David Moyes/Everton Big Game Mentality

[degsy]

We don't have a big game mentality...end of.
KITAP1 aka not trying to win but trying not to lose, might be a viable EPL stratagy over 38 games, especially to the Nth degree that Moyes does it....if you want the glory of the 7th place trophy ( or maybe 6th or 5th with the wind behind us ).

But given that the board has invested not one brass wazoo whatcha gonna do

 

[Ihaters]

Err, were you at that game?

As for players firing on full as the season ends, its usually when the pressure is off and we mount a late surge. Hence, it's not really a pressure-cooker situation, whereas those in the front-runner spots are the ones looking over their shoulders and the pressure is on them, not on us.

lol, so the fabled end of season high pressure and important games during our bids to secure Europe, are only high pressure and important if you start the run in a certain position in the table?
A position coincidentally we cannot credit Moyes with being in during previous runs, therefore making his previous European league position fights and achievements irrelevant to the discussion..
If you could see my face its not a surprised one to be reading that.

See previously comment about there only being 8 important games this season and attach some other similarly sarcastic comment relating to the selective nature of Moyes bashing statistics.. Just cannot be bothered anymore.

 

[Ihaters]

Apologies mate haha, thought you was being serious haha!

No need, often hard to read sarcasm via text

 

[Ihaters]

Exactly.

We've known one loss would send us out of the race for europe since before reading, this just happened to be the only game of those 7 we've lost.

Either all 7 are big games or, more sensibly, none are. Because a big game you achieve something by winning. When you have to go on and win another 5 games in order for that win to mean anything, it's not a big game.

A proper big game is a final or a decider where you win this happens, you lose this happens with no disclaimers. The last one of those we've had in the league was coventry.

Agree with this, although I would probably lower it to semi finals myself.
Although they are not cup winning, I think reaching the final in itself is history making and therefore worthy of being in, even if it ultimately ends in defeat, so for me an argument can be made to say the semi's we've won/lost could be deemed high pressure, anything less than that is just a game imo.

 

[Allezfan]

Agree with this, although I would probably lower it to semi finals myself.
Although they are not cup winning, I think reaching the final in itself is history making and therefore worthy of being in, even if it ultimately ends in defeat, so for me an argument can be made to say the semi's we've won/lost could be deemed high pressure, anything less than that is just a game imo.

Liverpool and Man u semis, maybe. (In which case you'd need to add Villarreal.)

Chelsea semi not in my opinion because there's not even a european place to grab for the beaten finalist in the league cup and damn little prestige in it.

But at a stretch you can increase that 1 big game to 4. Villarreal, man U, chelsea and liverpool.

Wigan and sunderland still don't come anywhere near that list, though.

 

[Khalekan]

I don't see whom the opponents are having any bearing per se on what is classed as an "important game".

As opposed to a "big game" which is "big" in its own right no matter what the circumstances.

e.g. the derby.

An otherwise nondescript game assumes its own import because of the circumstances it is played in.

And when a team is after a specific prize then each game becomes more "important" than the games before.

Which is why I agree with the OP about Sunderland being one of our two most "important" games of the season.

If we had won that game we would still have a chance of getting in the CL....Arsenal play United next week and Spurs and Chelsea have still to metaphorically cut each other's throat.

There was still a wee glimmer of the hope that keeps this football supporting lark so compulsive.

But we lost and as far as I am concerned the season in any meaningful sense ended with said loss.

To wit.....I have seen EFC win trophies at Wembley and in Rotterdam.

I have seem the Title clinched at Goodison and Norwich.

But the biggest, most important game I have ever attended in my life was a fixture which, on paper, would have seemed the furthest thing from a "big important game" when one looked at the fixture list when it came out.

Wimbledon Day 1994.

By far the biggest game of my lifetime and the one with most at stake.

Everton v Wimmledon 1994......the biggest and most important game in Everton's history, IMO.

