The Guardian pretty much nails it in one...

[Brennan]

It certainly makes a difference berween us and United, Chelsea and City......but we aren't finishing above them.

Or getting close to them.

But the vast majority of those teams behind us?

Yo-yo teams whom a stable Premiership team like Everton should be expected to out-perform.

Then again, Borussia Dortmund have made the CL final with ateam which was assembled for more or less the same amount of money as we paid for Billy, Jelavic and The Yak.

And they almost went banktupt a few years ago.

So happen money doesn't always have to shout so loud.

In terms of wages and transfer fees we're 14th in the league, and yet we're about to finish 6th.

How is that not overperforming ?

 

[EFC85]

Moyes has said himself he sets us up depending on the team we're playing, the very definition of being a reactive side. Hard to impose ourselves on good teams (especially away from home) if our focus is primarily on setting up against them. Maybe about time he tried to developed a true Everton style that teams had to react against rather than letting other teams impose their style onto the game and us just trying to combat it. (Worded that absolutely awfully but hopefully someone gets what i'm trying to say)

 

[Khalekan]

don't even know were to start with that reply, absolute madness

Of course you don't know "where to start" with that.

That's because you can't refute one word of it.

And that's because you have swallowed the "over-acheiving" nonsense hook, line and sinker.

Go ahead and check.

Apart from Villa and Liverpool, every one of those teams below us was playing second tier football this century,

Several of them have yo-yoed between the top two divisions in that time.

And you think it is some sort of "over-achievement" to finish above these clubs?

Everton....the club which has spent more seasons in the top tier of English football than any other?

Take the blinkers off.

Show a bit of pride in your club and its history......and stop spouting that kind of defeatist nonsense.

 

[Ihaters]

Ah yes the old - Moyes should just go for it - argument.

Not only should he get us to finish 15 points clear of all the other teams with similar budgets but he should get the team to score another 20 goals a season whilst playing with reckless abandon. Is that really fair?

We've scored 52 league goals and conceded 38.

That is more scored than everyone outside of the 5 teams ahead of us and Liverpool.

Only United, City, Chelsea and Arsenal have let in fewer.

Yeah but NSNO and stuff.. s**t fan you mate with your facts and realistic expectations.

 

[Khalekan]

Moyes has said himself he sets us up depending on the team we're playing, the very definition of being a reactive side. Hard to impose ourselves on good teams (especially away from home) if our focus is primarily on setting up against them. Maybe about time he tried to developed a true Everton style that teams had to react against rather than letting other teams impose their style onto the game and us just trying to combat it. (Worded that absolutely awfully but hopefully someone gets what i'm trying to say)

I know exactly what you mean.

And I agree with it.

 

[Brennan]

Of course you don't know "where to start" with that.

That's because you can't refute one word of it.

And that's because you have swallowed the "over-acheiving" nonsense hook, line and sinker.

Go ahead and check.

Apart from Villa and Liverpool, every one of those teams below us was playing second tier football this century,

Several of them have yo-yoed between the top two divisions in that time.

And you think it is some sort of "over-achievement" to finish above these clubs?

Everton....the club which has spent more seasons in the top tier of English football than any other?

Take the blinkers off.

Show a bit of pride in your club and its history......and stop spouting that kind of defeatist nonsense.

Unfortunately history and pride have absolutely [Poor language removed] all to do with financial reality.

Aston Villa, Newcastle, Liverpool, have all spent far, far more than we have in the past ten years.

You just pointed out that a lot of the teams below us have dealt with relegation, surely that just proves the point that Moyes is over achieving.

Moyes once had to go two whole years without buying a first team player, and he's still kept us top 7.

Perhaps it's you who should 'take the blinkers off' and realise that singing about history and all our past trophies doesn't give us some absolute right to be boss in the present, and that where we are is overachieving compared to the rest of the league.

Anybody who doesn't see that we as a club are overachieving is f***ing bonkers.

 

[electricblue]

Moyes has said himself he sets us up depending on the team we're playing, the very definition of being a reactive side. Hard to impose ourselves on good teams (especially away from home) if our focus is primarily on setting up against them. Maybe about time he tried to developed a true Everton style that teams had to react against rather than letting other teams impose their style onto the game and us just trying to combat it. (Worded that absolutely awfully but hopefully someone gets what i'm trying to say)

It's got us to top 6 finishes for most of the last 10 years.

