If you know your HISTORY

[Aztattooedfootballfan]

I am upset with the effort but I will be coming off of work ending my work week this Sunday getting home just in time to enjoy another Everton match with hopefully better results.

 

[DENNIS STEVENS]

I don't really relate to the theme of this thread at all. The players didn't lack effort on the night & to focus on any one player who may have not had his best game is somewhat irrelevant, imo. The reason this opportunity has not been grasped, as far as I can see, is that a team that has been playing quite well recently & which should be full of confidence, after the emphatic victory over Manchester United, were not sent out to assert themselves through good football but to sit back & frustrate their opponents, to hold onto what they had. It was a strategy that lacked ambition & deserved to fail. The decision to take this tactical approach is compounded by the failure to change at half time when we were clearly a little fortunate to reach the break without conceding a goal. By the time Sporting opened the scoring we had precious little time to change our approach & start to desperately chase the goal we should have been seeking right from the start. Everton faced a team that has been on a poor run of form, a club considered to be in something of a crisis, & with a rather modest support on the night, yet we handed the initiative to them right from the start. I point the finger at only one man for our failure in a quite winnable tie : Moyes. He has assembled a decent squad of footballers & we've seen the proof of this on the field of play, if he wants to take a different tactical approach then I think he'll need to consider buying different players.

I wouldn't boo the players, nor would I boo Moyes, I just hope he gets the tactics right for the Spurs match.

 

[StDomingosGringo]

Sorry Dennis but both Jags and Howard have come out and said the players are to blame for the poor performance and letting the supporters down. Time to move on.

 

[DENNIS STEVENS]

Sorry Dennis but both Jags and Howard have come out and said the players are to blame for the poor performance and letting the supporters down. Time to move on.

They're hardly likely to say anything else, are they?
I don't know what you mean by "Time to move on".

 

[StDomingosGringo]

As in it's done now and we've got to pick ourselves up and sort it out for Spurs mate.

 

[zed]

Sorry Dennis but both Jags and Howard have come out and said the players are to blame for the poor performance and letting the supporters down. Time to move on.

can`t accept that - so the whole team decided `we won`t cross the halfway line`. moyes (and his deputy on the field neville) - get paid a lot of money to sort the gameplan out and make adjustments etc, as for moving on - the dust has only just settled on us supporterers emotions/frustrations

 

[Seamus Colemole]

can`t accept that - so the whole team decided `we won`t cross the halfway line`. moyes (and his deputy on the field neville) - get paid a lot of money to sort the gameplan out and make adjustments etc, as for moving on - the dust has only just settled on us supporterers emotions/frustrations

I think it was after the rs game where there was debate about who was to blame for the performance on the pitch, Moyes or the players.

Eventually i think it got agreed it was ALL their fault, players and manager.

 

[DENNIS STEVENS]

As in it's done now and we've got to pick ourselves up and sort it out for Spurs mate.

Hence my final comment : "I wouldn't boo the players, nor would I boo Moyes, I just hope he gets the tactics right for the Spurs match."

However, as I'd just got back from the match it didn't seem entirely inappropriate to make one or two posts relating to my perception of the game. The common theme that kept cropping up prior to the match was the hope that the team would be sent out to assert themselves, take the game to a poorly performing Sporting & seek the goal that would have balanced out their away goal & put all the pressure on the opposition. There was much dismay at the tactical approach to the game & still hope that it would be rectified after we had managed to survive until half-time. Once it became clear that this was not the case it felt as though we were just waiting for the inevitable goal to come. Of course, by the time it did we were left desperately chasing a goal & with little time to do so.

It may be that the players could have executed Moyes' game plan a little better, but the general concensus seemed to be that it was the wrong plan.

 

[DENNIS STEVENS]

I think it was after the rs game where there was debate about who was to blame for the performance on the pitch, Moyes or the players.

Eventually i think it got agreed it was ALL their fault, players and manager.

Against RS the players got drawn into a bit of a kicking match instead of concentrating on playing football, which rather suited RS, imo. I doubt Moyes would have sent them out to do that & so it's less clear how or where Moyes may have been at fault, so I'm more citical of the players for that performance. In the match against Sporting the players were clearly working to a plan which I feel was the wrong plan & so I'm inclined to hold Moyes responsible, particularly as nothing was changed at half time.

 

[KelseyGrammer-Beast-SuitsBlue]

Do you think the players don't know they played badly? I mean think about things for a minute.

Lets say your customers came into your office or wherever you work tomorrow and started booing you. First off you'd probably crack up at the absurdity of it all but after that it's very unlikely that it would make you perform better because such reactions assume that the players deliberately went out to do badly.

There has been lots of research into the effectiveness of feedback and the general consensus is that unless its constructive its pretty much useless, or in worst case scenarios destructive to performance.

It's well known that sportsmen perform best when they can do so automatically. When they start thinking too much they get the yips and mess up. So let Moyes do his job and do what supporters are supposed to do, support the team.

Apologies Bruce, I have to disagree. I cannot and will not cheer, applaud and celebrate their every performance when they turn in such crap as they did Thursday. Cheering, applauding and celebrating such an embarrassment is only to let them know it is alright for them to do the same in future. What about the poor sods that went on Thursday? The same goes with them that went to Hull, the fans have a right to show they feel let down and embarrassed by such a pathetic spineless no-bottle effort. When players disgrace the club with such performances it is on the supporters to pour bile and condemnation onto any pain they might be feeling having turned in a display that would astonish and disgust the local blind-school under 7 side.
Let them have it, both barrels so they know what is expected instead of playing in their comfort zone, strolling around knowing when they lose it will be alright as they will be cheered like heroes.
No no no, get on their backs when they deserve it. Lets see they care.