It is a well-worn phrase that it was a game of two halves. But looking back, this was a season of two halves. Sean Dyche was released after exactly half the games, so this allows a really good comparison between him and David Moyes.
Performance
Dyche – Won 3, Drew 8, Lost 8 – Scored 15, Conceded 25 – Points 17
Moyes – Won 8, Drew 7, Lost 4 – Scored 27, Conceded 19 – Points 31
Hidden inside these numbers is the fact that we failed to score in 11 of the first 19 games, and we scored 4 of the 15 against a very poor Wolves side, while conceding 3 or more in 4 games under Dyche.
Compared to that, we only failed to score in 4 games under Moyes, and they were all against sides who finished in the Top 6. We never conceded more than 2 goals in any of the 19 games in the second half of the season.
In comparison to the results of the previous season, the first half under Dyche saw us score 7 less, concede 4 more, and gain 8 fewer points. After David Moyes’s appointment, we scored 9 more than the fixtures in the previous season, conceded 11 fewer and gained 8 points more. A total turnaround.
It was perhaps the efficiency of our attacking that increased our performance. Using the BBC stats, we actually had 214 shots in Dyche’s 19 games compared to only 190 with David Moyes’ sides. However, for those on target, it was the other way around, scoring 27 from 83 on-target shots in the second half of the season with 15 from 63 in the first half, so now scoring 1 in 3 on target compared to 1 in 4 in the first half of the season, and having more on target shots as a percentage.
Team
It has been well documented the reluctance of Dyche to play Jake O’Brien but he was not the only change in the scond half of the season under Moyes.
The players with the most minutes under Dyche were:
Pickford, Young, Tarkowski, Mykolenko, Gueye, Mangala, Harrison, Doucouré, Ndiaye, McNeil, Calvert-Lewin.
Moyes’s favourites based on minutes played were:
Pickford, O’Brien, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Gueye, Garner, Harrison, Doucouré, Ndiaye, Beto.
Clearly, Dyche had problems without Jarrad Branthwaite, who was recovering from his injury in pre-season, and Ashley Young at right-back, although most agree he was often not found wanting. James Garner replaced Mangala after he recovered from his injury, having started just 2 games under Dyche this season, and Orel Mangala was then injured in training. The other big change was the forced replacement of the injured Calvert-Lewin with Beto. 8 goals to 3 makes it sound a piece of good fortune.
The average age of the team we put out was 28 years 8½ months. For the first half, it was 29 years 2 months, while for the second half it was 27 yearsr 10 months. Naturally, the players Moyes had were 5 months older, so he really did bring down the average age by almost 21 months (Jake O’Brien for Ashley Young certainly helped in that respect!).
Overall
Given the dross in the first half of the season and the condemnation of Dyche as a manager, we may lose sight of the fact that we gained 48 points this season and we gained 48 points last season before the Premier League’s independent commisiions decided to punish us and Forest while they discussed with the lawyers the case against Manchester City. Dyche did okay in that prevous season.
In the end, the 4-0 thumping of Leicester on 1 February put us on 26 points and so, with he benefit of hindsight, we were actually safe from relegation with 15 games still to play. What were we worried about? That is the 8th (equal) earliest we have been safe since the year 2000. Perhaps though, this is a mark not of our points tally but the number needed to stay up, where the mythical 40 points was last needed over 20 years ago.
Our problems are clear with scoring only 42 goals, the lowest of a non-relegated team. On the other hand, only the top 4 let in fewer goals than us. For the third season running, we did not have a player scoring double figures in the Premier League. Iliman Ndiaye top scored with 9. But with us failing to score in 8 of the last 10 games under Sean Dyche, is it any wonder our numbers are so poor?
Against the Top 6, we had just one win, 6 draws, and 5 defeats (9 points), scoring 7 in the 12 games and conceding 12 goals.
Against the 7 other teams placed 7th to 14th, we had 5 wins, 5 draws and 4 defeats (20 points), scoring 14 in the 14 games and conceding 15 goals.
And against the Bottom 6, we had 5 wins, 4 draws, and 3 defeats (against the Sky teams and, typical of Everton, providing Southampton with one of their 2 wins of the season); we gained 19 points scoring 21 and conceding 17 goals (yes, we lost 4-0 away to two of the Bottom 6).
Our glass ceiling still seems to be there, especially with the thumpings at White Hart Lane and Old Trafford, who both ended up in the Bottom 6.
Age
The youngest team we put out was the match at home to Ipswich Town with an average age of 26 years 5 months, while the oldest was just a week after the match at Ipswich (which would have been amazing symmetry) when Dyche’s team at home to Fulham was on average 30 years 1 month old. The starting XI in these two games were the oldest since December 2014.
Over the season, it was on average 9 months older than the team from the previous season. An unchanged side would be naturally 12 months older so some younger players have come in. However, it was – on average – the oldest Everton team since the 2012-13 season.
The age of the team obviously needs reducing as we had an average of almost 4½ players each game aged over 30 in the starting line-up this season. It was slightly better in the second half with the average number of over-30s reducing from over 5 (Pickford, Tarkowski, Gueye and Doucouré and Young) to 4. None of the remaining squad will have a 30th birthday during the next season, so we could be down to 3.
With the release of Ashley Young and the unlikely probability of Seamus Coleman getting a new playing contract, it seems that Idrissa Gana Gueye will hold the title of being the last player born in the 1980s to play for Everton. That does make you feel old… my boys are older than him.
And we finish with the highest place and number of points since those heady days of Carlo Ancelotti and Covid. Farewell, season 2024-25. Farewell Old Lady. At times you made my heart leap with joy, and at times you made me weep with sadness. But we will miss you.
And thanks to a much better second half, we leave you with a positive outlook for the future. I can’t wait for next season!