 

[Allezfan]

No club has spent less than us this century and not been relegated.

We are as a club very very good at avoiding the drop.

Mind it bothers me that our greatest ever team were relgated and mike walker's wasn't.

 

[mutley]

Of course you don't know "where to start" with that.

That's because you can't refute one word of it.

And that's because you have swallowed the "over-acheiving" nonsense hook, line and sinker.

Go ahead and check.

Apart from Villa and Liverpool, every one of those teams below us was playing second tier football this century,

Several of them have yo-yoed between the top two divisions in that time.

And you think it is some sort of "over-achievement" to finish above these clubs?

Everton....the club which has spent more seasons in the top tier of English football than any other?

Take the blinkers off.

Show a bit of pride in your club and its history......and stop spouting that kind of defeatist nonsense.

you need to forget about Everton's hisory, you don't win games with history as Leeds Villa and Forest will testify to that.
1990 sky changed football forever, it's a money game now and Everton are poor relations to many teams in the league
Man u
Man City
Arsenal
Chelsea
Liverpool
Villa
Sunderland
Newcastle
Tottenham
Stoke
and Fulham outspend us

even QPR Southampton and Norwich have outspent us these last two season, our budget means we have to pay 60k for Coleman, 500k for Gibson these are championship and league one prices.

Everton of 84 85 86 87 the best
but we are not that team any more and you need to get used to it.

 

[Ihaters]

Moyes has said himself he sets us up depending on the team we're playing, the very definition of being a reactive side. Hard to impose ourselves on good teams (especially away from home) if our focus is primarily on setting up against them. Maybe about time he tried to developed a true Everton style that teams had to react against rather than letting other teams impose their style onto the game and us just trying to combat it. (Worded that absolutely awfully but hopefully someone gets what i'm trying to say)

Your right, its best to ignore their strengths and leave RVP and Rooney unmarked whilst we wonder up the field doing our own thing.
Of course there is the possibility that a good manager counters the opponents strengths when they have the ball and works towards their weaknesses when we have the ball.
Either way, this all adds up to a massive contradiction to the previous shouts of Moyes tactics have been worked out, and its the same old tactics every week, because if his tactics were to counter the oppositions tactics... surely they would change each week... unless everyone else plays the same game.
I think its more that he has his game plan but when the opposition attack he uses stats to work out where the biggest historical threat is and how to counter that.. is that a bad thing? Apparently so. When we have the ball, the tactics will be to work out where best to focus the attacks.

 

[moyeslovechild]

thing is part of the reason we prob dont spend more than we do is the people that own the club are happy with where we are, everyone knows this

if moyesy is getting the team to overachieve then they don't need to spend money

for me, we are too reliant on moyes, and that's not a good thing. it would possibly take us one bad managerial appointment to send us down. i think we all probably agree on this so i'm not saying anything revolutionary.

 

[EFC85]

I wasn't slating Moyes, I was more responding to the idea that we are a reactive side. We let other sides make their moves and correspond to that. It's what Moyes excels at and is the reason why big teams struggle to beat us, but also may be the reason why we fail to beat them (more so away from home, where the emphasis is on nullifying threats rather than countering them). Could also be one of the reasons why we struggle to beat lesser teams that sit back and let us come onto them, we often look short of ideas and maybe lacking an identity. Not so much a criticism more of a reasoning as to why we are seen as reactive.

 

[WA Toffee]

While I understand that we all crave more attacking, proactive football it is just not in Moyes nature to do so. It is a bit like asking Hibbert to go on mazy runs and bang the ball home from 30 yards - we all want to see it, but it is not what he does. What Hibbert does do well is defend. And what Moyes does well is set up his team to be hard to beat and win more than they lose. If Moyes suddenly started asking his team to just attack and don't worry about letting in 2 as long as we score 4, then I think you will get a team which lets in 4 and only scores 2.
We all complain when he plays players out of position, so why do we also complain when he plays to his own strengths?

 

[Marko Obradovic]

no bent,he is history

 

[TX Bill]

Spot on that article.