David Moyes: Everton One Way Up In Premier League

Everton manager David Moyes has earned a reputation for leaving it late to steer the ship back on course (not unlike Manchester United), but the abysmal start to this season’s Premier League, with potentially disastrous consequences to the club’s fortune, has piled on doubts if David Moyes is the right man to propel the club to greater heights.

Even if Everton’s performances had at times surpassed its opponents and certainly don’t warrant relegation, the Premier League table doesn’t lie. The club languishes at bottom of the pile without a win this season following defeats to Blackburn, Aston Villa and Newcastle and draws with Wolves, Manchester United and recently, Fulham.

It is not the first time that Everton had started slowly. For the fifth time in nine seasons under David Moyes, the Toffees have failed to secure three points a game from their opening quintet of matches. This is the worst run yet..

One has to go back to 1994 to see Everton failing to win in 12 matches, a sham which eventually cost manager Mike Walker his job. But even if that streak is replicated today, I doubt David Moyes will be sacked in a hurry.

While betting houses have slashed their odds on his dismissal and the fans are getting restive with their increasingly prominent post-match boos, Chairman Bill Kenwright remains an avid fan of David Moyes’s managerial abilities and transfer dealings.

In David Moyes, he has a manager who delivered consistent top-six league placings over 8 years without miring the club in debts. There are more capable managers but they won’t come cheaply and Everton hardly feature as their preferred appointment.

It is David Moyes who is upset with himself for the club’s worst start in 16 years and may quit on his own accord. He was linked to Aston Villa and has no lack of suitors should he wish to advance his career, if Everton self-destruct and his painstaking work comes undone.

At the moment, there is nothing to suggest David Moyes’s loyalty has wavered. He is desperate to protect his legacy and set the situation right, beginning with Fulham last Saturday. The encounter was far from easy though as Everton had only won once at Craven Cottage since 1966.

Under Mark Hughes, the task of defeating Fulham became more arduous. Fulham had drawn virtually all their league fixtures and shown a lot of character to claw points from the opposition even when they were outmaneuvered. Besides a never-say-die spirit, Mark Hughes team is also known to be uncompromising. In fact, Hughes stressed on a tougher approach after Bobby Zamora and Moussa Dembele fell victim to bad tackles earlier.

Speaking of toughness, David Moyes is also keen for Everton to “return to some of the old ways.” He was upset with the character of his team and challenged his players to scrap their way back to form, saying: “The biggest concern for me is that we have lost our competitive edge in the last few games. The one thing you could never do was beat Everton up.”

With both managers upping the ante, this was bound to be a tight match. True to form, a goalless stalemate ensued, which means Everton are still seeking their first victory. On the positive side though, the Toffees got their first clean sheet of the season and things can’t get worse as they are already at the rock bottom of the Premier League. It is one way up from here, as David Moyes gallantly declared.

To be sure, Everton improved by leaps and bounds – the passing was fluent, forward play incisive and the midfield did not concede ground easily. Fulham were pinned back for long spells but despite being bossed around, its defense held firm, thanks to the efforts of goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

Steven Pienaar had the first chance for Everton but his shot was saved by Mark Schwarzer who was at full stretch again to meet Mikel Arteta’s dipping effort from 25 yards minutes later. Yakubu then wasted a Seamus Coleman cutback by attempting a fancy backheel with the goal gaping. The Nigerian had gilt-edged opportunities to make amends later but ended up empty-handed.

Well, if your strikers miss so many chances, you will have problems winning your opponents, even those from lower leagues. It is a sign of weakness and invitation for the other team to turn the table around. Fortunately, Fulham were tame in attack. If they had thrown caution to the wind, they actually stand a good chance of dealing the killer blow instead.

Tim Howard hardly saw action until Dickson Etuhu sent a diving header into his arms from Carlos Salcido’s cross. Everton survived a bigger scare when Sylvain Distin was caught out by a pass from Danny Murphy and Zoltan Gera pounced in for a shot which went wide. But that was as good as it got for Fulham.

The uplifting aspect from this encounter is that the Toffees rallied to their manager’s call for action by giving their all. Just days after the torrid performance against Newcastle United which Moyes described as their “worst,” the Merseyside club reached a new low when they were embarrassingly dumped out of the Carling Cup by League One strugglers Brentford.

Being eliminated, even by a lowly opponent, is secondary in the grand scheme of things. In fact, Everton should consider it a blessing in disguise as they can now focus on the Premier League with their limited resources. The worrying aspect is the players’ poor attitude – they didn’t share the manager’s anxiety in stopping the rot.

Everton could have emerged victors, had the superiority in the opening 20 minutes, an early lead and near misses not lull them into complacency. While Brentford hung on and increased the tempo, Everton caved in and nearly allowed the former to snatch victory in normal time. Hence, the Toffees cannot lament the 4-3 defeat in the penalty shoot-out which was already a luxury.

It was the same spiritless display against Newcastle United and David Moyes remarked that he will have joined the fans in booing the team too. Given that Newcastle had not won at Goodison Park since 2001, Everton were expected to seize the day and grab three points, but a solitary goal by the Magpies spoiled the party.

Not much separate the quality of players in both teams but Newcastle won on commitment and desire to win. Perhaps the Toffees didn’t feel a sense of urgency, believing that things will come good at the end of the season. However, if they continue to take things for granted, they will be the relegation candidate their position suggest.

At least, the Fulham match salvaged some pride for Everton and proved that character and technical abilities of the team are still intact. Now David Moyes has to fix the goal scoring department and leaky defense. Against Aston Villa, Everton forced 18 corners and pulverised the opponent but ended up in a 1-0 defeat. The wasteful finishing was also replicated at Brentford and Fulham.

