Liverpool 1 Everton 0
David Moyes said that he didn’t think Everton deserved to lose the derby.
He’s wrong.
If Rafael Benitez came on the telly after a game, took the apple out of his mouth and said something like that you wouldn’t be able to hear yourself think for the sound of splitting sides and heads being laughed off.
Everything was set for us to go there and turn them over, something no Moyes team has done yet. And let’s be honest, Liverpool lived up to their part of the deal by being utter shite. Lucas Leiva, Emiliano Insua, David Ngog and Sotirios Kyrgiakos are Portsmouth players. To top it off, the Greek yard-dog got sent off after half an hour yet Everton failed to create more than a couple of half chances against ten men.
Some of the tackles throughout were disgraceful – shithouse tackles as Alan Stubbs would have described them. Jamie Carragher should have been booked for going through Steven Pienaar in the first minute – the South African should have been sent off for a horror challenge over-the-top on Javier Mascherano. Eventually Pienaar was dismissed in the dying moments of the match for his second yellow card. No one cared by that point though.
In the clash of really shit barnets, Kyrgiakos’s two-footed lunge at Fellaini was awful, but the Belgian was equally culpable of going over the ball and stamping on the Liverpool man. He deserved to go too – as it was though, he ended up limping off with an ankle injury and was replaced by Mikel Arteta.
When Liverpool were reduced to ten men in the FA Cup at Goodison last season, the Spaniard absolutely tortured them. He’s still miles away from full fitness though and struggled to make any impact here. With hindsight then, perhaps Moyes should have tried something else. Would moving Phil Neville into midfield have made a difference though, or throwing Diniyar Bilyaletdinov on and shifting Pienaar into the centre? Or would we simply have been outfought regardless of what the manager did?
Because that’s what happened. Liverpool sat back and with the onus on Everton to attack they just froze. Perhaps they thrive on being the underdogs too much, because given every possible advantage they simply seemed unable to force the pace and dictate the game. It was pathetic.
As was the defending for their goal, on 55 minutes. Tim Howard’s been great for Everton, but fucking hell he’s a big tart whenever anyone comes near him. Steven Gerrard’s corner was right into the centre of the six-yard box; all the keeper had to do was catch it and smash right through Dirk Kuyt and Phil Neville, who inexplicably stood on the wrong side of the Nik Nak-faced Dutchman. Instead, Howard flapped like an old woman with a wasp in the car, allowing Kuyt to head home the softest of winners.
Fat-necked substitutes Yakubu Aiyegbeni and Victor Anichebe had glimpses of goal during the token push at the end of the match, but Everton never seriously looked like scoring. The only real chance came just before half time when Tim Cahill put a diving header over the bar.
We’ve saved their season there. With results elsewhere going their way, they are starting to look favourites for fourth place again, and all the talk will be about their fighting spirit in the face of adversity. And be honest, that’s what they showed, because we let them by being a shower of bottlers.
To echo what almost everyone has said in the wake of what was an absolute embarrassment: just fuck off Everton.
- BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
- « Sleep Deprivation
- » Reflections
- BROWSE / IN Match Reports
- « Wigan Athletic 0 Everton 1
- » Everton 2 Chelsea 1
- RELATED / YOU MIGHT FIND THESE INTERESTING No related posts
COMMENTS / 30 COMMENTS
Nail On Head « Daly Stew
February 8th 2010
[...] “The You’ll Never Walk Again Derby”. My thoughts agree with the sentiments of Mark O’Brien’s report at When Skies Are Grey- we bottled it. And while I’m sure I’ll feel differently in a few days, for now, yes, [...]
Nail On Head | Latest News India | Education News | Technology News | Entertainment News | Business News | Sports News
February 8th 2010
[...] “The You’ll Never Walk Again Derby”. My thoughts agree with the sentiments of Mark O’Brien’s report at When Skies Are Grey- we bottled it. And while I’m sure I’ll feel differently in a few days, for now, yes, [...]
