2025/26 David Moyes

[MACCA75]

Ah I've just been posting this in player threads and see you've beaten me to the punch.

Think most of us knew this anyway, but the assertions I've been seeing recently that - Ndiaye is actually just a bang average player and suddenly we don't actually have any good players and Moyes has done really well with a shocking squad - look extremely silly in the context of the above information.

I don’t think anyone has ever called N’Diaye ‘bang average’. They say he makes poor decisions at times, doesn’t see the quick pass or the bigger picture, and this is why he barely gets any assists, and plays for Everton rather than Man City.

 

[JLW]

"They have missed that opportunity". They. Not us. I can't stand that ginger ferret.

Yeah removing himself from blame, classic Moyes

 

[windymiller]

Also interesting to see him revert to calling the players 'them' instead of we or us, as he has a pattern of doing when we are in a bad run.

He always does it when results are bad. When we're winning it's suddenly we or, more often, I. He's a self-aggrandising tit.

 

[Kirkles]

Way past his sell by date now

 

[carolinablue232]

Ah I've just been posting this in player threads and see you've beaten me to the punch.

Think most of us knew this anyway, but the assertions I've been seeing recently that - Ndiaye is actually just a bang average player and suddenly we don't actually have any good players and Moyes has done really well with a shocking squad - look extremely silly in the context of the above information.

Consider the 7 games Ndiaye and Gana had in the month of AFCON, and it gets worse for those two as well.

 

[RomanReigns]

were we knackered as well when we lost 3-0 at home to spurs on 26th October 2025?

were we knackered as well when we lost 4-1 at home to newcastle on 29th November 2025?

were we knackered as well when we lost 4-2 at home to brentford on 4th January 2026?

were we knackered when we could only get 1 win out of 7 games against the newly promoted sides?

maybe we weren't knackered and there is something wrong with the players and our style of play

 

[Rita_Poon]

We've played so few games, so I'm not buying the tiredness argument. Of course some players will get fatigued but there's no excuse for it to be any worse than other teams given our favourable schedule.

I think it all comes back to mentality at the end of games. We have players who clearly lack belief and aren't used to winning. We have a manager who likes to protect the draw late in tight games and is instinctively cautious. And we have leadership off the field who don't hold anyone at the club to account.

We don't want to win as much as other clubs.

Ndiaye and Gana have suffered for extra games and travel.

I'd ask Moyes why he's suddenly started using Tim Iroegbunam and Rohl, he's had them all season, same goes with Alcaraz being frozen out.

I appreciate the walloping Grealish absorbs is missing and it's possible that share is being ploughed into Ndiaye, when did we last kick a winger out of the game? I acknowledge that extra bit of speed at CB with Branthwaite is missing, but we can't rise and fall on the shoulders of just one player. Why did O'Brien carry on through an injury? Where is someone railing against the ref - we got 3 booked yesterday vs ZERO for them.
Rohl showed willing to run and look to get behind their defence, George came on and put more and better crosses in in his 18 minute cameo than the rest did in the entirety of the game.

Season has tapered off, I reckon so many late game heartbreakers (recently) has the squad shell-shocked, we've no adequate depth to call on, so a mentally fatigued side is going through the motions in the final few weeks of the season.

 

[MACCA75]

We've played so few games, so I'm not buying the tiredness argument. Of course some players will get fatigued but there's no excuse for it to be any worse than other teams given our favourable schedule.

I think it all comes back to mentality at the end of games. We have players who clearly lack belief and aren't used to winning. We have a manager who likes to protect the draw late in tight games and is instinctively cautious. And we have leadership off the field who don't hold anyone at the club to account.

We don't want to win as much as other clubs.

Absolutely one million percent a mentality thing.

Roger Federer won 54% of the points he played over his entire career. That doesn’t sound dominant at all - yet he won countless tournaments because he won the points that mattered. He dealt with the key moments.

Look at Celtic v Hearts at the weekend. Did anybody even remotely consider that Celtic wouldn’t find that late goal when they really needed it?

Our mentality has been the opposite for absolutely years. How many times have we been level against a big club with just a few minutes remaining - and gone on to lose, because we weren’t trying to win.

I don’t even know how we begin to change it at this point, but the CEO and manager would probably be the starting point.

 

[windymiller]

Fairly sure Tim Iroegbunam and Rohl started again on Sunday.