Everton have always lacked depth in the striking department. If the first choice forwards are off-form, the back-ups proved inadequate too. So far, Everton had netted just four times in the Premier League and are awaiting the first goal on their travels. The fact that Everton’s top goalscorer is midfielder Tim Cahill (2 goals) also illustrates the strikers’ collective failure. Unfortunately, Cahill is out injured and his driving force is deeply felt.

Louis Saha can be a lethal poacher on his day but he is too injury prone. Manchester United didn’t extract much value out of him and David Moyes is still trying. Right now, Louis Saha has a calf injury sustained in the Aston Villa match which will put him out for at least 3 weeks and then he needs more time to regain match fitness. By the time he is back, the fight for European qualification is either lost or the team has already overcome the crisis.

Victor Anichebe is also facing a long spell on the sideline and has yet to feature this season. The Nigerian striker has been at Everton for seven years but has seen Louis Saha and new signing Jermaine Beckford pull ahead of him in the pecking order. He is a fringe player and could be out by the next transfer window if Newcastle make good on their interest with a reasonable offer.

The free-transfer summer recruit Jermaine Beckford is still finding his feet, though he shows great promise. Beckford scored 31 goals to fire Leeds United to promotion last season. He was subsequently named as the League One Player of the Year, an accolade he also collected in 2008.

Jermaine Beckford will bring pace and mobility to the Everton front line but it remains to be seen how he copes with the pressure and higher standard after jumping two divisions into the Premier League. For Everton, the best source of goals remain Aiyegbeni Yakubu, but his confidence and sharpness has plummeted.

There has been pressure on David Moyes to field two forwards to capitalize on the abundant chances but it will mark a drastic shift from his ultra-defensive 4-5-1 formation. I believe Moyes will not discard a formula which has worked wonders in the past and he lacks quality strikers to launch a two-pronged attack. Sometimes, more doesn’t mean better.

Besides the frontline, Moyes has to shuffle a limited pack in other departments too. Everton have a talented Team A with with strong work ethics. Mikel Arteta, Steven Pienaar and Leon Osman are great players who can step into any top-four clubs. Their presence allow Everton to dish out an attractive style of football where they create chances by fluent passing instead of launching the ball in mid-air and hoping to get lucky in the box.

But right now, most of Moyes starlets haven’t hit top gear and Team B doesn’t rise to the occasion when the regulars falter. The star pairing Mikel Arteta and Steven Pienaar need to rediscover much of their chemistry. Back-ups Marouane Fellaini and John Heitinga tried to helm the sputtering midfield but was no match for a swashbuckling Newcastle comprising of Joey Barton, Kevin Nolan and debutant Cheik Tiote.

Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and Magaye Gueye will take time to come good. As for youngster Seamus Coleman, he scored an inspiring goal against Brentford and has potential to be Everton’s answer on the right flank.

It may be too late to get reinforcements now and David Moyes can only hope the Toffees eradicate their mental block of being slow starters and regain confidence soon. Ironically, David Moyes may not have saw this crisis coming, else he could have made better use of the ‘Lescott money.’

Based on their steady pre-season preparations, the fans expect Everton to charge out at the starting gate. This year, Moyes made sensible changes in routines and arranged different fixtures. Short of tricking the players into believing they were heading into the second half of the season, there is not much to fault the pre-season.

An Australian tour produced six wins out of seven. This time, there was no transfer saga involving key players, unlike the tapping of Joleon Lescott by Manchester City last season which created much distraction and turmoil in the dressing room. Play-maker Mikael Arteta announced his commitment and desire to establish Everton in top four by signing a new deal, rejecting overtures from Arsenal and Manchester City.

David Moyes also had a fully fit team at his disposal (a rarity in recent seasons) which led Everton captain, Phil Neville, to proclaim that nobody’s spot is safe in the team because of the strong competition. Even Moyes was confident enough to say in pre-season: “We don’t have any money, but we don’t need any right now either.”

Well, six weeks on, David Moyes is having a hard time choosing his first XI for the visit to Craven Cottage, but not in the manner envisaged by Phil Neville. Injuries have decimated his squad and he has limited options to lead his frontline.

David Moyes has acknowledged that the lead comes from the manager in reversing the poor form. There is hope in history for a sterling comeback. Back in 1995, Everton with Joe Royle replacing Walker, went on to lift the FA Cup with an approach labeled The Dogs of War. Moyes’ Everton, finalists in 2009 and a more solid team, are capable of a repeat.

Currently, Everton is facing a confidence crisis and David Moyes has been encouraging the players that they are good while wielding a stick by asking them to earn the right to be in the first XI. Everton has to rediscover their fighting spirit, even at the expense of exquisite passing. In short, winning ugly with a physical approach.

In order to fulfill David Moyes one way up challenge, Everton had to get some consistency besides injecting more steel in their play. The week before, they managed a stirring comeback at home to Manchester United which was supposed to be a sign of good things to come, only to plummet to a new low in the Premier League.

I believe the acrimony swirling around Goodison Park is only temporary as Everton will again push for the Europa League places come May. David Moyes is an old hand in this game and will make sure that the crisis doesn’t consume the team. Last season, Everton took just 15 points from their opening 14 games but they proved their critics wrong eventually.

It may take another month or so before Everton move steadily up the table but with Tim Cahill’s imminent return, it will boost the team in terms of purpose, leadership and goals. I won’t be surprised if Everton start showing the mettle and character for which they are known for, when they go to Birmingham next and then facing Liverpool at Goodison Park.

Indeed, if Everton get a good run under their belt, they will be ready for the Merseyside derby which presents an excellent chance for them to destroy Liverpool, a club in turmoil from debts, new manager and exodus of players. And that will be a great morale booster. Stay tuned for updates..