

It could be a long wait tho mate..

Alfcon - will force his hand.

 

[Marius57]

Save that post until we see we have seen either some kind of change in structure ( which he doesn't seem to want to try ) or finding the right blend in the middle.

It could be a long wait tho mate..

Alfcon - will force his hand.

I don’t massively rate our midfield options to be honest.

Gana is generally good at pressing and making tackles, but age is catching him and he is neither a defensive midfielder or a very good attacker.

Garner is pretty much at his level in my view. Midtable, likely lower mid table. Good at tackling but doesn’t create near enough considering he is rated for his passing.

Tim is far from the finished article and is a bit of a liability with his passing but I do like him and the energy he brings.

Rohl looks our best and most composed midfielder but that’s off a very limited sample size.

KDH should be played further back in my view and should be a cm. I think he is fairly tidy but doesn’t offer enough as a 10.

I love Alcaraz and he is very much a number 10. But as a midfield option, I’m not convinced he is disciplined enough in his game.

None of those options scream out as top half midfielders. They can do a job but apart from maybe Rohl, I can’t see any of them being pivotal in progressing us to another level.

 

[Gilbert..]

Im confident if we played this lad central for a month we'd get far more out of him than not.
The expectation on him to do something with the scraps given to him by Moyes is ridiculous.

 

[Swartzy]

I don’t massively rate our midfield options to be honest.

Gana is generally good at pressing and making tackles, but age is catching him and he is neither a defensive midfielder or a very good attacker.

Garner is pretty much at his level in my view. Midtable, likely lower mid table. Good at tackling but doesn’t create near enough considering he is rated for his passing.

Tim is far from the finished article and is a bit of a liability with his passing but I do like him and the energy he brings.

Rohl looks our best and most composed midfielder but that’s off a very limited sample size.

KDH should be played further back in my view and should be a cm. I think he is fairly tidy but doesn’t offer enough as a 10.

I love Alcaraz and he is very much a number 10. But as a midfield option, I’m not convinced he is disciplined enough in his game.

None of those options scream out as top half midfielders. They can do a job but apart from maybe Rohl, I can’t see any of them being pivotal in progressing us to another level.

Alot of your points i agree with, but we can only look at what we have at our disposal, we cant look at what we would love to have.

Not having European footy forced our hand in the market.

A Manager is paid to do the best with what he has, so he should atleast try and find the right balance.

If all is good behind the scenes than you don't bring on a player with the attitude of McNeil.

Alcaraz messed up a bad opportunity, bring him on 20mins earlier and the right decision would have increased massively.

Let's just see how things go.

 

[BigDuncTributeBand]

We need to start readying for when he’s not here. Sadly he’s burning up younger, talented players, Alcaraz among them in the meantime. It’s funny because Alcaraz was a bit Cahill-ish in the games he did start last season.

I’m know what you mean about Cahill. When he scored that header against Newcastle last season, I hoped that would be the moment Moyes would see the value in starting him but no. Every time Doucoure was available he pretty much started centrally and this season KDH.

He’s not going to change annoying though it is. First and foremost he wants his team to be hard to beat and puts emphasis on what a player does in defensive shape, even attacking players.

Like someone else has said, it doesn’t matter what Alcaraz can do in an attacking sense, if he’s not doing what Moyes wants him to do defensively or Moyes doesn’t trust him to do it, he won’t play him. Remember all the Man Utd players talk g about the shift from Fergie to Moyes - Fergie focussed on how to beat teams and Moyes came in and all week was focussed on how to stop the opposition.

That’s what we’ve got, a guy who’ll build solid unspectacular teams. A steady Eddie. Doesn’t have the imagination to break the glass ceiling but can build teams that are hard to beat. In the meantime wasting some talented players.

 

[BigDuncTributeBand]

I mean, we had Baines and Pienaar, who must have performed more overlaps than any other pairing in the league. Coleman wasnt to shabby at getting up and down either. Neither of these were "stumbled upon" but were rather players that were sighed for the express reason as to play the football Moyes wanted us to play.

He brought in lunatics like Drenthe and Van De Meyde with the sole reason to add flair and guile. Those transfers can never be uttered in the same breath as cautiousness.

Maybe the limitations of our attacking prowess from full back is driven by the limitations of the players we have for those positions.

He stumbled on Baines and Coleman against his better/stubborn judgement.

Alan Irvine did an interview recently where he said he argued for months with Moyes trying to convince him to sign Baines but Moyes didn’t want to. He wanted to keep playing Lescott at left back because he was tall and good in the air. Even when he signed Baines he barely played him for 6 months. Continued playing Lescott and only moved him to centre back and gave Baines a chance when one of the starting centre backs got a bad injury. If that hadn’t happened, who knows what would have happened to Baines.

As for Coleman, he point blank refused to use him, even after a staring role on loan at Blackpool. Played him right mid and picked a well past it Phil Neville (and when he wasn’t available) practically anyone over Coleman- Jagielka, Heitnga all played right back instead of him. When Coleman did get a game at right back, he could assist or play well but if he made one defensive mistake, he didn’t get another chance for weeks.

These guys turned out to be Everton greats but not because of some grand plan of Moyes. Forced in to playing them by circumstance and then they ran with it.

 

[BigDuncTributeBand]

And yet he did play a team with Baines, Coleman, Pienaar, Arteta and Osman all together.

Baines and Coleman he didn’t fancy at first and only broke in when he had little other choice. The thing about the other three you’ve highlighted, all worked incredibly hard and did the jobs he wanted them to do out of possession. It’s not that he won’t play skilful players but they have to do their defensive job for the team otherwise they won’t get a sniff.

 

[Yankfootball1]

Im confident if we played this lad central for a month we'd get far more out of him than not.
The expectation on him to do something with the scraps given to him by Moyes is ridiculous.

If you're brought in for 5 or 10 minutes at the end for a team that has basically lost it's shape for nearly 50 minutes you are going to press to make something happen. Charlie did not play well when he came on but I have seen many more positives when he is given more than scraps and played in his natural position.....

 

[TheBigIguana]

I’m know what you mean about Cahill. When he scored that header against Newcastle last season, I hoped that would be the moment Moyes would see the value in starting him but no. Every time Doucoure was available he pretty much started centrally and this season KDH.

He’s not going to change annoying though it is. First and foremost he wants his team to be hard to beat and puts emphasis on what a player does in defensive shape, even attacking players.

Like someone else has said, it doesn’t matter what Alcaraz can do in an attacking sense, if he’s not doing what Moyes wants him to do defensively or Moyes doesn’t trust him to do it, he won’t play him. Remember all the Man Utd players talk g about the shift from Fergie to Moyes - Fergie focussed on how to beat teams and Moyes came in and all week was focussed on how to stop the opposition.

That’s what we’ve got, a guy who’ll build solid unspectacular teams. A steady Eddie. Doesn’t have the imagination to break the glass ceiling but can build teams that are hard to beat. In the meantime wasting some talented players.

Then move on before we have to sell players. Alcaraz is gone already but the next talented player we come across it’d be nice to use and get more from.