David Moyes has been speaking about getting goals from other areas of the pitch as well as his strikers ahead of Everton's trip to Manchester United
With Everton’s strikers continuing to struggle for goals, David Moyes is looking for more goals from other areas of the pitch as his side return to action at Manchester United.
The Blues’ two main frontmen have just one Premier League goal between them all season with Beto not having found the net since his header in the 3-2 win at Wolverhampton Wanderers on August 30 and Thierno Barry, a £27million signing from Villarreal in July still waiting to break his duck despite being given a standing ovation for his performance in the 2-0 home victory over Fulham last time out. which was arguably his brightest display for the club to date.
So far, Iliman Ndiaye, who was Everton’s top scorer last season with 11 in all competitions, leads the way on four, having followed up netting the team’s last two goals at Goodison Park in a 2-0 win over Southampton on May 18 with the first goal in a competitive match at Hill Dickinson Stadium when he struck on August 24 as Brighton & Hove Albion were defeated by the same scoreline.
And Moyes said: “Ili’s done really well for us with his goals, he’s come up with the goods, but we need some of the other boys to do so as well.”
Asked whether his two other regular attacking midfielders Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jack Grealish have shown signs of filling that void during the international break, Moyes said: “They’ve had some time off this week. It was the last break before we don’t see any room for the next few months with games as far as that goes, but now they’re back training.
“I think Kiernan can certainly finish and he looks the most likely. He can score and he’s technically very gifted.
“Jack, I want to score more. I want him to be more creative as well.
“He’s still probably up there with the top assists but he probably had those in the first six games or so. I’m looking for Jack to get back on that thing of creating and assisting, but also scoring a couple of goals would be good as well.”
Given that Grealish – who is on a season-long loan – and Dewsbury-Hall have arrived from Manchester City and Chelsea respectively, Moyes was also asked whether they can use that experience to secure what would be only Everton’s second win at Old Trafford since 1992 with the that success coming on the Scot’s watch at Man United, a fact he acknowledges when the question was put to him.
The Blues boss said: “I hope so. You’re probably talking about the Sir Alex years for half of that time and while Manchester United were not champions all the time, they were very strong.
“You mainly only play them once a season away from home in the league. It sounds a long time but I think we’re over the stage of that in terms of I don’t think we’ve got a fear of going anywhere at the moment.
“We’ve got international players, we’ve got England’s goalkeeper and in the main, defensively, we’ve been pretty sound most of the time.
“I don’t think we’ve got a fear of it, I think we’ve got players who can handle the ball better and retain possession a bit more.
“We’ve still got that thing at the end of it though, we’ve got to make sure we’re scoring goals.
“I was one who would say: ‘Possession is great, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t score any goals.’
“We’ve got to find a way of scoring more goals and keeping clean sheets as well.”