David Moyes will be working without a director of football at Everton next season and the 1-1 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers gave a clearer indication to him over what he needs to bring to the club. Yes, this group of players has been fantastic for him and a squad of around just 13 players have been having to go out and produce the goods, but the signs are there over what is required to kick on.
I’ve already suggested in my column that in the future, Moyes might be the right kind of man to move upstairs and have a role looking down but I just feel when it comes to English football in general and Everton in particular, the role of sporting director doesn’t seem to work. There have been the odd couple of success stories but it doesn’t really fit with English football where the managers want to be in control.
Many of our managers are not mere coaches like they are in the rest of the world. At a lot of European clubs, particularly the Dutch ones like PSV, where I played, or Ajax, the teams have their own identities and you know what style of play they’re going to deploy and not much changes.
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Everton have been erratic though under the previous owner, Farhad Moshiri. He brought in the club’s first director of football and throughout his time as majority shareholder, there were three different directors of football, each with very different approaches, and eight managers, again with a wide array of philosophies on how to play the game.
We’ve been all over the place really when it comes to trying to find an identity. Since Moyes returned though, it feels like our identity as a football club is now coming back.
Not only is he bringing the excitement and entertainment for the fans, he’s getting results. It therefore seems like the right move from the football club to have a wider sporting leadership team.
Moyes is going to be playing a big part of that recruitment. He’s the guy who will be working with these players, developing them and trying to get us competing higher up the table.
I’m all for it. I feel it really suits where we are right now as a football club.
We’ve had some disastrous stories with our sporting directors – going from one extreme to another – and a mishmash of managers which has hampered our progression.
The lads had been away at their warm weather training camp before the trip to Molineux and we started pretty brightly and looked like we were at it with the press. As the game went on though, we lost our rhythm a little bit.
There was a lack of fluency and Moyes’ comments after the game were spot-on, we weren’t at our best in what was a scrappy match for both sides. We’ve had three draws on the spin now and have come away from all of them somewhat disappointed that we didn’t take three points.
You’ve got to see the bigger picture though and see where we’ve come from and how far we’ve come in a short space of time since Moyes came back to the football club. There’s a real lack of game-changing options on the bench right now as well, although there might have been an opportunity to bring Youssef Chermiti on for Beto to make a 15-minute cameo to see where he’s at, fitness-wise.
We’re still waiting for several key players to come back – someone like Iliman Ndiaye could have proven the match-winner in these last few games if fit – and our set-pieces weren’t really hurting Wolves while we were also sloppy in possession, which let them off the hook. As the game went on, we were getting stretched with the gaps between defence, midfield and attack becoming bigger and we conceded the goal because the gaps were too big and there was a bit of a mix-up on the ball for Jarrad Branthwaite.
A big issue for Moyes going forward though concerns being able to hold on to a lead. The mentality has changed now and there’s less concern about scoring, but we’ve had games against Liverpool, Manchester United and Wolves now in which we’ve gone ahead but not been able to hold on for the win.
That’s something to work on. The season is far from over, we’re only three-quarters of the way through and it’s far too soon to start getting the flip-flops on.
These are the sort of moments in games where the manager will want to see a reaction from the players. We need to keep that belief when we go up and make sure we don’t sit back and give the opposition the opportunity to build up a rhythm.
You need to use your professionalism and football intelligence to try and win games. We’ve still got a lot to learn but the direction is going in the right way which is great to see.
Harrison and Lindstrom need to keep the numbers up to stay next season
No matter where you are on the football pitch, you’ve got to try and do your job and put your bit in for the team. The headline stats for Jack Harrison and Jesper Lindstrom going into Everton’s game at Wolves were an absence of goals and assists.
It’s been far too long for a couple of players in forward-thinking areas and they need to create a lot more for us. They also need to get themselves on the scoresheet to take the pressure off Beto, Dominic Calvert-Lewin or whoever is spearheading the attack.
We need goals from all over the pitch and the other players need to start standing up. It’s good that Harrison got his goal and Lindstrom got his assist but obviously Moyes wants more from them.
They’ve got to keep doing this now between now and May to show to the manager that they want to be part of this again next season through keeping those numbers up.
It wasn’t a good game for Beto. He seemed isolated and it felt like we went back to our bad, old ways a little bit.
When he had his big moment to try and get the ball down, he seemed to struggle and was erratic in his play. He’s getting these opportunities game after game and you’ve got to give him credit for that as he keeps going but unfortunately, he didn’t get the angle or the whip right for his shot to snatch the three points.
Things don’t always go your own way in football and that’s the case for both Beto and the team right now, but you’ve still got to find a way to pick up points and the lads did that. When things have gone against us under Sean Dyche and other managers, our heads have often gone down as a team and we’ve given up, feeling sorry for ourselves and been punished.