BrissleBlueExile
February 7th 2010
You’re right there, MoB. Watched it in our clubhouse, allowing a moment of These are Shite to cross me mind just before kick off. Got unreasonably agitated when the ref bottled it as CarraLa waved his The First Foul Is Free voucher and Peanut disappeared in his own red mist. Timmy’s miss spoiled me half time pint. Went out to play footie with the kids at the bottom end of the ground after an hour, then watched a full on match with both keepers quite capable of punchin fckn balls out of their 6 yard box. That was truly dreadful, that. Only consolation was Ciren ended Frome’s magnificent 5 month unbeaten run. Pfft, some consolation.
John Parker
February 7th 2010
Your “the Nik Nak-faced Dutchman” ! Couldn’t stop laughing. Cheered me up no end after that shambles of a match.
Stephen Patrick
February 7th 2010
I do think the situation cried out for a bit of width (“that’s what she said”…and Coleman was the only real sub who would have provided that, and it would have meant Neville moving into midfield to provide a cooler head. Whether or not it was too much of a powder keg to risk throwing young Coleman into doesn’t matter now anyway, but i doubt he could have been a worse idea than throwing on three not fit substitutes. He may even have had an overlap or two with the semi(said the American way)-impressive Donovan. Who knows Coleman may have actually shown Pienaar what a bit of composure was as his head clearly wasn’t on playing football. ..maybe the prospect of a return to Germany with Bayern is playing on his mind, but he’s not been the same since those rumours started. Anyway, Hibbert should be fit soon so there’s a nice thought to keep us happy.
Oscar_
February 7th 2010
Nail on the head
Paul James
February 7th 2010
Lovely bit of censorship there.
I wasn’t embarrassed by yesterday. Disappointed yes, embarrassed no.
We’ve been ‘embarrassed’ in a more severe manner and on more occassions this season than yesterday. 1-6 Arsenal, 0-5 Benfica, 2-3 Hull, 0-3 Man Utd and 1-2 Birmingham were all far worse. Birmingham in the Cup was by far the biggest disappointment of the season.
Everyone really needs to a grip. Still plenty to play for.
Blue Scouse
February 7th 2010
Excellent article, spot on, im sure it sums up the feelings of most Evertonians. Thats twice in 4 years Moyes has lost the Anfield derby despite the advantage of playing against ten men, i suppose it shows his lack of tactical accuman.
And for him to say we didn’t deserve to lose was just embarrassing as the shite fully deserved it.
sisyphus
February 7th 2010
Watching Chelsea today its clear where we are glaringly lacking. Physical strength and bottle. Besides Heitinga and Fellaini we ahve a load of skilful but shithouse players who duck out of 50-50s. In todays game strength and guile are both important. And Tim Howard you are one big shithouse and a liability.
EB
February 7th 2010
Fully agree with what has been said. This really was a woefully inept performance given how poor thos Liverpool side and if we are honest they wanted it more – and not for the first time. That used to be our thing in derbies. What p**ses you off more it the pre-match talk from likes of Cahill, Neville, Osman about how we should all believe we can go there and win it, its our time etc followed by that gutless performance The latter in particular was completely anonymous. We seem to have no ideas at all despite all our creative players being back and ended up lumping it to Saha up front. I am not sure whether, post match, Moyes was holding back on critising the players given the demanding month ahead but I really can’t believe that he felt that was good enough. 60% possession and two shots!
JoeyR Lid
February 7th 2010
suppose its a sign of how we’ve come that our team looked stronger than theirs and sky/radio were asking whether liverpool were favourites – but it only makes it more galling to go there and play as badly as we did.
Chuluun
February 7th 2010
Good call EB, now’s not the time for the manager to be undermining the players publicly, but I’m sure privately it’ll be a different matter.
But m_ob is right, that display was more embarrassing than being twatted by a clearly superior side, because it was completely inexplicable. Seems like we get sucked into a shin-kicking contest against Liverpool every time when we haven’t really been equipped to win it since about 1996.
