Michael Ball tackles the big issues at Hill Dickinson Stadium ahead of Everton’s game at Brentford
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There’s been a few reports in recent times about a new deal for Everton manager David Moyes. It’s a no-brainer for him to get a new contract but we just want to get the job done on the pitch and I’m sure he’ll want those talks to happen in the summer.
If we do qualify for Europe then you’d be looking to get him tied down because what he’s done since he returned to the football club has been fantastic. It’s often said in football that you shouldn’t go back, but he’s proving that wrong.
He gets Everton and he gets us as a fanbase, he knows how we tick. He did so well first time around but unfortunately couldn’t win a trophy.
There are different owners now, but they want Everton to be successful. David Moyes wants his football teams to be in Europe, that’s his ambition and we’re on the way to doing that.
It’s been hit and miss for a lot of these younger managers coming through. The likes of Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola can just chance tactics when they need to as they know what will work and what won’t work – it’s not trial and error – and it’s that kind of experience that David Moyes has also got in abundance.
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Some among the Evertonian fanbase have called upon him to be a bit more proactive at times and while I agree, there are moments where you think he could have perhaps made substitutions a bit earlier, the results that we have got this season – especially away from home – have shown that his style is working. Most of the time, he’s getting those decisions right and that’s all down to his experience and knowing how the club works.
Maybe he’ll want to bring more coaching staff to the football club to help him? When he was at West Ham, he seemed to have a big coaching staff whereas at Everton, he doesn’t seem to have the same kind of numbers he’s worked with in the past.
Having a fresh set of eyes working alongside you can be beneficial. These days there are so many marginal gains to look into, whether it’s specialist coaches for set-pieces, the strikers or whatever, they can give you that extra few percent to make the difference and prevent things from going stale.
There will have been a lot of talk with the recruitment staff about the type of players we’re looking to bring into the football club for next season and David Moyes will want to bring them in straight away. Like we saw last summer, he won’t want to be going down to the wire as it takes time to find the right blend.
We’ve suffered so many times in past years when we’ve brought players in, and they’ve not been ready to play and needed more training. I remember when Everton signed Yerry Mina and Andre Gomes in 2018, they needed another three months to get going whereas you want them in and around the place straight away, to learn what the club is all about.
Every club is in a similar situation this summer with the World Cup but I’m sure David Moyes will want to get one up on his rivals by getting people through the door early at Everton. There can be opportunities and bargains that crop up later in the window, but you want to get your key business done as soon as possible and that’s something that hampered us last summer.
Everton have got some big games coming up, but it’s a challenge that the players should be really excited about. They’ll have had a three-week break and as David Moyes has observed, whenever we get a good result and things look like they’re clicking, the flow is stopped.
When we’ve come back from these interruptions, the players have often looked fresh though. You want to keep that rhythm up and it can be disjointed when it’s stop-start, but there’s been plenty of time to work on things with the manager at Finch Farm, like different tactics and scenarios for the run-in.
The 3-0 win over Chelsea already feels like a long time ago, but hopefully we can carry on where we left off in terms of confidence, and the boys are all raring to go for these crunch matches ahead. After the last few seasons that we’ve had, nobody was really expecting us to be in the mix for Europe, so it’s refreshing that people outside of the Everton bubble are now speaking about the club again in positive terms.
David Moyes has done a really good job since he came back and there’s also been a positive spin on the accounts in terms of what we’re expecting next year with the new stadium bringing an increased turnover and revenue. Things are hopefully looking rosy for the summer in terms of recruitment but the job on the pitch is still not done.
This is a huge opportunity with no pressure to secure a European qualification place. Whether they ultimately make it into Europe or not, you still want to finish as high as you possibly can in the league.
That starts with going to Brentford on Saturday who we’re level on points with in the table. We know what they’re all about as they like to play football, but they’ve got the physicality up front to hurt you.
Like we’ve done in so many of our away games, we must soak up that pressure and come up with solutions. We’ve been good on set-pieces and dangerous on second balls, but also on the breakaway.
Everton probably remain outsiders when it comes to the race for Europe, but right now this is an opportunity and a position that we would definitely have taken at the start of the season and the lads should embrace the challenge. If you want to be successful, these are times that you need to deliver by expressing yourself and putting a big smile on your face.
It’s great to have that winning feeling and that winning mentality. Can Everton’s players deliver away again and return to Liverpool with another three points on the road to set them up for their first derby match at Hill Dickinson Stadium?
Brentford shocked Everton in their first game of this calendar year, but now it’s payback time. We’re in a different situation now that we were at the start of January and as well as turning our home form around, we’re continuing to play well in away matches.
Many people in football were wondering what would happen to Brentford this season. They lost their manager Thomas Frank who had guided them back into the top flight after so many years away, raising their profile in fantastic fashion, plus so many of their key players.
However, they’ve shown that if you’ve got the right coaching and recruitment within the club, all is not lost, and with everyone seemingly on the same page, they’ve actually done even better this season. They’ve had an incredible turnaround, but it’s up to David Moyes and Everton’s players to try and stop that given the potential psychological importance of beating them and going above them in the table.