2025/26 David Moyes

[efcste97]

We deserved to win yesterday, whereas we probably didn’t against Fulham, over the course of a season, those results tend to even themselves out.


We’re in a bit of a catch-22, though. The league feels weaker this year, so there’s an opportunity to push for Europe, but we’re not quite in a position to properly capitalise on it.

 

[toffeeblue9]

Had time to calm down a bit.

On reflection I don't have a huge problem with the team selection last night. I don't see how it really made any difference to how we defended the goals we conceded. I know there have been lots of calls for Patterson to play at right back over JOB - would Patterson have not got sent off in that situation last night? Don't know. He's no quicker than JOB, so you're really asking would his positioning have been better or would he just have not made the challenge (and then I guess there's the chance we could have conceded a 3rd).

It was a mad 8 mins where we just fell to pieces. I guess Moyes ultimately bears responsibility for that, but it's unusual for a Moyes team and not something you'd associate with him.

Barry had a stinker to end all stinkers, but I'd have picked him to start over Beto.

You could argue Harrison should have started in midfield over Gueye, but I think I understand Moyes's reluctance to have two 19 year olds in the starting XI (not that it helped us ultimately).

I do have a slight issue with Harrison coming on for George immediately after the equaliser. It was a change he was about to make to solidify things before the goal went in, but I think he should have maybe taken a beat at that point and considered that we were going to need a goal - not that I think that the substitution would have prevented that little collapse.

I'm frustrated and it's easy to just throw blame around when that happens, but I'm trying to be objective about it and we did easily enough to win that game, even if the 1st half was just "ok" and a bit disjointed.

 

[mccole]

Brighton - Garner at left back
Palace - Keane injury lead to Garner moving to right back - comeback win
Fulham - Garner at right back
Forest - Garner in centre mid with Dewsbury-Hall

GUEYE and GARNER ARE TERRIBLE TOGETHER MR MOYES ESPECIALLY AT HOME.

Stop playing them together and you might win again this season at home

 

[efcste97]

Toffee TV made a valid point regards Moyes and not playing players the board have bought in the summer. He's got to be careful.

good point

Some fans might be fine with Aznou, Dibling, even Rohl not getting game time because “Moyes knows best” no matter what, but will TFG see it the same way?

 

[Blue Smoke]

Its fairly obvious that our glaring weakness is a decent right back, left back and striker. All those issues were shown last night and its why we are a mid table side that are currently mid table.
In terms of him being stubborn and choosing old players like Gueye and this persistence on premier league ready players, he was shown up by Bournemouth happily starting their new 19 year old for pretty much the full game.

Until the club buy new, decent full backs and sort this striker issue out, then we will never progress to where we should be or want to be.

 

[SLAVEN BILIC]

Is he doing a brilliant job? No, he’s just doing better than Dyche. Thanks for the safety last year and a comfortable, albeit frustrating season this time around. Part ways in the summer.

 

[Saint Domingo]

View attachment 343183
Brighton - Garner at left back
Palace - Keane injury lead to Garner moving to right back - comeback win
Fulham - Garner at right back
Forest - Garner in centre mid with Dewsbury-Hall

GUEYE and GARNER ARE TERRIBLE TOGETHER MR MOYES ESPECIALLY AT HOME.

Stop playing them together and you might win again this season at home

Gueye is a problem now for the balance of the team. He’s never been position ally good but now he doesn’t have the recovery pace to cover it up. The issue is he has 100s of PL performances and years of experience with PSG and Senegal so for managers who base selection off these kinds of metrics he’s probably first name on the team sheet alongside Pickford.

We should be moving him on in the summer and giving game time to Armstrong Rohl Iroegbunam and Alcaraz alongside the two nailed on starters in Garner at 6 and KDH left hand side 8.

 

[MichaelEFC96]

Toffee TV made a valid point regards Moyes and not playing players the board have bought in the summer. He's got to be careful.

I've always thought Moyes and the people above Kinnear etc don't see eye to eye, think that was evident last summer during the transfer window. Moyes was a TFG appointment and Kinnear/recruitment team followed him.

 

[Joey66]

We will finish mid table as most posters predicted - DM has set a foundation for a good team in the future - wasting money on Barry & Dyche buying Beto has left us with a bad scoring striker rate - Away it suits us sit back ride our luck & catch teams on the break - at home when we have to take the game to teams it just goes awry - we should have been 3-0 up - & bang Bournemouth fast on the break & in form destroyed us in 10 minutes - our response was hoof ball - how many shots did their keeper make in the 2nd half ?


