2024/25 David Moyes

[windymiller]

Boring

We’d give a right arm to win that.

Watch how much Chelsea or Fiorentina celebrate when they win it.

I would, and clearly you would, but I'm not convinced that that's a majority viewpoint. Look at any match thread on our league cup games. There's loads of people talking about resting this player, and resting that player. It was the same back in the days when we qualified for European football. I find it bizarre how lightly some posters take our cup campaigns, particularly the league cup, a trophy we've never won and the easiest domestic trophy to win.

I reckon there would be plenty of posters suggesting resting players if we were playing in the Europa Conference League, so that we could focus on the league, so that we could qualify for Europe, so we could de-prioritise that competition, to focus on the league, to qualify for Europe......

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

What about one that hasn’t been in the top half of the table since October 2021?

Ok, cool, let’s just set out stall at mediocrity level from the off.
Like I said, no big club would accept this

 

[brieverton]

I would be over the moon if we won the Conference League or League Cup. With regard to the latter though, I would have supported resting key players in earlier rounds as I worried about losing them for a relegation fight.

I'd really love us to be playing in European Group stage games again, and beyond. It really should be possible to get though a group with relative comfort, whilst fully rotating the squad.

Our last European campaign was an absolute embarrassment, struggling against the likes of Hajduk Split and Limassol. We need a chance to redeem ourselves.

 

[MikeH72]

Ok, cool, let’s just set out stall at mediocrity level from the off.
Like I said, no big club would accept this

Top half next season would be good progress.

Honestly think Liverpool’s success has fried our fans’ brains as to what is realistic to expect. Talking of competing for trophies, maybe we need to enter the top half of the table for the first time in 4 years first.

 

[hallamblue]

Ok, cool, let’s just set out stall at mediocrity level from the off.
Like I said, no big club would accept this

We have to sign a number of players with not much money to work with. I'd certainly settle for 10th and then the income from the new stadium will start coming through and we can hopefully push on

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

Top half next season would be good progress.

Honestly think Liverpool’s success has fried our fans’ brains as to what is realistic to expect. Talking of competing for trophies, maybe we need to enter the top half of the table for the first time in 4 years first.

I agree to an extent but, when villa appointed emery, Newcastle Howe and similar , did they say yes, get us 10th? Complete lack of ambition signing Moyes. Imagine appointing a manager you know you will want gone in 18 months

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

We have to sign a number of players with not much money to work with. I'd certainly settle for 10th and then the income from the new stadium will start coming through and we can hopefully push on

Settle - that is the sad state of things

Why not aspire?

Dare to dream or, aim low as we are doing

 

[JobForTheMoyes]

Just to get in the Conference League you needed to finish seventh, so that would be nice. The League Cup is not a great competition and its format favours the entrenched sides, which is reflected in its honour roll.

For me, the Conference is a bit like the old Cup Winners Cup. Sure, its weakest of the three competitions, but it’s still a big honour to win.

 

[JobForTheMoyes]

I agree to an extent but, when villa appointed emery, Newcastle Howe and similar , did they say yes, get us 10th? Complete lack of ambition signing Moyes. Imagine appointing a manager you know you will want gone in 18 months

But West Ham appointed Moyes and he finished sixth and seventh and on a relatively small budget.

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

But West Ham appointed Moyes and he finished sixth and seventh and on a relatively small budget.

Yep, and they wanted him gone. It’s just disappointing going in to a season knowing what you’re going to get

 

[Drico]

Thought yesterday was a big win for him in the context of the whole time he has been back. I thought it was going to be a meek surrender and that the season would just fizzle out.

The away form has been largely good and that offers encouragement.

Next Sunday is a big game for everyone and I'm glad he alluded to that yesterday.

Obviously things need to come together for transfers in the summer. Beyond that he needs to manage the transition to our new home bearing in mind a pretty dreadful home record in recent seasons which needs to be arrested.

And he needs to take a scalp or two at his Sky 6 bogey grounds. I get that we've gone there with poor teams and low expectations but even so his record is a burden on him and the club and you can only put a stop to that by winning somewhere.

What is it, 60 visits to these places without a win? The law of averages would demand he gets lucky once or twice. But you only get lucky if you attack - and we don't do enough of that at these places with Moyes. Yesterday people said we got lucky with the equaliser. I say we made our own luck by attacking. He HAS to replicate that mentality at the Sky Six grounds.

 

[Drico]

Top half next season would be good progress.

Honestly think Liverpool’s success has fried our fans’ brains as to what is realistic to expect. Talking of competing for trophies, maybe we need to enter the top half of the table for the first time in 4 years first.

To be fair to Moyes, we have to see the colour of the Friedkins' money first. How ambitious and competent are they? Assuming they get most - but not all - recruitment decisions right, Moyes should be tasked with getting us top half next season. Not 11th. Top-half. And we need to see progression. He showed that this season, getting us up the table quickly and making us competitive in every game. We need to see more wins in the second half of the season than the first - and we still need to see a solid start: none of this "slow starting" nonsense that has plagued Moyes teams in the past.

I think all of the above is achievable if the Friedkins are competent.

After that, he needs to push us on again, hopefully into the European places or, failing that, into a cup final. We will know progress when we feel it. Momentum. What we must avoid at all costs is a retreat into a comfort zone of 7th or 8th or 9th every season but no serious wins at the Sky Six grounds and no serious run at a cup. Being 7th for years, winning nothing, and reliably losing in hard-luck stories at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge might sound ok from where we are right now, but it will be failure if he is backed. This club under this ownership - assuming they are competent and ambitious - MUST be making Europe and winning cups. That should be the standard. Otherwise we are a more stable Leeds.

 

[MACCA75]

Just to get in the Conference League you needed to finish seventh, so that would be nice. The League Cup is not a great competition and its format favours the entrenched sides, which is reflected in its honour roll.

For me, the Conference is a bit like the old Cup Winners Cup. Sure, its weakest of the three competitions, but it’s still a big honour to win.

Let’s not equate the two. If you finished 2nd and won the cup then you would be in the Cup winners Cup. (Ahead of the UEFA Cup)

The conference league is for teams that finish 7th - and any Prem team should actually win that tournament fairly comfortably tbh.

 

[JobForTheMoyes]

Yep, and they wanted him gone. It’s just disappointing going in to a season knowing what you’re going to get

When the noisy online fans campaign to get rid of a manager who has got a club it’s best ever back to back league finishes and won their first major trophy in over four decades, it suggests the manager isn’t the problem.

 

[matty1878]

When the noisy online fans campaign to get rid of a manager who has got a club it’s best ever back to back league finishes and won their first major trophy in over four decades, it suggests the manager isn’t the problem.

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