David Moyes: The Everton View

Article by Kenneth Jarvis

All the luck in the world seems to be against David Moyes at the moment. They do say in sport that you make your own luck and that was definitely the case on Wednesday night as a long standing problem he had at Everton reared it's head again. This problem is Moyes' attitude to being ahead in big games. Whereas Sir Alex Ferguson would keep the game positive, control possession and see out the win, Moyes makes defensive substitutions, sits back and tries to sit on the lead. The result is usually, as it was against Sunderland, that the team comes back into the game.

This happened at Everton a lot, much to the frustration of the fans. Never was this more evident than in the 2012 FA Cup semi-final vs Liverpool when he tried to defend a lead for over an hour after Jelavic put Everton ahead after 24 minutes. The result was an inevitable 2-1 loss.

When Moyes got the job at Manchester United I expected him to change this attitude as the level of players that he was now working with meant he could be more confident in playing aggressive, winning football. The way Man Utd have player for the last quarter of a century. However old habits die hard and he must realise that his approach to games needs to change if he wants to be successful.

Moving on to one of his other traits at Everton and that was putting square pegs in round holes so to speak. Whether is was playing Phil Neville in the centre of midfield or Leon Osman on the right wing, he always seemed adamant on getting his favourite players in the team by any means possible. Even playing Tim Cahill up front for a while. This has been seen at Man Utd again, even when this time he has a much bigger squad to choose from. The constant misuse of Shinji Kagawa is a source of frustration as he is the type of player who could light up the league when played in the right position. Instead he has been forced out wide which has meant he has not been able to play his natural game to a point where is seems it is now affecting his confidence. Moyes has never been a fan of the number 10 role. Over the last few years Everton have had Osman, Bilyaletdinov and recently Barkley who favoured that position but were either played elsewhere or not at all, often in favour of Fellaini who is a natural defensive midfielder.

The possible signing of Juan Mata will again see another talented player played out of position, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him and Kagawa operating on either wing. Everyone seems to know what type of player Man Utd need which is a central midfielder like Thiago, Gundogan or dare say, Paul Pogba but Moyes seems to think otherwise. He was a genius in the transfer market for Everton which is a massive reason that Roberto Martinez has been left the platform that he has, however if the Mata deal goes ahead then it seems like Moyes will be left with over 60m pounds worth of midfielders in Felllaini and Mata that he didn't even need as Carrick and Kagawa can more than fill those roles.

Moyes was fantastic for Everton, building the club up from relegation scrappers to European football. Another one of his attributes at Everton was the ability to come out fighting when their backs were against the wall. Be it an injury crisis or one of the many great comebacks he inspired when the chips were down, you could never write Everton off. This same fire and fighting spirit seems to be missing at the moment and doesn't seem to convey the same authority or confidence that he had at Everton. If he finds it then I still think he can be successful at Manchester United, but his time is quickly running out.

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