Not looking for excuses, we thoroughly deserved to lose, but if Carragher had been penalised and warned in the first minute, and Mascherano booked a few minutes later, it would have been a different game. Maybe the League was trying to improve the red-card record of this fixture by appointing a ref who hadn’t given one out in 20 games — bad call, resulting in the nastiest 45 minutes of ‘football’ I’ve seen for a long time.
davo
February 7th 2010
m_ob excellent article summed up the match perfectly. Theres too many this season with heads in other places Saha should have been dragged off in the first half his useless half hearted strolls up front whilst contemplating which team paying top dollar he can drop into come next season. Moyes is tactically inept why does he always wait till the last 20 mins or so before trying to change it when we are losing and becoming more and more desperate. Our play is the same old predictable shit and we completely run out of ideas playing constant high balls around the box which are bread and butter for the opposition. Why the fuck does Moyes not tell them to play it on the floor we have enough skill (on paper) to play good football but just never do. Arteta although clearly not fit at least tried to play good football and created space and good movement. Its clear this season Moyes just cant motivate this squad this is going to be a bad month!
adi_dassler
February 7th 2010
couldn’t be more spot on!
our manager could do with reading something like this.
if he really believes we deserved anything other than a loss, he is a tit.
henno05
February 7th 2010
An absolutely brilliant article, and anyone who is just disappointed and not embarrassed needs to raise their standards
An absolute let down
Gooom
February 7th 2010
spot on. let’s hope the Daily Post publishes this article eh?
tattyhead
February 7th 2010
Moyes was at chelsea today, here’s betting he apppears on MOTD2 later. One assumes he wont repeat that we were the better team.
Domingo Don
February 8th 2010
You nearly said it all Mark but the fact is that if Liverpool had been asked what they most wanted they’d have said “a battle”.
I’m a Moyes fan but when the hell is he going to try to get this squaaaaaad to realise that sometimes THEY have to set the tempo, and the style, and actually have to make the ball go in the direction of the opposition goal to actually score (check how many times we score three goals in a match, season after season)?
It pisses me off that some of our millionaire family members pay great tribute to the pleasures of being in that family. Some of these guys, Moyes included, need to realise that after another monumentally disappointing day such as Saturday, 99.9999% of that family are really really pissed off with the other 0.0001%!
They can do it their way David, and win. It’s up to you to instill this in them, and up to them to then have the bottle to simply do their fucking job, their way, and not the opposition’s.
Nab
February 8th 2010
I agree with all of the stuff said already.
Just trying to think how Moyes could say Everton didn’t deserve to lose. Maybe he was basing his comment on the first 30 minutes of the first half and the first 5 minutes of the second. Based on that 35 minute spell, we probably didn’t to lose. Maybe he was basing his comment on the fact that we had a one-man advantage. Based on that advantage we didn’t deserve to lose. Maybe he was basing his comment on our general form coming into the match. Based on that we may not have deserved to lose.
Bollocks. Lose we certainly did — and in a really bad way too. Liverpool hardly ‘won’ the game as much as we lost it for them.
Where do you even start dissecting such an appalingly pathetic performance?
What I would have given to have had the tables turned — that WE had been reduced to 10 men, and then come away with a 1-0. How inspiring would that have been?
milo
February 8th 2010
Simply awful. An utterly disgraceful performance. Three times under Moyes they’ve been reduced to ten men at Anfield, and we’ve gone on to lose each of them. Twice it’s happened at nil nil. If any match ever screamed “glass ceiling” then that’s it. We deserved nothing. That’s the worst bit. There’s literally nothing we can point to and say that we were hard done by about. Abject.
Gavo
February 8th 2010
Bottled it is the word. Time after time it happens and i for one have had enough. Moyes record in these Derbies is absolutely awful both home and away and after saturdays chance to beat them i can honestly say i havent got a clue when we’ll ever beat them again. No positives at all to take from it. As for ime Howard and his inability to command his own 6 yrd box, never mind the 18 yr box. Anyone near him an he flaps, shuts his eyes and hopes for the best. Deserved to get beat and they all need to get their fingers out.
