Twelve games into this season and questions are now being asked whether or not there is any difference between Moyes’ team last season and this current side? Aside from different personnel, I can’t see many differences. We’re pretty much seeing the same thing this season as we did last campaign.
I guess one difference is that we’re trying to get our full backs forward more but that is leaving us massively exposed at the back. I think if this is how it’s going to be then we need to change for a little bit. We need to be more solid at the back, even more so away from home.
Fans generally are more accepting of being compact and hard to break down away from home. If you want to play with a back five, then that’s OK because there’s an emphasis on the home team to attack.
But when you’re the home team, you have a duty to play attacking football and take the game to the other team. I was at the Everton game and I’d long gone before the final whistle went. I’m sure there were many fans who were distraught at what they saw that day.
It really was two bang-average sides giving the ball away to each other with not a lot happening. We had to do more in that game to try and score, especially off the back of the performance at Forest and what happened at Spurs.
When you’re at home, you’ve got to try to take the handbrake off because that’s what fans want to see at home. It’s not been a great few weeks for us at all and if this had been last season, and if it was Moyes in the dugout, there would’ve been cries for him to get sacked.
It’s all very disjointed at the moment and I think we’re still in a position of needing the players to adapt to the new system but also the manager recognising that things need to change. When you play in certain positions, you know there are certain things you need to do.
If you are going forward when the play is progressing, you don’t want to be going forward on the opposite side of the pitch because if it breaks down there’s a massive great big hole there. Yes, you can still look to get forward but pick your time, and as it’s progressing then you might start to go when you’re sure it’s going to come over your side.
Or maybe we need to look at it the other way and just pick a back four that are just going to defend, and have a more ‘Thou shall not pass’ attitude. At the moment, teams have figured us out and there’s massive great big holes on both sides.
Another option might be to have three at the back because then there’d be safety in numbers. We’d have a spare defender so if our attack does break down or there is a turnover, then we’d have more defenders back than they’ve got attackers. Another thing that hasn’t been helping us at the moment has been our discipline and the red cards we’ve received lately.
With the Kudus sending off at Spurs, that was just a rush of blood. I’m sure if he was in a similar situation again that he would act differently. But you just can’t lift your arms up anymore, can you? And the way the opposition reacts to stuff these days then you can see why he’s got an extra two games, mainly because of the length of time it all went on and how many times he has lifted his arms up.
As for the Alvarez sending off, I couldn’t understand that. That was bordering on either stupidity or naivety, one or the other. We had six or seven players coming back and they only had one lad running in the corner and someone 25 yards out so it wasn’t a necessity for him to dive in as he did, especially after just being booked as well.
He’s an international – you wouldn’t expect school boy stuff from him. But he’s not had a brilliant season for us so far. If you look at probably most of the clips of him playing, he always seems to be running back to goal but never quite getting there to shut someone down.
Either he’s always in the wrong position, or we’re just so open that it’s making him even more exposed. So where is it all going wrong? I think it’s a combination of things.
But really this is what happens when a team is not doing particularly well and all those little things add up. The only good thing about the Everton game was that we weren’t beaten. That would have been a disaster, and that might have sealed the manager’s fate.
I know it’s early days but you could just feel that tension within the ground. Obviously the fans were waiting for something to happen and actually, nothing was really happening. No disrespect to Everton but you’re looking at that game as a must-win game really because we’ve got Newcastle and Arsenal coming up.
We’ve then got three must-win games against Leicester, Wolves and Bournemouth and between now and then, things have got to change and change quite quickly. I don’t think it’s too early to question the manager but I don’t think we should be pressing the button and doing it now.
Why? Because whoever comes in next will have the same players and won’t be able to do anything drastic straight away. Questions will always be asked though because that’s the nature of the beast.
When a new manager comes in there’s a honeymoon period, and depending on what happens on the pitch, that gets shorter if people aren’t seeing what they want to see.
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