The ECHO asked the Everton manager David Moyes about his squad, what could be read into the lack of minutes given to some players, and what it said about last summer's transfer business
David Moyes shakes hands with Merlin Rohl at full-time following the Premier League match between Everton and Fulham at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
David Moyes shakes hands with Merlin Rohl at full-time following the Premier League match between Everton and Fulham at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
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David Moyes insisted he remained positive about Tyler Dibling and Merlin Rohl despite both players having struggled for minutes in recent weeks.
Dibling, Everton’s most expensive signing of last summer, has featured just once in the past 10 matches - when he came on in the final minutes of the home win against Burnley.
Rohl, whose loan move from Freiburg is set to become permanent in the summer after Everton’s Premier League survival triggered the obligation to buy him, has played just five minutes across two substitute appearances since he started the win at Aston Villa in January. It is a run that has been particularly surprising given that he excelled at Villa Park.
They both again went unused on Saturday even as Everton spent much of the second half chasing an equaliser at West Ham United. They found it in the final minutes only to then lose to a stoppage time goal for the second time in six days.
Asked, in the build-up to that game, for his views on the pair given their lack of recent minutes, Moyes said: “Merlin, we like, Tyler, we like. Tyler, we're giving more time to because of his age. Merlin could have easily been involved in some more games and played a little bit more time. It'll do him no harm to have sat back for the best part of the season and looked at it. No, we like them, they're both good boys.”
His willingness to be patient with the youth internationals since mid-January has coincided with the return of senior teammates. Both featured either side of the new year but after the win at Villa Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who was injured across Christmas, and Idrissa Gueye and Iliman Ndiaye, who had been representing Senegal at the Africa Cup of Nations, returned to first team action. All three are considered key players by Moyes.
Despite a busy summer, plus the addition of Tyrique George on loan from Chelsea in January, Everton still have a small squad. That, in part, was highlighted by research this week by Aaron Barton, a data editor at stats specialists Opta.
His figures showed how the Blues have used fewer players than any other team this season (22) and how only Nottingham Forest have made less changes to their starting line-up (51 to Everton’s 54).
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Explaining why he had been content to rely so heavily on a core group of players in recent weeks, Moyes said: “The team has been doing pretty well, so they've [the wider squad] not been required that often. It's always the ones who are not in who are the ones who you think can do a better job, so it's one of those things.”
The Blues did hit a good run of form before the last international break and his senior group was the foundation of impressive wins over Chelsea, Burnley and Newcastle United, and a narrow defeat that could have gone the other way at Arsenal. Since the international break that followed the Chelsea win they have taken just one point from three games, though the defeats to West Ham and Liverpool were narrow and decided in the closing minutes of tight games.
Whether greater use of his squad within games could help is a poignant topic given that, according to Barton’s research, eight players have played in 70% of Everton’s minutes. On whether he hopes those on the periphery can make a difference in the final weeks of the campaign, Moyes said: “It's always the way, isn't it? You're always hoping that the opportunities come, and when they do, they're ready to take it. I hope they are ready, because we need it... I thought Tyrique came off the bench at Brentford and made a difference, [he] maybe didn't in the game on Sunday. So this is the thing, you never know what you're going to get. There's no guarantee, and we can name whoever we like. But we want them to come on when they do come on and make a difference.”
How easy it is to make a difference if a player has had limited exposure to the first team is a live point given how little some of those players have played. Of Rohl, Harrison Armstrong, Carlos Alcaraz, Nathan Patterson and Dibling, only Alcaraz has played more than 500 minutes for the first team this season. Rohl, Patterson and Alcaraz have had injuries while Armstrong was on loan at Preston for the first half of the season, however.
Given that Dewsbury-Hall, Thierno Barry and Jack Grealish are the only summer signings to have played more than 50% of league minutes this season, how does Moyes reflect on the business undertaken last summer - which included the signing of Adam Aznou, who has not kicked a ball in the Premier League this season?
He is content, with Dewsbury-Hall and Jack Grealish having been clear successes and the club having had contributions from others. Moyes, who suggested one signing in every four being an immediate success might be consistent with expectations, said: “I could think of other clubs not too far away, I could think of the levels of what would be expected, how many players are supposed to have been used.
"I think on average if you sign four I think one probably successful, I think that's somewhat the ratio in where it is. I think actually the players who've been here have done a good job, people like Kiernan and Jack have added to it as well. I think we've needed moments at different times from Merlin, and Tyler, a little bit less. Probably in the main we’ve been OK.”