Everton boss David Moyes. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)placeholder image
Everton boss David Moyes. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Everton suffered a 2-0 loss against Man City but Iliman Ndiaye delivered an eye-catching performance.
David Moyes hailed the performance of Iliman Ndiaye in Everton’s defeat by Manchester City - but the forward might have been suffering from fatigue.
The Toffees suffered a 2-0 defeat at the Etihad Stadium, with Erling Haaland continuing his rampant streak by firing a second-half double. However, Everton had opportunities to take the lead in the first half, with Ndiaye running riot.
The Senegal international slipped in Beto twice but both opportunities were spurned, while Ndiaye had a chance saved by City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Ndiaye was not as influential in the second half, though, as City got on top and Haaland bagged a five-minute double. Speaking to Everton’s club website, Moyes reckons that Ndiaye playing twice for Senegal during the international break may have had an impact.
What’s been said
"I thought Ili's performance in the first half was outstanding," said the Everton boss. "I thought he was a standout player at that time in the game. I just saw signs that he had fatigue during the game because of [recent internationals], and even the [first] goal, we just get it a yard wrong from stopping the pass going through.
"Ili is playing really, really well but I just don't know if maybe the two games for his international team just took a bit more out of him and the travel as well. But he played very well, just unfortunately he couldn't get us a goal.”
On Everton’s performance, Moyes said: "I’m pleased with how we played. We were a bit disappointed when we lost the first goal. It was only 1-0 but to give them a second goal quickly was a killer for us. But there are a lot of good things we could talk about and what we've done well. We've come here and given them a bit of a game. Maybe we'd like to do better, but we're only growing at the moment and we're still trying to get better.
"We missed a couple of big chances in the first half, which might have altered things the way we were playing. We needed any opportunities we got to go in or to certainly get us something more positive than we did. So, look, no real problems with the performance overall – most of it. We've done a pretty good job."
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