Sly Stallone
February 8th 2010
Can we ask Joe Royle to manage us again just for the Derby games.
Honestly, Moyes hasn’t got a fooking clue how to win them. His post match comments were laughable too.
Spikester
February 8th 2010
A Dithering Blue Haze
After watching what the mighty Wigan almost did to us in the previous game I was certain that cunning fat Spanish fox would do the same and stop any progress down the flanks and generally stifle our creativity. Precisely what Joe Royle’s aptly named Dogs of War did in every Derby when he was in charge.
Let’s face it Moyes doesn’t think quick enough and never has a plan B.
Now don’t get me wrong I’m grateful for what he’s done For Everton so far with very little money (as he keeps reminding us at every opportunity), but quite honestly he needs to get his head out of his arse if he thinks we deserved anything at Anfield. Arteta was never the answer in a derby filled with punishing tackles. He isn’t fit and he certainly was in no mood to put his body on the line after such a lay off. Neville was perhaps the answer, with Coleman in at right back bombing forward. The only way we were going to break fat Rafa’s two banks of four was to run at them. Failing that why not go 4-4-2 as soon as the big Greek yard dog got his marching orders? And Piennar needed to come off. Carragher had put the shits up him in the first minute and quite frankly he didn’t look like he had the stomach for any more of it. Billy hasn’t set the world alight yet and he’s slower than we’d like but I’d have thrown him on for the last twenty minutes. He scores goals and probably feels that he’s got a point or two to prove to Moysey.
No I’m afraid pretending we were better than we were just won’t wash. Wrong tactics, no plan B and woeful substitutions allied to our glorious leader who was lost in a dithering blue haze, all adds up to another win for the Spanish waiter. And you can’t fault his tactics. We just played into his hands.
We might get a corner against Chelsea if we’re lucky.
Twainy
February 8th 2010
The biggest disappointment for me apart from losing was our complete inability to get the ball and run at players. Time after time the ball went sideways in the middle of their half or they played silly one-twos on the right wlth Neville left facing an opponent and passing it backwards.
Sideways passing or lumping the long ball will never get us anywhere.
WTF were Yak and Victor on the bench for anyway? Are we still that short of players?
Woeful.
davo
February 8th 2010
Anyone else want to commend the wonderful acting by Gerrard to get Pienaar sent off at the end went down with tremendous skill and ability clutching his head in angst after Pienaar slightly nudged him to the shoulder. Even worse when the wanker was seen to smile 30 secs after the red card was shown!
Norman
February 8th 2010
It was a shocking game. Just glad we won. Everton were as poor as i’ve seen them this season which was strange because they have played some good stuff recently.
Liverpool? how difficult to watch are they. Is this the same team that beat Real Madrid 5-0? WTF has happened.
EB
February 8th 2010
Gerrard acts like an absolute c**t every single derby match, completely loses his head. Once again he was looking to influence the referee through the whole game, questioning every decision. The lad is an out and out cheat yet for some reason the media consistently choose to overlook it. His recent court case sums up what kind of person he is. Wish Duncan had been on there on Saturday!!
Gordon Clegg Out
February 9th 2010
Satdee’s ‘efforts’ must be up there with the worst derby performances of all time, we were rank. Moyes doesn’t seem to have a clue when given an avantage in a big game. And for him to say we didn’t deserve to lose was a joke, if the the boot was on the other foot and the FSW said that we’d be slaughtering him.
A day to forget.
Chuck Lee
February 9th 2010
Revolution means change, don’t look at me strange……..
bernie connor
February 9th 2010
well said mark, as spineless a performance as i’ve seen for some time. at that precise moment when we needed to get a grip, they bottled it, laid down and were dry-bummed by the most average lfc combination we may have ever seen. mr moyes needs to wake up and smell the palpable air of defeat. it stunk to the high heaven on saturday. it sems we can#t raise our gamer against what ammounted to bolton on a good day. and to paraphrase a rock’n'roll legend, ‘i’d be feeling a lot worse if i wasn’t under such heavy sedation.’
ADD YOUR COMMENT
