David Moyes: We just weren't good enough against Villa

Sep 24 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

FURIOUS David Moyes slammed his “powder puff” Everton side as the instigators of their own downfall at Villa Park yesterday.

Goals in either half from John Carew and Gabriel Agbonlahor consigned the visitors to a disappointing 2-0 defeat against Aston Villa.

Both strikes came following errors in the visiting defence, Carew netting after Everton failed to clear the ball and Agbonlahor later racing clear with Joseph Yobo waiting for an offside decision that never came.

Again without the injured Mikel Arteta, Moyes’s side struggled to create chances in falling to their second successive Premier League loss and the Everton manager said: “It wasn’t good enough. I thought we played better than we have done recently, but it was powder puff really.

“A lot of our play wasn’t penetrative enough. We didn’t force the issue and we were a bit lightweight.

“The defending for the two goals was just terrible. I don’t think if it gets worse than the goals we conceded.

“I thought we passed the ball better than Aston Villa on the day but I thought they had more penetration.

“I thought we’d limited to not many opportunities. We didn’t have many but I don’t think Villa caused us a great deal of problems, we were keeping the ball better and frustrating them a bit.”

Of Agbonlahor’s goal, Moyes added: “My first feeling was that he was onside. If you actually freeze it when it leaves the goalkeeper’s boot, he may just be offside. But the point is you must react and we didn’t react.

“Anyone who has played the game at amateur level knows you play to the referee’s whistle and when there’s no whistle you keep defending. Agbonlahor only ran the same distance our defenders could have run.”

Everton have now won just one of their last six games but Moyes believes yesterday’s performance was an improvement on recent home games against Manchester United and Metalist Kharkiv.

“I thought we created more today than we have done,” he said. “But there weren’t a lot. I didn’t think Villa created that much, they scored from a cross in the box and a scramble and the second one, was it or wasn’t it offside, they weren’t really goals created by Aston Villa.

“You won’t come here and get lots of chances, but our strikers need more service. The defenders need our strikers to score, so it works both ways.

“I don’t think there was a hangover from the European game at all. They were ready to play. We’ve played better than we have done, some players passed the ball and moved it, but we didn’t do well enough in both boxes and that’s what counts.

“It doesn’t matter what you do in the middle if you don’t score and defend like we did today.”

The defeat means the usually stingy Everton defence have conceded in every game this season.

And Moyes admitted: “It’s very concerning that we are not keeping any clean sheets. There are a couple of players not playing as well as they should be.

“But it’s the first time away from home since January that we’ve conceded more than once away from home, so let’s put it into perspective.

“And if you look at the two we conceded today, it was Fred Carno’s. We’d like to score one like they got today, some poor defending and the ball dropping in the box for them. We’re not getting that against us, but we’re making sure the opposition gets that chance.”

And the Everton chief said he had no worries about leaving out record signing Yakubu from the start.

“It wasn’t a hard decision," said Moyes."We have good players. I pick what I see and I will continue to do so.”