Are we victims of our own over optimism

[SingBlue]

I don't understand defenders of Moyes who automatically trot out the "it's the players' fault, not his" when the team fails to deliver, but are quick to eulogise him when they play well.

I'm on the fence about Moyes, when he's positive he's very good, but when he's on a downer I could throttle him.

Look, he's the manager. He's paid £65,000 a week, or £3.5m a year. The buck stops with him. If a player lets him down, he'll deal with it - that's what managers are paid to do. di Matteo this week apparently went against the owners wishes, but after they dipped in Turin came out and accepted he was responsible (and was out of a job 4 hours later). Moyes coaches this team, he's signed all of them, he sets out the tactics. Ultimately, individual errors etc. aside, it's his responsibility.

I do think he's a very good manager, and would like to see how he would perform under new owners. This bollocks with his contract is just more of the same. He's got the safest job in football and he could retire tomorrow on the £25m Everton have paid him over the years. Part of me hopes he does go at the end of the season, because then Kenwright's heat shield is down and maybe some of our blinkered fans will see how badly behind we've fallen while they are waiting for their big pay day.

 

[Bluenose1995]

we **** it whenever we are favourites or can take advantage of other teams slip ups, felliani hasnt helped either with his constant transfer top 4 bollocks talk shut the **** up felli putting pressure on the team

 

[Ihaters]

Refs have taken a lot of points from us, as has poor defending, but then so to has the loss of a lot of key players.. We've got a few big games that we'll probably lose because of the depleted squad, but when Mirallas, Gibson and Fellaini are back together I would expect us to start playing even better again. Having said that even without we are playing some great stuff and apart from one incorrectly given and poorly defended free kick and one Naismith pass which was beyond belief we played pretty well again.
Didn't play negatively today imo (hence having the majority of possession and shots) just didn't take our chances.. again.
Anyone who genuinely expected 4th was on the cards was living very hopefully, I always say we can, but not realistically expect it, as so many other teams have spent so much on so much better squads. Moyes certainly didn't bottle it today and neither did our players.

 

[paulbefc]

I think a lot of it depends on injuries. We always were going to need big luck with injuries to get to where our first XI suggests we should be. We have had nothing of the sort, never mind the bloody refereeing decisions. When we've had 90% of our favoured XI fit, we've won and won well. Hopefully when we get back to full strength we'll sort ourselves out. But then Gibson will get injured again and someone will snap Mirallas and it'll be back to square one *sigh*

 

[LTblue]

Team not playing anywhere near their best so no we are not.

 

[RFUS]

As I've been saying for weeks, you judge the table by points not position at this point.

Our points tally hasn't been nearly impressive as the media fapping would imply.

And we've had a piss easy fixture list.

So I've never really been optimistic. The only thing we've been a victim of is expectation -- Moyes does not and never has dealt with it. Scrappy, defiant underdog Everton works nicely for him.

 

[alpha1]

I believe we are a top 6/7 team and so to be 5th is pretty good - I would have taken it at the start of the season that's for sure!
However, we started brilliantly but have tailed off badly. The last few games have been a big let down and although we have had injuries we have still created more than enough opportunities to win and let them go begging.
Perhaps we are just not as good as we think we are? We certainly lack any sort of consistency and remain a team who can beat anybody but also lose to anybody which is very frustrating!