The Blues boss was speaking to the media after Everton ended their US tour with a 2-2 draw with Manchester United
David Moyes looks on after the Premier League Summer Series match between Manchester United and Everton at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo by AJ Reynolds/Getty Images
David Moyes looks on after the Premier League Summer Series match between Manchester United and Everton at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo by AJ Reynolds/Getty Images
David Moyes is expecting Everton to seal some more incoming transfers this week as his team returns from the USA. The Blues boss started the trip saying he needed to bring in “nine or 10” new signings but, having subsequently added teenage left-back Adam Aznou to the additions of Charly Alcaraz, Thierno Barry and Mark Travers, the 62-year-old believes the club can get more deals over the line before they host Roma on Saturday. He said: “I think there will be deals next week. I think we’re getting much closer."He did include a caveat, however. Speaking following a 2-2 draw with Manchester United in the final game of the Premier League Summer Series, he said: “But I’ve got to say, I thought that four or five weeks ago as well. Obviously, we’re getting near the tickly bit, and we’ve got to get some things on.”
The Glaswegian was in good spirits after his side produced their best display of pre-season to twice battle back from behind in Atlanta, Georgia. After the match, he continued: “We know that we have to make several additions, even for the numbers. We might even have people in the squad who we’d like to put them out on loan or do other things with them, so we’re needing to generally add to the squad.“We need to get some of the main players in quickly. I’ve been saying it, near enough from the minute that we finished against Newcastle United, I’ve been on the case that we have to get it done and it’s just felt we should be further down. In the main it looks as if we’re getting a bit closer to things and hopefully, maybe, a few things might come to fruition this week. “If I didn’t (get the deals done) I’d have to be confident that I could make something out of what I’ve got and find a way around it for getting results. It’s not that easy in the Premier League, we’ve got a lot of things we have to do to get better.”Moyes was pleased with the impact that Morocco international Aznou made on his first Everton outing since joining from Bayern Munich, the 19-year-old coming on for the final half an hour. He said: “I thought young Adam, when he came on, for 25 minutes, looked a composed footballer and did a lot of good things for a young boy. He played with a little bit of nous with how he did it.“Obviously, his levels of physicality and what not, he’ll have to get used to that over the next year or two, but I thought he was a bit of a positive when he came on and there were some good signs from him. His main position is left-back but we brought him on further forward as we thought it would suit him. Big Tyler [Onyango] as well is probably more a midfield player but we’re still putting them on at the moment and trying to adjust, even though we didn’t need to because the team had been playing well, but we thought it was the right time to give Adam a run-out and I think we’ve all been pleased with what we saw initially.”Moyes was delighted with James Garner’s display, having admitted he felt the 24-year-old could have done better in Everton’s previous games this summer. He said: “I’ve actually been pretty disappointed in Jimmy in the early games in pre-season, but not tonight. Tonight, I thought he played really well and he actually went all of the distance.“But you’ve got to remember, we’ve played Jimmy Garner at right wing-back because we’ve not had other people to do the job. Jimmy’s a bit more flexible but we played him a little bit deeper and I thought as the game went on, he was the one who was still chugging along and I was pleased with him.”It is understood referee Thomas Bramall apologised to Everton’s players, admitting he got it wrong in awarding Manchester United a penalty in the first half when James Tarkowski was adjudged to have brought down Amad. While Moyes was frustrated with that, he was pleased with his team’s display. He said: “I thought we’d been told there was going to be a tough threshold for penalties. That was quite a soft penalty that was given. “I’m not getting involved in the referees stuff because they’ve got a hard job to do. He had a camera on tonight did he? It will be interesting if you get to see it yourself what his view was of it. It was better but obviously we had a team that was more equipped to have a chance of being more competitive. We were nowhere near in the first or second game, we didn’t have enough players fit.“We’re just starting to get one or two back into fitness, mainly Tarky and Keano. In the first game we had five players out of position, trying to find a team, but tonight, I thought we played much better. We’ve picked up but not enough and I’d have hoped we’d have been much further down the line than we have been. Obviously, one of the strong parts of the team is the base at the back and we’ve not really had that. “If you look at the goals we’ve given away, two of them in the first game were terrible mistakes, and there was a goalkeeping mistake certainly against West Ham. Tonight, there were defenders who were a bit more reliable and responsible in their roles.“We’d got to 60 minutes and we’d had a bit of a plan that we’d try and get the other four or five on. Tarky was only going to play 60 minutes at the most. We could have buckled because we’d gone 2-1 down, but I actually thought we stuck at it for most of the game, I really did.”Despite starting Everton’s previous two Premier League Summer Series games, Nathan Patterson was not in the squad against Manchester United and, when asked about the Scotland international, Moyes said: “Nathan has got hernia symptoms. Whether it means he’s got a hernia or not, we’re not sure, but we’ll have him assessed on Tuesday after we get back.”On a more positive note, the Blues are now preparing for their inaugural first team fixture in front of fans at Hill Dickinson Stadium with a sell-out crowd at the 52,769 capacity venue on the Mersey waterfront. Moyes said: “That will be a great occasion for us all to go down there and see what it looks like. Hopefully we get a good day of weather, fill the place out and I’d love to have a couple of players in and tell the crowd: ‘This is the start.’“If not, the big sign tonight is that we should have Jarrad [Branthwaite] back in training when we return to training on Wednesday with a bit of luck and obviously Tarky returning is beginning to get us feeling we’re getting the players we had last year ready.”