That's another thing we seem to play okish for 45 minutes as last Saturday showed again could have easily ben 3-0 down instead of 1-0 & played good football to win that game - We had a great chance to push up the table last night but a CF cannot fluff easy chances like that & it cost us -

I did state Bournemouth were very fast on the break & that was my worry as DM persist on fitting square pegs in round holes - we should have won that game as we do struggle to score - guilt chances by Barry & him with his shirt over his head after being subbed for an age told the story sadly IMO ....
Worryingly not one coach or player consoled Barry .....
I feel sorry for the fans who pay big money on a horrible wet evening to have to see that unfold ....

 

[Paul Rideout]

View attachment 343183
Brighton - Garner at left back
Palace - Keane injury lead to Garner moving to right back - comeback win
Fulham - Garner at right back
Forest - Garner in centre mid with Dewsbury-Hall

GUEYE and GARNER ARE TERRIBLE TOGETHER MR MOYES ESPECIALLY AT HOME.

Stop playing them together and you might win again this season at home

And we looked best against… Forest

 

[Tom Hughes]

Maybe because that improvement has stalled despite significant squad investment that he allegedly has final say on.
He’s been handed one of England’s best attackers in Grealish, and it’s not really made any difference in our form from his appointment last year to what he’s achieving this season.
The squad is markedly improved on last year, having obvious gaps doesn’t really work as an argument for me when he’s committing big money to players he wont play while leaving those gaps open.

Maybe because that improvement has stalled despite significant squad investment that he allegedly has final say on.
He’s been handed one of England’s best attackers in Grealish, and it’s not really made any difference in our form from his appointment last year to what he’s achieving this season.
The squad is markedly improved on last year, having obvious gaps doesn’t really work as an argument for me when he’s committing big money to players he wont play while leaving those gaps open.

We've courted relegation for years so there were obviously quality gaps almost everywhere when he took over. The investment since also wasn't anywhere close to addressing all of that (hence our forward line and CB's playing as fullbacks).... and having final say on anything is still limited by budget (compared to clubs with already far higher value squads). Yet here we are...still 8th in the league.

 

[davek]

We've courted relegation for years so there were obviously quality gaps almost everywhere when he took over. The investment since also wasn't anywhere close to addressing all of that (hence our forward line and CB's playing as fullbacks).... and having final say on anything is still limited by budget (compared to clubs with already far higher value squads). Yet here we are...still 8th in the league.

Last season we were 13th; the season before that with deducted points added in we'd have finished 11th-12th.

That suggests to me with the benefit of £110M in spending that we should expect to be where we are now.

There's no great leap forward here away from relegation. Just the improvement you'd expect by adding quality like Grealish / KDH to talent like Ndiaye and the very decent backline we had.

 

[dannyboy]

Is he doing a brilliant job? No, he’s just doing better than Dyche. Thanks for the safety last year and a comfortable, albeit frustrating season this time around. Part ways in the summer.

Apart from Brentford, who we are two points behind, who should we be above in the table?

People acting like we just need a new manager to get into the top 6 are setting themselves up for a big fall.

 

[Bluepablo]

Not really a big believer in xG stuff, think a whole lot of salt is needed but those that are - I did see this the other day.


View attachment 343181


In terms of performances where I've felt we deserved to win a game, we've definitely won more than I felt our performance deserved.

Keep thinking when we actually start to play well, it'll show and we could pinch Europe

This is bringing back memories of Sandro. The stats said he couldn’t miss but after we signed him it quickly became apparent he had been scoring with every shot & unsurprisingly it didnt continue.

 

[COYBL25]

Although the away from has been really good, it was clear that we were riding our luck in many of those games and over reliant on JP to keep us in games before Moyes changed things and we got a grip.

The home form is abysmal, but the setting up of the team and tactics employed are similar for both. Players who haven’t really let anyone down or when called upon or others who haven’t really been given a chance now can’t get anywhere near the team as the afcon is over and suspensions are served.

Seeing Keane being lumped on as a Hail Mary was sobering, even if many of us have been asking for it, but that’s was more to keep him out of defence.

Gutted we never take the chances we get to kick on and move up the table.

Europe was always a bit of a pipe dream and exciting hope, especially with the league being so poor, and we should have utilised the January window to drive the dream to reality, but we did nothing except replace an injured superstar with a promising youngster - the glaring deficiencies in the squad are still there, and these are being exacerbated by the manager.

Forget Europe now, even though it’s a possibility. I don’t think the manager and some of the players can handle the pressure of expectation that goes with it.

We’re safe from relegation - let’s start playing some of the younger players we’ve signed, play players in their correct positions and start looking towards the future.

Drop Tarks, Gana and Myko - play JB and JOB together at cb, Patterson at rb, aznou at lb, drop KDH next to garner, then perm any of Armstrong, Rohl, Alcaraz or dibling in the 10 and get players near to whoever the cf is, speed up our play and get the ball into dangerous areas much quicker.

This