Source: Liverpool_Echo
David Moyes must buy and quick: Everton FC latest
A WEEK might be a long time in politics, but the next seven days will see David Moyes racing frantically against time.
Given that football is now played out against a backdrop of hype, with every win being trumpeted as the start of something big and each defeat greeted as the start of meltdown, suggestions that Everton are a club on the brink of a crisis after two defeats are inevitable.
Such claims, of course, are completely unhelpful - not to mention wide of the mark - but if this kind of talk is going to be nipped in the bud sooner rather than later, Moyes must embark on a sustained recruitment drive.
Goodison Park's transfer kitty is set to receive a significant boost today when Manchester City sign Joleon Lescott for a fee in excess of £21m but the manager now faces a new problem - spending it.
The window, after all, closes at 5pm next Tuesday and clubs are not necessarily going to cooperate with the Blues.
But that can't stop them; that Everton were only able to bring one substitute at Burnley yesterday was enough to set alarm bells ringing.
It's usually the teams that finish above you which are used as a barometer of progress but, with Everton, you can tell what kind of shape they are in when you see them tackle one of the sides that have graduated from the Championship ranks, away from Goodison Park.
Why? Here's the evidence. In the last four seasons, Everton have played 12 of these fixtures and not lost a single one; seven wins and five draws show how effective and efficient they are at exposing any deficiencies that the new boys may have.
Last season, for example, when things were in a state of flux, the only two victories that came during a wretched first nine games came at The Hawthorns (West Brom) and The Britannia Stadium (Stoke), while another point was salvaged at Hull City.
So while some teams may find themselves crumbling when facing a team high on energy and backed by a partisan crowd, Everton do not tend to bat an eyelid in such circumstances.
But here the opposite was true.
All careless passing and unsure tackling in the first 10 minutes, it was only down to a combination of the woodwork and some woeful finishing that Moyes did not see his team trailing by two goals.
Riding on a high after toppling Manchester United in midweek, Burnley pushed the Blues onto the back foot immediately and could have taken the lead inside the first 60 seconds when Chris McCann skipped behind Tony Hibbert.
His perfect cross into the middle found Martin Paterson but the striker's header thudded against the crossbar and Tim Howard needed to be on red alert to prevent Steven Fletcher following
up on the rebound.
You would have anticipated that moment jolting Everton into life yet - if anything - it only made them more anxious and Paterson should have profited in the third minute but, again, his header from Wade Elliott's centre lacked the necessary direction.
