2025/26 David Moyes

[Bishop Thumpety-Thump]

But that's literally 99% of what you do on this forum too.

Yep I like to think I’m growing more mature though. Only taken 50 odd years.

 

[jceverton]

But there has been progress hasn't there?

And isn't what he said this:

Progress on Dyche, maybe. Progress on last season, highly debatable. The rest is Moyes doing what he does best, managing expectations.

 

[MikeH72]

Results over the next few weeks are likely to show that we are missing our 4 best football players imo.

 

[windymiller]

So what you are really saying is, his career is tragic unless he wins the Premier League, FA Cup or League Cup? Means almost manager in the game should just quit as there is no point to management.

He literally managed the reigning champions of England. He's had more opportunities than almost any manager in the game.

 

[GrandOldTeam]

And he has progressed on that hasn't he?

In 12 months we are up 5 league places and 8 points better off.

Show me this Moyes quote about Europe you're referring to because everything I find it couched with asking for patience.

He's talked up Europe a lot. Like so

If Moyes doesn't take this squad to a better league finish than Dyche, a manager you quite justifiably vilified on this forum, then you have to say the season will have been a failure. A period of a few weeks without our key players is not unprecedented at this club, in fact it's rather standard. The team we put out against Arsenal wasn't a step down from what was available to Dyche. It was a weak team but Dyche, who I didn't want and was thrilled to get rid of, also had weak teams. Moyes simply has to outperform Dyche in both points total and league position by season's end or he has to be considered a massive disappointment.

Exactly this.

 

[MikeH72]

If Moyes doesn't take this squad to a better league finish than Dyche, a manager you quite justifiably vilified on this forum, then you have to say the season will have been a failure. A period of a few weeks without our key players is not unprecedented at this club, in fact it's rather standard. The team we put out against Arsenal wasn't a step down from what was available to Dyche. It was a weak team but Dyche, who I didn't want and was thrilled to get rid of, also had weak teams. Moyes simply has to outperform Dyche in both points total and league position by season's end or he has to be considered a massive disappointment.

I don’t think anyone has suggested that it wouldn’t be a failure, that seems to be a straw man being set up by Dyche fans from what I can see.

I expect top half, caveated by I expect to have our starting XI available for some of the second half of the season. With nearly half of our strongest XI missing, the team is not better than last season’s team. With them available, it is much better. I don’t understand how this is seemingly controversial.

 

[Zatara]

Moyes has had 5 top 6 finishes with EFC.
How many times have EFC finished top 6 since 1987 ?
1 under Harvey, 1 under Royle & 1 under Martinez. So 3 times out of the other 25 seasons ?
Excluding 2003/04 he's never had us below 11th.
Not sure what people are expecting for a club that's outspent by 7 or 8 other clubs at least every year repeatedly bar the odd blip.

I'm not sure anyone is particularly furious at the 10th place position.

What is annoying is that in his twilight years of a manager he doesnt seem interested in taking risk. Risk that could turn losses into draws and draws into wins.

We went down against Chelsea and Arsenal (two games which may be seen as free hits) not really believing we could compete. This was the same against the RS for example.

He used McNeil over Dibling so went for defence first instead of a player who can carry the ball. Also in both games he went for damage limitation.

Its a big disappointment for those of us who thought he may have developed more strings to his bow.

A bit like Allardyce when many said he's negative and would never change. Then when we were safe he had the opportunity to play a different way and stuck to anti-football.

Joe Royle was a far superior manager when it came to taking the game to the opposition. Absolutely no comparison.

We are 12 months from being right in the relegation battle. This was the table last year at Christmas.

View attachment 337870


We are now 10th and 8 points better off.

That's largely thanks to Moyes for turning that around.

He's very much a % manager in the league isnt he?

So by playing a certain way the team 'should' perform better than the sum of its parts over the course of a season.

This is just a foolish argument. Moyes is an expert squad builder and a highly respected coach. Which manager is going to “attract better players?” Playing for Moyes attracted Grealish, so you have a very high bar.

Could you give us the headlines of his successful squad building at:

United
Sunderland
Sociedad
West Ham

Cos it seems like he wasted hundreds of millions on quick fix short term solutions which mostly failed.

 

[jceverton]

Still think Zenit win that tournament regardless even if we had made it to the final.

