Time is running out of Moyes on Wearside, and his ‘ugly’ brand of football is hardly helping to keep the fans on side.
Brazilian midfielder Rodrigo only made four appearances on loan at Everton but it was still long enough for his to realise that David Moyes’ sides play ‘ugly’ football, The Chronicle report.
Moyes transformed Everton from perennial Premier League strugglers into a side with genuine ambitions for Champions League qualification in a decade at Goodison Park, all the while forming a strong-willed side that typically found a way to bloody the nose of many an illustrious opponent.
Rodrigo, a forgettable loan signing from Brazilian outfit Botafogo in 2002/03, may not be one of the Scotsman’s most inspired discoveries while in charge of the Merseyside outfit but the midfielder admits that he has mixed memories of his brief time under the current Sunderland boss.
“Everton, despite being an average club, was a club that had a very special technical direction,” Rodrigo recalled to The Chronicle.
“[Moyes] had several post-training conversations with me, to ask how I liked to play, how I felt more comfortable on the pitch, for him to find a role where I could work on functions for the team.
“Everton had real English football. English with Scottish, because our manager was Scottish. So it was a fluid football, ugly to see. Much fight, a lot of competition and a little inspiration.”
Sunderland’s tally of two points from ten league games since Moyes’ appointment in the summer means they are officially the worst side in Premier League history at this stage of the season.
And, although the Wearsiders will certainly identify with Rodrigo’s quips about a lack of ‘inspiration’ on the pitch, they will be desperately hoping Moyes can emulate his superb work at Everton in the North East.
As it stands, however, he will be lucky to last another ten games, let alone ten years at the Stadium of Light.
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