I think that point made above by Greek Fisherman about Moyes only trusting 15 or so players is spot on. He's a very conservative manager, and the waiting and waiting on Distin's fitness yesterday rather than simply going with Duffy is a good example of that.
One thing he doesn't have a luxury with though, I suppose (and it's one he's used quite well in the past) is a series of Europa League matches to experiment in. That's how Rodgers has brought a few through this season by using that competition. Overall though Moyes is not prone to bringing young players through beyond a superficial introduction followed by long periods out of the team. The widely acknowledged ability of the club to bring players through from the academy to first team is fast becoming a myth. We do not have a young team and he's set to extend contracts to older players. We're going backwards as an organisation in that respect and it's all feeling very stale.
Just because people complained about the Distin sub at Fulham doesn't mean they'd complain if he made the correct sub yesterday, there are good subs and bad subs. Disrupting your centre defence to put another defender in there doesn't mean you;re automatically be better at defending.
But yesterday there were several players who simply were either knackered or playing bloody awful yesterday second half and as the game went on Norwich got closer and closer and it was obvious we just needed fresh legs. And there were plenty of them on bench but if he's not gonna use them then we might as well sell them and i'll go sit on the bench for nothing every week.
We needed to make a sub whether we were winning or losing, you could tell just by watching the game. Doesn't mean thats why we lost but we needed to make a sub but its obvious he didn't trust any of the players on the bench so whats the point of having them.
I hope he never stops giving youth a chance.