I actually think our biggest trophy chance was the FA Cup under Martinez. Lukaku with a penalty to see us past a poor United team with Palace waiting in the final. Lukaku misses the pen, a ton of one on ones, and then Martial scores a late one and United go on to win the cup. That for me was the biggest lost opportunity.

09 Chelsea were miles better than us and we were missing our three best players down the spine of the team. We wouldn’t have beaten Chelsea in 2012 either had we won the semi final that year.

I think you are right about that Martinez semi final, however you are missing the 2008 semi final in the league cup against Chelsea. We'd just equalised away in the first leg and chelsea had a man sent off, Moyes bottled it and tried to settle it for a draw instead of going for the win. We were missing Cahill in that leg but otherwise pretty much had our strongest team. Chelsea didn't have Drogba or Lampard for either leg. That was the game that I finally lost it with Moyes. We should have won the first leg and then I'm convinced we would have got through to the final. Sure it would have been a tough game against Arsenal but they had fallen away in the league in the second half of the season so who knows.

 

[windymiller]

I don’t think anyone has suggested that it wouldn’t be a failure, that seems to be a straw man being set up by Dyche fans from what I can see.

I expect top half, caveated by I expect to have our starting XI available for some of the second half of the season.

Ok, good, then the minimum standard should be better than 12th and better than 48 points. He's on target for that currently, so that's good. It's weird to me that people are already laying the groundwork for us not to hit those numbers (poor transfer window, injuries, AFCON, promoted teams are better than previous years etc...) but it seems symptomatic of a certain group on here who always want to lower expectations and to claim standing still or moderate improvements as some sort of laudable achievements (stability is the word that is used as a glowing positive). All I want is for Moyes to be held to the same standard as Dyche, Lampard, Benitez. Improvement over Dyche is the absolute minimum standard for me.

 

[MikeH72]

Ok, good, then the minimum standard should be better than 12th and better than 48 points. He's on target for that currently, so that's good. It's weird to me that people are already laying the groundwork for us not to hit those numbers (poor transfer window, injuries, AFCON, promoted teams are better than previous years etc...) but it seems symptomatic of a certain group on here who always want to lower expectations and to claim standing still or moderate improvements as some sort of laudable achievements. All I want is for Moyes to be held to the same standard as Dyche, Lampard, Benitez. Improvement over Dyche is the absolute minimum standard for me.

We have already improved over Dyche who left us on track for 34 points, so I’m not entirely sure why this argument has been invented in the first place if I’m totally honest with you. It seems to, again, have come from weird Dyche fans who dislike Moyes, we’re already seeing them trying to shift the goalposts from top half to Europe.

Pretty much everyone unanimously agreed at the start of the season that top half was the target, I don’t remember anyone setting the bar at staying up/finishing bottom half. Don’t know why this argument has cropped up after a 1-0 defeat to the league leaders without our 4 best players.

 

[jceverton]

What should he have done differently against Arsenal Pep? I'm all ears.

I doubt it, you seem incapable of listening.

 

[Efcjake]

He's talked up Europe a lot. Like so





Exactly this.

Fair, he does say there it's a big, big ask and this was also in June before everyone we tried to sign had told us to do one.

At the moment we are one result away from being in Europe so that's right on track and progressing isn't it?

I don't know why so many are so upset and calling for him to be sacked immediately as if it's a necessity when every sign points to the fact that we are improving and getting better.

 

[WilliamBoo]

This is my rapid affinity check list for DM to be congruent on the game fluency

Grealish/ KDH
Grealish/ NDiaye
Grealish/Garner
Grealish/ Barry
Grealish/ Beto
Grealish/ Mc Neil
Grealish/Gana
Grealish/ Tim
Grealish/ Alcaraz
Grealish/ Mycolenko
Grealish/ Dibling
Grealish Rohl

Barry/NDiaye
Barry/ KDH
Barry/ Garner
Barry/ Tim
Barry /Gana
Barry/ Beto inexistent in DM brain
Barry/ Mycolenko
Barry/ Alcaraz
Barry/ Mc Neil
Barry/ Rohl
Barry/ Dibling?

