David Moyes on Everton's Struggles and Grealish's Return
David Moyes admits the plan has already gone off script.
When Everton moved for their injured signing, the club did not expect the wait to be this long. The manager laid it out bluntly: they still have not even had him “on the grass”.
“I don't think we expected his recovery to take this long when we signed him,” Moyes said. “We are looking forward to gaining his experience, but we haven't even had him on the grass yet. It is disappointing – for us and for him – but hopefully it won't be too long.”
So Everton wait for one key figure to return, but another may finally be unleashed.
Grealish on the brink
Jack Grealish, Moyes says, is “a boy who needs football matches more than he needs training”. That line alone tells you the manager’s thinking. Sessions at Finch Farm are no longer enough. The stage he wants is a Premier League pitch.
That could come this weekend, with the playmaker in contention for his first start since January.
“It will be incredibly exciting to have him in our starting line-up,” Moyes said. “If he gives us what he gave us at the start of last season, we will be thrilled.”
Everton have quietly put together an unbeaten start to the campaign. It has not been spectacular, but it has been solid. Moyes, typically, is not getting carried away.
He called the run “pleasing in some aspects”, then immediately pushed the standard higher. He “would have liked to get another win rather than a draw somewhere along the way”, even if he did credit his players for doing “a really good job”.
Small squad, tight bond
The manager has never hidden his preference for a lean group. He sees a direct line between numbers and togetherness.
“You only have to look at Leicester City's title-winning squad to see how their small group of players thrived,” he said, drawing on one of the Premier League’s great recent stories to make his point.
But the reality is harsher. Everton are light. Very light.
Moyes revealed he currently has 18 outfield players available and made it clear that is short of his ideal. If he could choose, he would go with “21 outfield players” this season.
“The amount of games” usually forces clubs to bulk up, he noted, but the absence of European football changes the calculation. Without midweek trips across the continent, he hopes Everton can “find a way of getting through with what we've got”.
That does not mean the club have shut the door on reinforcements. Far from it.
He confirmed Everton are active in the free agent market, searching for someone who can lift the level. The problem is obvious to anyone who has shopped there before: quality is scarce.
“It isn't easy to find a player who could make a difference” in the Premier League, Moyes admitted.
Tottenham test and the break ahead
Next up is Tottenham, still chasing their first league goal and win of the season. That kind of early-season anxiety is familiar to Moyes.
“It wasn't too long ago that we were in those situations as a club,” he said. “We know we can only look after ourselves. We didn't quite make it over the line there a couple of months ago, so hopefully we do it this time.”
Just as the domestic tempo begins to rise, the calendar throws in a halt. The looming two-week international break offers rest for some, risk for others.
Moyes expects it to be “difficult for everybody to manage”.
“There will be a lot of players who will end up playing a lot more minutes than others and injuries could be a problem as well,” he said. “We've got to hope that our boys do play a bit, but maybe not all of the games.”
So Everton head into a key league fixture with a squad that is thin but unbeaten, a creative spark in Grealish who may finally be ready to start, and a manager walking the tightrope between opportunity and overload. The question now is whether that fragile balance can hold once the games – and the minutes – start to pile up.
