It was Cahill who ended the campaign as top scorer and received the Player of the Season award. The season was also memorable for the victory over Liverpool on 11 December - the club's first win over the local neighbours since Having defeated Liverpool in the league, Everton also beat Rafael Benitez's side to a place in the Champions League qualifying positions. But as the manager worked to add further quality to his ranks, a spate of injuries coupled with the need for the new faces to settle on Merseyside led to a poor run of form, which resulted in the Toffees missing out on the group stages of the Champions League and then losing out in the UEFA Cup to Dinamo Bucharest.
But domestically, the side's form picked up in October - buoyed by a Goodison draw with Chelsea that ended the champions' per cent start to the season. Van der Meyde proved to be an instant hit with the Goodison faithful, whilst Arteta underlined his class operating in a number of positions in midfield. The Spanish playmaker provided the creative spark for a transformation in form that saw the Blues rise from the relegation zone over Christmas to 11th spot by the end of the season.
The fine form of continued into the new season. Despite a tough start to the campaign the Blues remained unbeaten until October, securing memorable victories over Liverpool and Tottenham en route. In fact, the win over Liverpool at Goodison was the biggest recorded by the Blues against their local rivals in the history of the Premier League.
That provided the springboard for a great season in which summer arrivals Joleon Lescott, Andy Johnson and Tim Howard proved key figures. Johnson ended as top scorer with 11 goals, whilst Arteta was once again named Player of the Season as Everton remained in prime position for European qualification, finally finishing sixth on the coat-tails of Tottenham. And some campaign it would prove to be.
A defeat at the Stadio Artemio Franchi left the Blues with it all to do in the second leg yet goals from Johnson and Arteta forced extra-time and ultimately a penalty shootout. It ended in disappointment but Everton had turned heads in the competition - in the same way they were, once again, in the Premier League.
He would capture the imagination of the Everton faithful with his famous observation that "Everton is the People's Club in Liverpool" and his impact on the team was almost as instantaneous.
His Everton career was just 21 seconds old when David Unsworth rammed home the first goal under his stewardship in a home game against Fulham that the Blues went on to win despite having Thomas Gravesen sent off. The new man's enthusiasm and powers of motivation would prove invaluable in galvanising a squad that had been much maligned under his predecessor.
Three more victories, including a goalfest at Derby County in his second match, and a draw at Leicester would be enough to secure safety with room to spare. Moyes's first season at Everton was a revelation, with the Blues spending an extended period in the heady heights of the Premier League top four and establishing themselves in the top six between November and May, only to fall into seventh on the final say of the season and miss out on Uefa Cup qualification to Blackburn Rovers.
Though they would put together one more run of three consecutive victories in the New Year, seven wins from their last 20 League games was not enough to keep Moyes's side in the top six. Nevertheless, compared with the struggles in the wrong half of the table that had dogged Everton for years prior to his arrival, Moyes's initial impact had been impressive.
If his first full season had been a pleasant surprise, Moyes's second was something of a reality check for all concerned and the manner in which his team's form collapsed in the final weeks of the campaign amid speculation that he had "lost the dressing room" would pose his second daunting challenge as Everton manager.
Things went awry for the Blues more or less from the outset of the campaign, with a return of just one win from their first five games. As Moyes tried to find the right balance in a team that now featured the precocious talents and attitude of one Wayne Rooney, that record didn't really improve until a purple patch of three wins and a draw from five league games in December that, in hindsight, kept the club in the Premier League that season. The standard of football exhibited by his players deteriorated into a more direct approach that was short on guile and long on grit and physique while his increasing emphasis on hard work, effort, work rate, and other such industrial metrics didn't appear to sit well with many of his players, including — crucially — some of the veteran players.
The manager's intransigence in the face of resistance from his squad and the consequent impact on morale saw the Blues slump to the lowest points total in a season using 3 points for a win for any Everton side in over years! Things had degenerated to such an alarming impasse that, as soon as the security of 39 points was attained, the players appeared to have given up in a sulk, culminating in the atrocious at Manchester City on the final day.