Rohl - five starts in the premier league this season
Iroegbunam - sixteen starts

 

[Lapeno77]

were we knackered as well when we lost 3-0 at home to spurs on 26th October 2025?

were we knackered as well when we lost 4-1 at home to newcastle on 29th November 2025?

were we knackered as well when we lost 4-2 at home to brentford on 4th January 2026?

were we knackered when we could only get 1 win out of 7 games against the newly promoted sides?

maybe we weren't knackered and there is something wrong with the players and our style of play

Both can be true.

 

[MACCA75]

Consider the 7 games Ndiaye and Gana had in the month of AFCON, and it gets worse for those two as well.

Rice played 53 games this season, Bernardo Silva 51, Saka 47 etc etc. That doesn’t include all the international games they played.

N’Diaye 33.
Gueye 25

 

[JLW]

Ndiaye and Gana have suffered for extra games and travel.

I'd ask Moyes why he's suddenly started using Tim Iroegbunam and Rohl, he's had them all season, same goes with Alcaraz being frozen out.

I appreciate the walloping Grealish absorbs is missing and it's possible that share is being ploughed into Ndiaye, when did we last kick a winger out of the game? I acknowledge that extra bit of speed at CB with Branthwaite is missing, but we can't rise and fall on the shoulders of just one player. Why did O'Brien carry on through an injury? Where is someone railing against the ref - we got 3 booked yesterday vs ZERO for them.
Rohl showed willing to run and look to get behind their defence, George came on and put more and better crosses in in his 18 minute cameo than the rest did in the entirety of the game.

Season has tapered off, I reckon so many late game heartbreakers (recently) has the squad shell-shocked, we've no adequate depth to call on, so a mentally fatigued side is going through the motions in the final few weeks of the season.

So as manager what do you do?

I have a little idea maybe just maybe change it up and put players on the pitch who arent mentally fatigued, who are young, who are new to the club and want to establish themselves, good job we went out the cups early how would we cope with all them extra games.

 

[Rooney_Tunes]

Yeah removing himself from blame, classic Moyes.

Absolutely hate that. Always implies he's not to blame, it's the players, or the ref, or var. Time to f off Davey.

 

[Rita_Poon]

Constantly talks the club down, still following the kenwright playbook.

Not ready for Europe eh Davey, whose job was it to get us ready then? Maybe if you had used your squad properly and rotated more with the younger players, we would be ready?

Maybe if you had signed a new right back, or trusted the one we already have a little more, instead of shoehorning a cb there all season we would be ready?

It was in our hands and we tossed it away, the home performances all season and the performances and results, home and away the last month have been abysmal.

It’s all on the manager and the players he’s picked.

Take some accountability and own it Moyes ffs.

catch22.

IF he or kinnear or whoever from the ownership start spouting we're the best in the world, they end up looking pretty stupid when that Belgian winger (fofana was it) knocksus back 'cos of career requirement*.

catch22.

results business, play the rotated youth players and lose and it's "you never change a winning side"

catch22.

Patterson gets played so O'B gets a run at CB, if it goes well it should have been done sooner, if it goes bad then "patterson clearly isn't the answer".

Moyes wanted Tete and McGinn. I expect he wanted a season out of both Branthwaite and Grealish as well. Barry has been very close to a complete failure, the Arsenal game away with his pals and tales of sulking and online drama have not helped that cause. Beto has 12 months left.
I'd rather have Rooney back than bust a gut (arf!) getting delap in.

catch22.

It's because European qualification was close that missing out so near to the finish line hurts that much extra. Away form been great, home form has been very very bad. Mind is a bit rubbish but at the moment I can only remember the Fulham game at BMD where we put two halves of good football together (I might be misremembering I concede!).

No idea how to fix it. Change the pitch ergonomics (thinner and shorter) maybe.

 

[Jebus_lives]

were we knackered as well when we lost 3-0 at home to spurs on 26th October 2025?

were we knackered as well when we lost 4-1 at home to newcastle on 29th November 2025?

were we knackered as well when we lost 4-2 at home to brentford on 4th January 2026?

were we knackered when we could only get 1 win out of 7 games against the newly promoted sides?

maybe we weren't knackered and there is something wrong with the players and our style of play

Can't we be crap and tired?!?