Not the most glamorous team nor the one with the biggest budget, Real Sociedad don’t have to look far for evidence David Moyes is the right man to replace Jagoba Arrasate. His long tenure at Everton came under precisely those conditions and it’s no exaggeration to say the Scot thrived.
Forget the pressurised, struggling soul who lasted less than a season at Manchester United – that’s not the real Moyes. At Everton, Moyes – and his team – was pugnacious, effective and robust, with more than a dash of quality. Moyes did after all sign Leighton Baines, Mikel Arteta and Steven Pienaar, three of the most skilful Everton players in a generation.
Moyes’ image as dour and old-fashioned is not entirely the making of his disastrous spell at Old Trafford, but it is unfair. While it can’t be denied he is a safety-first tactician, ensuring the defence is well-drilled and adequately protected before giving licence to creative players further forward, there’s plenty to admire about and learn from his time at Goodison Park.
Both Arteta and Pienaar were lost souls when they arrived in Liverpool, initially on loan, Arteta ironically unhappy at Anoeta. Moyes eventually found ways to fit them into his system and they thrived.
He also turned up bargains, a category to which Arteta and Pienaar also belong as well as Tim Cahill, Seamus Coleman and plenty others. Picking up rough diamonds and capitalising on quality players unwanted elsewhere are both qualities La Real should welcome.
Safety-first isn’t always a bad thing either and certainly not for a team that can’t match firepower with the League’s big boys. There are most definitely times when Moyes’ successor Roberto Martinez could do with introducing a bit of risk-management as well, as more than a year into his stewardship the Toffees still make sloppy mistakes in defence and concede possession in dangerous areas.
That’s not to say Moyes’ is without flaws and Evertonians witnessed plenty of them in 11 years. The supporters bristled whenever Moyes suggested Everton couldn’t beat a richer team away from home and, once, hinted they shouldn’t even try.
Downplaying Everton’s chances no doubt helped Moyes’ reputation – reinforcing the idea Everton were outmatched meant his poor record in away games at Champions League teams was never really questioned – but it did little for the fans’ morale.
It’s also true that for almost every successful signing made by Moyes, there is an unsuccessful one to counter. For Cahill, Pienaar and Arteta, see Per Kroldrup, James Beattie and Andy van der Meyde. In more than a decade any Coach will make signings that don’t work out but at a club with a limited budget – such as Everton and Sociedad – those errors are particularly costly.
Questions over his tactical nous were raised at United and they lingered at Everton too. Moyes never did get two strikers to play well together for an extended period of time and his innate caution meant winnable matches were sometimes drawn or lost as he hesitated in going in for the kill.
But the din surrounding his failure at United was such that the memory of his good work at Everton was drowned out. Martinez’s success in his place has contributed to that too, with Moyes seemingly regarded as a weight that held Everton back, not the driving force that restored Everton’s dignity. He took over in March 2001 when Everton were staring relegation in the face. Four years later they were in the Champions League, however briefly.
La Real aren’t nearly as low now as Everton were more than 13 years ago. Moyes is different too, the battle-scarred old hack, not the up-and-coming youngster. Yet he had something to prove then and he has something to prove now. He was the wrong man at the wrong time at United. At Real Sociedad, Moyes may have found the platform to rebuild what was a well-deserved reputation.
