I’ve gotta honest, I can’t even remember the Sunderland manager’s name. All I know is it’s his first crack at the Premier League and he’s practically overhauled the entire squad, bringing in a boatload of players from overseas. But let’s face it, Sunderland looked the better side in all three meetings this season.
Even in that last match,
David Moyes still hadn't a clue how to sort things out.
The Leeds boss has done a proper job too, and they've got every chance of pip-pipping us on the final day.
Everyone completely wrote him off at first because of how things went for him at Norwich. But credit where it's due, he’s learned from his mistakes and tweaked the system to a 3-5-2 once Calvert-Lewin got back to full fitness.
Having watched our last six matches, it’s painfully obvious that Everton play at a slower tempo than anyone else in the league. We just can't shift gears.
It looks like we’re trying to set up to hit teams on the counter, but we’re only attacking with the front three. Every other side in this league bursts forward with at least half the team, even if they don't get the final ball, it creates options and lets them win the second balls.
When we do break, you literally see Garner and
Tarkowski telling everyone else to hold back—clearly because
Moyes is terrified of getting caught on the counter ourselves.
There were so many times where
KDH found himself in that exact spot, busting a gut for 30 or 40 yards, only to have to turn back at the final moment because his legs were gone and he had absolutely no support.
And the most comical thing about Moyes' tactics? He tucks
O'Brien inside when we’re defending and drops the wide midfielder into a makeshift right-back role, yet he stubbornly sticks to a back four instead of just playing a proper back three with wing-backs. There is no way an out-and-out centre-back is going to storm forward transition from defence to attack—it goes completely against their footballing DNA.
We're nailed on to lose to Spurs, stretching this pathetic winless run to seven games, and we'll probably finish exactly where we did last year. But the real worry is that this rot will carry over into next season if we don’t get rid of the manager.
Oh, I almost forgot—amidst all this absolute misery, there is a silver lining. We’ve managed to retain the "Stability Cup" for the second year running, and honestly, we'll probably keep monopolizing it until David Moyes finally calls it a day and packs his bags.