Though there were a multitude of factors involved in the departure in the summer of of arguably the best home-grown Everton player in decades, Moyes's inflexible approach may have been key to the loss Wayne Rooney.
Though many pundits predicted that Everton would struggle without Rooney, Moyes and his players defied those negative prophesies and the odds by securing a fourth-placed finish for the first time in the Premier League era.
At the heart of that impressive campaign was a new-found resilience, defensive imperviousness and team spirit that saw the Blues grind out an impressive number of narrow, one-goal victories. Increasingly crucial also was Moyes's eye for players that had seen him draft in combative and committed attacking midfielder Tim Cahill from Millwall and, in January , Mikel Arteta on loan from Real Sociedad to replace midfield linchpin Thomas Gravesen.
Moyes took EFC to 4th but he criminally failed to capitalise on the only window of opportunity he created to move the Club on. And playing the direst excuse for football. So one-dimensional and tactically homogenous that the whole world and his dog had worked out how to stop Everton winning for the rest of the season. It looks like he's going to play Beattie and Johnson as two centre forwards without buying any wingers or changing the system that continuously boots the ball in the direction of goal from centre-midfield, meaning there will now be two forwards receiving the ball with their backs to goal and having to beat the opposition's central defence every single time.
Moyes extended Ferguson's contract to continue this useless and easily-defended and boringly predictable mono-option. This year aside, why have the 6 years of Moyes never produced a cup run? We might stifle them and draw a few games and even win the odd one, when they are less than focussed, but would they fear us in terms of losing to us?
I think not. He is dour, tactically aloof, very reactionary, and at times follows rather than leads. At times he could be brilliant — at Man City away, he had the players so fired up Everton destroyed them and on top of that he nearly chinned Mancini. But then there are matches like Fiorentina away and the FA Cup Final where we meekly waved the white flag, crushed by the weight of negativity and the inferiorty complex that goes with.
Regardless of what has gone before, what money is available, what the board do or don't do, a manager picks a team from the players who are fit, motivates the less able ones, decides the tactics and should adapt them to the circumstances.
David Moyes should be judged on the results and performances on the pitch. Negative tactics and bizzare team selection and substitutions, downbeat press conferences and that stare of defeat on the sideline suggested Moyes was getting tired and jaded. But it's not all about money: coaching is about tactics, reading the game, techinical ability, getting the best out of the players he has, noit whinging about the players he might have had. Moyes knew in the summer of that no funds were available so why come out with those words to Talksport.
There's the seeds for the cash for a new striker. Moyes knew the injury record of Saha, knew also that Anichebi and Yak were coming back from serious injuries. He was content to go into the season with a broken down attack. He won't go head to head with Kenwright, as Kenwright bought him, body and soul.
Hence he will not confront or lay bare his Chairman over lack of investment in the team. Moyes is a great manager for a smaller club. A club that is battling relegation. Moyes gets them into mid-table or even higher, on a shoestring with no ambition. Moyes instills a backs-against-the-wall mentality, a them-against-us attitude. This would all befine if he was the manager of a small club. Everton were a small club when Moyes took over, constantly fighting relegation.
However, Moyes has rightly so taken Everton up a level, to where they should be, but Everton deserve more with their fanbase and history. The fans want more and are not content for midtable mediocrity. Now, Everton need to be looking up rather than looking down. Firstly, the board don't have the money or the club doesn't generate the money to be able to push on, which is a management problem. Secondly, Moyes doesn't have the tactical nous to be a top manager. He has struggled with team selection when he has had options to choose from.
Moyes is simply not cut out to be a top manager. Everton will not be a top team again whilst Moyes is manager and whilst the board can't provide funds. Unfortunately, it is a Catch On 22 May , Moyes resigned as Sunderland manager after the club finished bottom of the Premier League, before he replaced Slaven Bilic at West Ham less than six months later.
A veteran of over matches managed in the Premier League with Everton, Man Utd, Sunderland and the Hammers, Moyes is now back in his second stint with the east London club.
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