 

[Allezfan]

If we'd lost against QPR we would have had no chance of getting europe.

Was that a big game?

Everton v Wimmledon 1994......the biggest and most important game in Everton's history, IMO.

Not really.

 

[By god I'm blue]

I agree with other posters, you cannot just pick what you define as a big game to suit your point.

 

[Khalekan]

If we'd lost against QPR we would have had no chance of getting europe.

Was that a big game?.

I think yoiu are failing to grasp the difference between a "big" game and an "important" one.

Which is what the OP was all about.

(as it happens, QPR was a very important game, as well as a "big" one with much at stake as you point out re Europe, coming as it did between the two north London away fixtures)

 

[Allezfan]

I think yoiu are failing to grasp the difference between a "big" game and an "important" one.

Which is what the OP was all about.

(as it happens, QPR was a very important gam, as well as a "big" game with much at stake as you point out re Europe, coming as it did between the two north London away fixtures)

Every league game and every cup game is important.

What I don't get is how the ones we lose (quarter final vs wigan, league game vs sunderland) are the most important. And the ones we win (quarter final vs boro, cup game vs oldham, league game vs qpr) aren't.

You will never convince me that the sunderland game was the most important league game of the year, the way the op says, when even if we'd won it we'd still be in 6th and needing spurs to lose two games to even get 5th. It's just another small game of a season of small games. And we don't win enough of them over the season.

 

[nigelcoyb]

My theory on the "big game choke" is Moyes sends his sides out the same way week in week out predominantly cautious but good enough over the league season to guarantee top 10. Where it comes unstuck is if teams are "up for it" once the opposition ditch the cagey structured game we're like rabbits in the headlights hence the likes of Leeds and Wigan this year and countless others throughout Moyes cup career.

Sunderland was just another example; the biggest example is the derby game no matter how shte they are those cnts are ALWAYS up for the big games.

The question is could someone with a bit of courage remedy this or does it mean we'll be relegated to the conference and the river mersey dry up turning the Wirral into a leper colony as so many predict.

 

[Allezfan]

My theory on the "big game choke" is Moyes sends his sides out the same way week in week out predominantly cautious but good enough over the league season to guarantee top 10. Where it comes unstuck is if teams are "up for it" once the opposition ditch the cagey structured game we're like rabbits in the headlights hence the likes of Leeds and Wigan this year and countless others throughout Moyes cup career.

Sunderland was just another example; the biggest example is the derby game no matter how shte they are those cnts are ALWAYS up for the big games.

The question is could someone with a bit of courage remedy this or does it mean we'll be relegated to the conference and the river mersey dry up turning the Wirral into a leper colony as so many predict.

I agree with this mind.

The Sunderland and wigan games weren't big games for us. But they were big games for the other side. (Wigan's second ever fa cup quarter final, sunderlands first home game under a new manager while hip deep in a relegation fight.)

Whenever another side raises their game, we can't.

 

[lungissimo]

I agree with this mind.

The Sunderland and wigan games weren't big games for us. But they were big games for the other side. (Wigan's second ever fa cup quarter final, sunderlands first home game under a new manager while hip deep in a relegation fight.)

Whenever another side raises their game, we can't.

We dont have a plan B and not enough talent on the pitch. Nobody like Bugs Bunny who can score a goal from nothing,

 

[Little Ralphy]

I agree with this mind.

The Sunderland and wigan games weren't big games for us. But they were big games for the other side. (Wigan's second ever fa cup quarter final, sunderlands first home game under a new manager while hip deep in a relegation fight.)

Whenever another side raises their game, we can't.

Did you really just say an FA Cup Qtr Final wasn’t a big game for us?

 

[Allezfan]

Did you really just say an FA Cup Qtr Final wasn’t a big game for us?

Yes.

Seriously have we reached the point where we've become so used to being crap that we view a quarter final as a big game, now? Really? A quarter final?

FFS. No wonder we tolerate the plucky little everton tag moyes tries to give us if we think that.