Moyes hails Everton’s "say die" attitude
Wednesday 14 March 2012 12:03
He's back... former Pohnpei manager and outside bet for the England job Paul Watson chips in with the latest Back of the Net piece.
Everton manager David Moyes was full of praise for his players after last night’s 3-0 derby loss to Liverpool, hailing the Toffees’ dignified and placid subservience in the face of defeat.
Moyes’ men boosted their bid to finish exactly in mid-table by cancelling out a gutsy win over Tottenham with a lily-livered capitulation against their old rivals Liverpool, keeping them solidly anchored in ninth place behind teams who can score from open play but ahead of teams unable to take a long throw.
“It’s just fantastic to have a group of players that aren’t afraid to accept their limitations,” Moyes beamed after the final whistle.
“Rather than waste everyone’s time and risk heaping further indignity on themselves by attempting to rectify the situation with passes, crosses or shots, the lads have humbly capitulated.
“Many sides would see going behind in a derby just before half-time as a prompt to create some chances, but we weren’t remotely tempted to try and claw our way back into the game.”
While fans seemed unimpressed with Everton’s lack of spark, Moyes was seen applauding Steven Pienaar for time-wasting at 2-0 down and the manager himself insisted on inserting an ‘L’ in the fixture list on the club’s website several hours before kick-off, stressing that he was "saving the webmaster a job".
Despite their lack of chances, Everton had 47% of possession at Anfield. However, the figure could be misleading as much of that total came during a 12-minute period when the ball got stuck in Marouane Fellaini’s shirt, causing widespread embarrassment and frustration.
Previous stories:
Premier League defences terrorised by mysterious masked winger
Steve Bruce unable to explain football to a six-year-old
Wolves appoint man who claims he was McCarthy's assistant
Visiting Joe Cole wows Liverpool squad with French toast
Kenwyne Jones bunks off Stoke training to play football
De Gea: If I stare at the floodlights I see angels
Ball still bobbling around in Villa box, three days later
Wigan given permission to talk to Maynard, but not about football
Banana touted as potential banana skin for Hull
Nobody able to explain why Tony Hibbert is in Gabon
Spurs target found to be carefully-arranged pile of shoeboxes
O'Neill creates "stunning" rogan josh from contents of Bruce's pantry
Paul Watson's book Up Pohnpei: A Quest to Reclaim the Soul of Football by Leading the World's Ultimate Underdogs to Glory is available now