Beto/ NDiaye
Beto/ Alcaraz
Beto/Garner
Beto/KDH
Beto/ Mc Neil
Beto/ Tim
Beto/Gana
Beto/ Mycolenko
Beto/ Dibling
Beto/ Rohl

NDiaye/ Alcaraz
NDiaye/ Dibling
NDiaye/ KDH
NDiaye/ Garner
NDiaye/ Gana
NDiaye/ Tim
NDiaye/ Mycolenko
NDiaye/ Mc Neil
NDiaye/Rohl

KDH/ Alcaraz (based on 8/10 spot) other positions
KDH/ Gana
KDH/ Garner
KDH/ Dibling
KDH/ Tim
KDH/ Mycolenko
KDH/ Mc Neil
KDH/ Rohl

Alcaraz/ Dibling
Alcaraz/ Garner
Alcaraz/ Mycolenko
Alcaraz/ Gana
Alcaraz/ Mc Neil
Alcaraz/ Tim
Alcaraz/ Rohl

Mc Neil/ Garner
Mc Neil / Gana
Mc Neil/ Mycolenko
Mc Neil/ Tim
Mc Neil/ Dibling
McNeil/ Rohl

Garner/ Dibbling
Garner/ Tim
Garner/ Gana
Garner/ Mycolenko
Garner Rohl

Gana/ Dibling
Gana/ Tim only with DM thinking in septic shock
Gana/ Mycolenko
Gana/Rohl

Mycolenko/ Dibling
Mycolenko/Rohl
Mycolenko/ Tim

Dibling/ Rohl
Dibling/ Tim

Tim/Rohl

Yes JOB is missing on this list bc I consider him as CM and would be unfair, idem the others CM as well
This list is only for informational purposes
You can agree or not and that will be fine too

 

[Efcjake]

Have I missed another point deduction?

Why are we acting like we're nailed on to finish 12th or 13th all of a sudden?

 

[Efcjake]

This is my rapid affinity check list for DM to be congruent on the game fluency

Grealish/ KDH
Grealish/ NDiaye
Grealish/Garner
Grealish/ Barry
Grealish/ Beto
Grealish/ Mc Neil
Grealish/Gana
Grealish/ Tim
Grealish/ Alcaraz
Grealish/ Mycolenko
Grealish/ Dibling
Grealish Rohl

Barry/NDiaye
Barry/ KDH
Barry/ Garner
Barry/ Tim
Barry /Gana
Barry/ Beto inexistent in DM brain
Barry/ Mycolenko
Barry/ Alcaraz
Barry/ Mc Neil
Barry/ Rohl
Barry/ Dibling?

Beto/ NDiaye
Beto/ Alcaraz
Beto/Garner
Beto/KDH
Beto/ Mc Neil
Beto/ Tim
Beto/Gana
Beto/ Mycolenko
Beto/ Dibling
Beto/ Rohl

NDiaye/ Alcaraz
NDiaye/ Dibling
NDiaye/ KDH
NDiaye/ Garner
NDiaye/ Gana
NDiaye/ Tim
NDiaye/ Mycolenko
NDiaye/ Mc Neil
NDiaye/Rohl

KDH/ Alcaraz (based on 8/10 spot) other positions
KDH/ Gana
KDH/ Garner
KDH/ Dibling
KDH/ Tim
KDH/ Mycolenko
KDH/ Mc Neil
KDH/ Rohl

Alcaraz/ Dibling
Alcaraz/ Garner
Alcaraz/ Mycolenko
Alcaraz/ Gana
Alcaraz/ Mc Neil
Alcaraz/ Tim
Alcaraz/ Rohl

Mc Neil/ Garner
Mc Neil / Gana
Mc Neil/ Mycolenko
Mc Neil/ Tim
Mc Neil/ Dibling
McNeil/ Rohl

Garner/ Dibbling
Garner/ Tim
Garner/ Gana
Garner/ Mycolenko
Garner Rohl

Gana/ Dibling
Gana/ Tim only with DM thinking in septic shock
Gana/ Mycolenko
Gana/Rohl

Mycolenko/ Dibling
Mycolenko/Rohl
Mycolenko/ Tim

Dibling/ Rohl
Dibling/ Tim

Tim/Rohl

Yes JOB is missing on this list bc I consider him as CM and would be unfair, idem the others CM as well
This list is only for informational purposes
You can agree or not and that will be fine too

Bed