Everton manager David Moyes has been answering questions on an online Reddit AMA
Everton’s David Moyes has just become the first manager in Premier League history to triumph at Old Trafford after having a player sent off. But it’s another 1-0 win over Manchester United that he has picked as the one game from the touchline he would like to relive.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s spectacular 29th-minute strike gave the Blues victory on Monday despite Idrissa Gueye being dismissed just 13 minutes into the contest for slapping team-mate Michael Keane in the face.
Over 23 years on from his first visit, it was the Glaswegian gaffer’s first success away to the Red Devils as Everton manager and only the Blues’ second win at Old Trafford since their 3-0 romp on August 19, 1992, with their previous triumph coming through Bryan Oviedo’s 86th-minute effort on December 4, 2013, when Moyes was in charge of the hosts.
Hosting an online Reddit AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) on Thursday, Moyes was asked if he could relive one game from the touchline, which would it be and replied: “What a question! The best ones are the ones where you’re winning dead easy and you’ve got no pressure on.
“The one which springs out is when Duncan Ferguson scores the goal to get us into the Champions League just about in the run-in. We beat Manchester United 1-0 at Goodison and he scores the goal with a header late on.
“It was probably the result which got us into the Champions League, we finished fourth that year and we had to play a qualifier. But that’s a goal I remember probably more than any.”
The Everton and Man United connections continued when Moyes was asked who was his favourite player he had managed and why. He said: “I couldn’t give an answer for favourite player but, if I was to have one of my former players back in my team again, I think I would like Wayne Rooney to be playing with me again.
“I think because he was such a player at a young age. He wasn’t fully developed when we had him here at Everton right away, but he was just an incredible player for the other clubs he went on to play for.
“I also think his ability to score goals, his strength, his power, all the attributes you’d want in a good football player. But I have to say, over the years here, I’ve really enjoyed having so many people from Tim Howard to Tim Cahill, Joleon Lescott, you name it. Over the years, we’ve had so many different players and so many of them have been very good.”
In terms of which opposition player had caused him the biggest headache when it came to trying to figure out how to stop them, the 62-year-old cited someone who went on to follow him in the Goodison Park dugout. Moyes said: “Over the years it’s been difficult because there’s been so many different players when I look back at who we were playing against.
“The great Chelsea teams, how you’d stop Frank Lampard scoring, Didier Drogba. When I look back at the Liverpool teams when they had (Xabi) Alonso in midfield and Steven Gerrard, and you’d be saying, ‘Wow, how are we going to deal with this?’
“Maybe a bit more recently, Ødegaard’s been a real problem when playing for Arsenal because he's so good at what he does. I think there’s so many to name.
“Manchester City, with David Silva in the early days, he was an incredible player. So, I think the Premier League has so many good players, it would be difficult to sort of pull them out off the top of my head, but there you go, they’re the ones I’ve come up with.”
Given that Moyes dubbed Everton ‘The People’s Club’ when he first joined them from Preston North End in 2002, he was asked how important he thinks community is in modern football.
He said: “Well, football is the community, really, and I think that every football club really plays for the supporters and plays for their community. I generally think The People's Club is a really good title for Everton because I think that we’re always trying to be around it.
“There’s loads and loads of Everton supporters throughout the world, America, Europe, and we’re still trying to grow back to the levels that this club was at a long time ago, but hopefully we’re going to do it in the next few years.
“We’ve got new American ownership who we’re looking forward to taking us on and taking us further than we’ve been for a long time.”