By Dave Langton
What was the point of AGAIN bringing on Andriy Yarmolenko and Arthur Masuaku against Leeds?
The definition of madness is trying things over and over again and expecting things to change but David Moyes clearly hasn’t read that, as he keeps going back to the well, even though the water has long been proven to be poisoned. 
There simply isn’t any reason to keep flogging these horses – they’re lame, and we know it.
Yarmo did nearly score a header but he was offside as the game slipped away and the Irons lost 3-2 to Leeds. That has been a blow to the Champions League hopes in east London.
But, let’s ask a question: What’s the point of having youngsters on the bench if you’re not going to use them?
Sonny Perkins came on late on as a substitute but surely the better option was to bring Armstrong Okoflex on instead of Yarmo.
He has long since proven his worth for the Under-23s, scoring 12 goals in 17 games. He’s very good at youth level.
Now this doesn’t always translate to life in the top-flight. Of course, we always want the youth products to come into the team and just tear it up, staying in the side and become indispensable. It doesn’t often happen and that can be frustrating.
But we’ll never know if Okoflex isn’t given a chance.
As it is, he’s sitting on the bench and watching Yarmolenko saunter on before jogging about a bit and doing next to nothing to actually affect the game.
Okoflex has everything to prove. Surely he’d have given, at the very least, the attack some more vigour, some more pace, some more hunger.
Yarmo came on instead and we lost.
It’s not to say that Okoflex would have scored once or twice; he may not have done.
But surely this is the time to bring the kids in, especially with the squad as stretched as it is.
Come on Moyesie, you know it makes sense.
Im starting to despair. No sign of any new additions.We will not get into top4 with a small worn out squad. Season starting to disappear. Sorry but theyre cant be any excuses this has been coming for a long while. One striker- only two centre backs-hardly top draw and no back up for left back. As for Kral-think id go back to Russia-wasting his time here.
Bang on Dave my thoughts exactly! I felt we missed a trick last season by not blooding the youngsters, and here we are again. Defenders tired and stretched, under 23’s on the bench, but we bring on Dobbin and Coco Ashby, Alese, Okoflex, Perkins, Ben Johnson – with this level of young players waiting to perform we are failing them. Leaving it till injuries strike is planning to fail .
I think Okoflex plays on the left so I would have bought him on instead of masuaku. At the time though Moyes was replacing Vlasic and wouldn’t have looked good for Vlasic bringing on a youth team player for him so early in. Clearly Moyes was trying to change the formation to attack on the wings instead of having a team full of attacking midfielders. Maybe Moyes substitutions were in response to seeing Declan playing as a left winger. If you want to bring in two attacking wingers cant blame Moyes for choosing masuaku and Yarmolenko because that’s what they’re best at. Not a great move for the team defensively though.
Substitutions are supposed to improve the team if they are tactical. Ours made things worse
Every time i see Masuaku brought on I always expect the worse and am rarely disappointed!
He and Yarmalenko are a waste of space. The youngsters have to be given a chance !
I cannot understand the reason for this either. Maybe he tries to get them in the shopping window? If that is the case, any potential buyer surely walks away after seeing them. It must be gutting for the younger players on the bench to see opportunities pass by as they are surely antsy to get action time to show what they have in them.
I would have subbed Coufal with Johson at half time and taken Antonio off for Okoflex and put Alesi on for Diop. As for Kral… He must be total Krap, because yesterday was THE day he should have started next to Rice.
Not sure it’s shop window mate – I think their, err, abilities are well known 🙂
Spot on article, and so incredibly frustrating, Moyes is risk averse generally, but give the kids a chance, surely if they are good enough for the bench, then good enough to come on when our fielded 11 become cream crackered, Leeds had a bench of primary school kids, and used them
Only issue I’d have with the article is that Yarmo wans’t actually offside, it was Bowen who was offside in the move where Yarmo put the header in.
It is frustrating though…having said that, Moyes is who sees the players and knows what they’re about. If he thinks Arthur and Andriiy are more likely to have an impact than Sonny, Armstrong et al, then we have to trust his judgement. We can all remember the clamour that was there for Mipo last season and what happened when he got his chance.