David Moyes

Disclaimer: this could be a very subjective post

Seeing some people complaining about the work of David Moyes has not been pleasant and has made me want to put up a post dedicated to how this team is only what it is due to his efforts. What irks me most is how people seem to complain that our team's lack of goals stems from how he plays a 4-5-1 formation instead of a 4-4-2(mainly seen in comments on the everton fb page). Well, a 4-4-2 with an extra striker does not guarantee more goals and i think everton is more fluid when playing the 4-5-1(except for the last match against man city where we mainly just cleared high balls away and an extra striker might have helped collected those). Moreover, the 4-5-1 formation we play involves both the central midfielders(now Fellaini and Gibson) advancing forward, which can arguably be said to be better than a 4-4-2 where there could be 2 defensive midfielders left behind. The only gripe i can have of our tactics is that there is a lack of initiative on counter attacks, when the players are content to slowly work the ball up. Credit to Moyes for everything else.

Another point in Moyes favour is his record in players. Players he identified and developed like Baines, Lescott and arguably Arteta have contributed a lot(both to our finances and results). He also has a great track record in recruiting players, namely Distin, Howard and Jagielka. The recruitment of Distin has been particularly rewarding in my opinion. Bilyaletdinov might be one exception though and i haven't been particularly convinced by Gibson despite his goal. And for strikers. Beckford seemed to be a good buy(at least i liked him) and we'll see about Jelavic.The biggest value i think Moyes gives us though, is his ability to get through to the players. Just look at the team spirit he forged in the team. Or look at Fellaini(whom i really think is appreciated for his heading but his tackling is even more awesome). Last season he was basically a liability despite his obvious abilities, with him being liable to attack other players any time and get sent off. Obviously Moyes got through to him, and he has not been so tempermental(look at him not beating up Dzeko yesterday despite lookng like me really want to).

So, to all those who's saying Moyes has taken us the furthest we can go, we need him and he's as good as any other manager and we'll be able to move up only with him.