2025/26 David Moyes

[Saint Domingo]

Massive and passive.

I can excuse a lot of stuff from managers but set pieces get my goat, they did under Silva all the time. It’s a static ball where you have every available advantage to the defensive team. The ball has to be perfect from the opposition and even then the attacker has to win a header and get it past the keeper, anything else and the defence wins. Very good top flight outfits should barely be conceding any goals from first phase corners or free kicks. Especially with the height we have there. People mock Arsenal now and use to mock Stoke back in the day but the only teams that should be mocked are those who aren’t doing everything possible to maximise set pieces in offensive and defensive situations. We don’t look like scoring corners, and we concede from them far too easily.

 

[Sharpies volley]

We lost the game in midfield. They totally controlled it. This is were Moyes let's himself down. Halfway through the 1st half he should have been able to see we were being outnumbered there. He supposed to be a master tactician.

 

[NathDogg]

Davey saying the subs backfired defo means Dwight mcshithouse is back starting on weds.

 

[Saint Domingo]

We lost the game in midfield. They totally controlled it. This is were Moyes let's himself down. Halfway through the 1st half he should have been able to see we were being outnumbered there. He supposed to be a master tactician.

When he plays 433 we win the game, when we play 4231 we lose the game, so he keeps trying to play 4231….

 

[windymiller]

Out of our last six home games we have lost four and got battered in three of those four losses. That shouldn't be acceptable under any manager.

For those wanting to accuse me of cherry picking, our home record in totality this season is:

Played 10
Won 4
Drawn 2
Lost 4

Scored 13
Conceded 14

It's a pretty meh record and we're trending downwards not upwards.

 

[davek]

I can excuse a lot of stuff from managers but set pieces get my goat, they did under Silva all the time. It’s a static ball where you have every available advantage to the defensive team. The ball has to be perfect from the opposition and even then the attacker has to win a header and get it past the keeper, anything else and the defence wins. Very good top flight outfits should barely be conceding any goals from first phase corners or free kicks. Especially with the height we have there. People mock Arsenal now and use to mock Stoke back in the day but the only teams that should be mocked are those who aren’t doing everything possible to maximise set pieces in offensive and defensive situations. We don’t look like scoring corners, and we concede from them far too easily.

I hate the way we're lacking any sort of savvy at corners too. Unless you punch someone to the ground you're always getting the decision as a defender in the box from corners. We should be grabbing hold of shirts and barging into opponents, instead we're just seeing our defenders jumping to get a head on it and little else.

They dont do the things that normal PL defenders are good at: pushing the envelope all the way and dictating physical encounters in the box especially from corners.

 

[JobForTheMoyes]

It's a pretty meh record and we're trending downwards not upwards.

It’s almost like key players are out!

 

[Saint Domingo]

I hate the way we're lacking any sort of savvy at corners too. Unless you punch someone to the ground you're always getting the decision as a defender in the box from corners. We should be grabbing hold of shirts and barging into opponents, instead we're just seeing our defenders jumping to get a head on it and little else.

They dont do the things that normal PL defenders are good at: pushing the envelope all the way and dictating physical encounters in the box especially from corners.

The four main outcomes from our offensive set plays are: ball over hit and sails out of play, ball underhit and hits first man on the break, ball goes straight to the keeper, refs whistle goes for foul in the box. We have absolutely zero threat on them. The ball goes out for a corner to us and no one in the stadium is excited by it. Just not good enough at this level.

 

[Gilbert..]

Realistically we aren’t even competing for the top half, that will be left to teams with actual ambition.

12th will be our ceiling this season which given how poor the league is really isn’t good enough.

Is it a poor league or are more teams/clubs just levelling out with each other below say the top 4 or 5. Brentford payed 30m for that striker who scored a hat-trick today. Bournemouth have a 40m striker up front. Theres a few more i could list. Newcastle 70m for a forward they're 1 point above. Spurs 60m and they're 1 point below.
Got to be honest i dont look at our squad and automatically think it isnt good enough. 8 to 12th is roughly where i think we are based on quality or lack of.

 

[Eggs]

We lost the game in midfield. They totally controlled it. This is were Moyes let's himself down. Halfway through the 1st half he should have been able to see we were being outnumbered there. He supposed to be a master tactician.

….my view too, we were outnumbered. I actually wondered if he’d match them at half-time, go 3 at the back but whatever he did to try and redress the balance was forlorn with them scoring those two early killer goals in the 2nd half.

They were bright, well organised and a lot sharper than us.

 

[davek]

The four main outcomes from our offensive set plays are: ball over hit and sails out of play, ball underhit and hits first man on the break, ball goes straight to the keeper, refs whistle goes for foul in the box. We have absolutely zero threat on them. The ball goes out for a corner to us and no one in the stadium is excited by it. Just not good enough at this level.

Yep. Spot on.

It's so bad that they need to just throw the board in the air and see where the pieces fall. Do something different and see what works.

I can easily imagine no work being done on these set pieces in training.

 

[Rita_Poon]

An excellent point being ignored in the advancement of other arguments here.

What was the plan? Where was the defensive organisation?

I'll venture that the sloppy mistakes and the standing off the striker repeatedly probably weren't practiced.
Also the disconnect between defence and midfield wasn't done on purpose, so darsgaard ought to have been negated when it was clear there was a problem.

Todays game reminds me in part of the brighton game (first half they should have been out of sight) and the newcastle game where early goals knocked the stuffing out of us and once the game was academic we just didn't have an answer.

Maybe it's a tiredness of the mind and the limbs, we're missing our signing of the season and one of the form midfielders in KDH, we get much more consistency and game reading out of Gana. Branthwaites pace would be a significant help.

We used to have a problem where Hibbert would not be closed down quickly so was an easy option to find when we had possession, but because of limited passing range, sides gambled he'd give the ball away or just dink the ball up the flank hit and hope style. This is Mykolenko. How he's an £18m full back I'll never know. J O'B has been a brave understudy at RB but the game is coming to a head there also. (I am however happy he's getting game time even if it is at RB 'cos I don't want him leaving through frustration).

Besides scoring (I know right!) I didn't notice barry involved at all after beto was brought on. I'll give Moyes his due here for throwing the kitchen sink at the game. We could have been 7-0 down at this point though.

And that is the fear now, are we going to throw an atrocious display in to a side purring like a rolls royce and get whacked 10-0 in our shiny new digs.

ps. glad HA got a run, brought back for a reason and got some minutes. (Thiago for them has had a miracle recovery from a meniscus injury and surgery, he was a pain in the backside all day. History for him as the first hat trick at BMD).

 

[Rita_Poon]

So so poor from manager today, the worst since his return for me.

said the same in match thread.

 

[JobForTheMoyes]

An excellent point being ignored in the advancement of other arguments here.

What was the plan? Where was the defensive organisation?

I’d imagine the “defensive plan” long term involves Branthwaite.

 

[ToffeeTim]

Our home performances and results aren't close to good enough. Conceding 4 to a poor Brentford side is embarrassing.

I dont hear enough urgency to stop these kind of embarrassing results. I dont see enough upset from the manager and players after these results.