Sticks and Stones

According to some reports, Everton boss David Moyes believes that the form of his striker Andy Johnson has been adversely affected by suggestions that he might be a bit of a diver. So much so that after discussions with his manager he’s even gone so far as to “change his whole style of play”.

On the face of it, it seems strange that a top player could be so easily influenced by what people outside his club have said that he is driven to make changes in the way he plays the game. And by doing so he perhaps exposes himself to charges of being over-sensitive and over-reacting to the kind of criticism that every professional player should become accustomed to receiving, and be resilient enough to deal with comfortably.

As for Moyes, he too is becoming defensive. It has been suggested that in the light of all the problems surrounding Johnson, he has declared emphatically that managers “should not talk about other clubs’ players”.

In the light of that, it might be an interesting exercise to sift through the archives to discover if Moyes has ever remarked on players who represent other clubs.