There was something very familiar about David Moyes on Friday – and Evertonians who remember his first spell will have recognised it immediately.
The Everton manager was clearly unhappy with how the transfer window had ended. He wanted more players, didn’t want to lose Iliman Ndiaye and has been left with a squad containing just 18 senior outfield players.
Yet for all the frustration, Moyes didn’t look like a manager ready to feel sorry for himself. If anything, there were signs of that old backs-to-the-wall mentality which served Everton rather well during his first spell.
Moyes has been here before
Moyes was often at his best at Everton when expectations from outside were low.
The obvious example is 2004/05. Everton had finished 17th the previous season, Wayne Rooney was sold to Manchester United and Moyes began the campaign with the smallest squad in the Premier League. Plenty expected a relegation battle. Everton finished fourth.
There were other examples across those 11 years, but the theme was often the same: limited resources, supposedly stronger opponents and a manager quite happy to convince his players that nobody fancied them.
There was a little of that Moyes on show again on Friday.
He admitted there might not be much expectation around Everton now but revealed he was already “rallying” his players behind the scenes. He talked about everyone having to “muck in”, while making it clear the objective remains to push towards the top end of the table.
None of this makes Everton’s transfer window any better. Moyes should have been given a deeper squad and there are legitimate questions over how the club ended deadline day in such a vulnerable position.
But the window is closed, and Moyes now has to make the best of what he has. Oddly enough, that has often been when he is at his most effective.
Everton, against the odds, a small squad with something to prove, and expectations lowered everywhere outside the dressing room?
Evertonians have seen this version of Moyes before.
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