Everton 1-1 Stoke

David Moyes had no choice but to hold his hands up and take the blame for Everton’s disappointing 1-1 home draw with Stoke City.

Stoke took the lead early in the second half after Robert Huth was allowed a free header from Matthew Etherington’s corner. Given Huth’s enormous size you’d think that one of the Everton players would have though it worthwhile to mark him, but none of them did and the German was able to tuck away an easy chance.

The away side’s lead was short-lived though as Leon Osman drew Everton level with a fantastic strike from the corner of the box. It looked as though Osman was going to play a one-two with Johnny Heitinga, who had a good game at centre half, but instead the stand-in captain opted to turn inside and curl a beautiful left-footed shot beyond Thomas Sorensen.

While Tony Pulis’ collection of grocks are well-organised and very dangerous from set-pieces, they’re really not up to much when it comes to retaining possession and Everton were able to control the majority of the game fairly comfortably. That was until David Moyes got a bit desperate in his search for a winning goal and decided to withdraw Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and Osman, replacing them with Yakubu and Jo. The manager himself summed the double substitution up perfectly:

“I think it was a poor decision by me, we lost our shape. You always look at yourself first and I didn't think today that worked”.

As well as Moyes has done for Everton over the past seven years there’s still doubts over his ability to successfully change a game from the bench. Bilyaletdinov struggled to have an impact on the game, especially in the second half, but Osman was playing well and doing his best to provide a creative spark in the absence of the injured Steven Pienaar.

Once Yakubu and Jo were on Everton had no width at all and were left with no option other than to flood the box and hope for a lucky bounce. It’s really not good enough against any opposition, but especially not when you’re playing Stoke City at home.

Moyes finally has genuine options available to him in midfield and attack, and he’s going to have to make some big decisions and consider dropping one of his favourites. If Tim Cahill isn’t doing a good enough job in centre midfield then he should be taken off. Moving him out to the right wing, where he’s totally ineffective, because he might pop up and score from a set-piece or something is ridiculous.

Hopefully Moyes’ post-match comments are an indication that we’ve seen the last of him trying to shoehorn players into the team based on their reputation and pricetags.