It’s a new era at Everton Football Club, both figuratively and literally.
After 133 years at Goodison Park, Everton are now plying their trade at Hill Dickinson Stadium. And after several years of narrowly staving off relegation, they’re now vying to finish in the top half and potentially even challenge for European football.
The Toffees avoided relegation by just four points in 2021-22, whilst the 2022-23 season would see them finish two points above the drop under Sean Dyche, who replaced Frank Lampard midway through the campaign.
Everton would then place 15th in 2023-24, 14 points away from the drop, but they found themselves in yet another relegation dogfight in 2024-25.
It’s why they decided to part ways with Dyche and bring in David Moyes, who had presided over Everton from 2002 to 2013 before moving to Manchester United. In January 2025, with Moyes at the helm, Everton were able to find their identity and click on all cylinders during the home stretch, placing 13th in the table.
“They’re a combative Premier League side, and I think David Moyes went back to basics,” stated ex-Premier League striker Gordon Watson.
"You won’t see Everton often passing around the back and inviting pressure – they’ll often get it up to Beto and get their competitive athletes in midfield to win second balls. I don’t think they’ll score many goals, but I think they’ll finish around 12th to 14th. No one liked going to Goodison Park, so now they’ve got to make their new place a fortress. If they can do that, they’ll be very tough to beat."
Whereas Dyche emphasised resilient defending and counter-attacking, resulting in fewer goals but greater stability at the back, Moyes has constantly focused on attacking play, possession, and creativity, leading to more goals and quality chances.
Moyes's teams are more offensively adventurous and aim to control matches, whereas Dyche had focused on hitting on the break. This style has been reflected in his signings with Everton, prioritising courageous, technically gifted profiles like Tyler Dibling, Jack Grealish, and Carlos Alcaraz.
There is a greater focus on possession and creating a greater volume of high-quality chances, with far more emphasis on attacking flair and dynamic play in the final third. It’s no surprise that Everton have been able to increase their goal threat substantially under Moyes, whose style has allowed for a higher degree of risk for greater offensive reward, while Dyche minimised risk to achieve stability.
It’s no longer about getting stuck in, battling hard to win challenges, and making the defence difficult to break down. It’s no longer about being rigid tactically and going long; it’s about creating a high quantity of golden opportunities.
“They’re two very different coaches for sure,” stated ex-Everton goalkeeper Joao Virginia.
“Sean Dyche did very well when he was here at Everton and kept us up in the league for 2 years. His style of football is very direct, a lot of running and fighting which is good to see, and I think Everton supporters like that. Every Everton player needs to have that fighting spirit and go out with that fire in his heart… it’s worked really well for 2 years and Everton, and now we have Mr David Moyes.”
“He’s such a legend at the club, he came in and managed the players really well, he came in with a bit more detail about his tactics and the way he wants to approach the game. He wants to have a bit more possession and a few more passing lines… it’s less direct than what we were used to, but it’s been such a great spell under him.”
Everton have enjoyed an impressive start to the 2025-26 campaign under Moyes, bouncing back from their opening day defeat at Leeds by beating Brighton 2-0 before beating Mansfield Town 2-0 in the EFL Cup. And on 30 August, they managed to prevail with a 3-2 victory at Wolves, climbing to 5th in the Premier League table.
Can Everton continue their winning streak on 13 September at home to Aston Villa?
Reader Comments (22)
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2 Posted 04/09/2025 at 18:31:14
3 Posted 05/09/2025 at 02:20:02
Second point on Moyes's new era in our new stadium, with a load of new, exciting signings, is this: Not that long ago, Moyes got West Ham into Europe with an aging, skinny squad… but look what happened.
The majority of us have been praying for mid-table stability for years. Now it actually looks likely to happen, maybe we supporters shouldn't get too carried away with hoping for Europe too soon.
4 Posted 05/09/2025 at 09:08:36
TFG didn't pull the trigger on Dyche, they were content for him to carry on.
Dyche pulled the trigger himself, giving Moyes the job.
5 Posted 05/09/2025 at 16:10:13
Now he's got rid of the mediocre loaners and high salary deadwood and used his much bigger transfer budget to bring in proper quality attack minded players. We can all see the difference. Now he has to make the HD stadium into a fortress. Do that and I think we'll do well this season.
6 Posted 05/09/2025 at 16:26:31
At the back we have Pickford in goal who saves us many points, but the rest of our defenders are not top drawer unfortunately.
7 Posted 05/09/2025 at 16:50:46
8 Posted 05/09/2025 at 17:18:34
Do you mean changed since Dyche, or since Moyes first stint at the club?
It’s probably too early early to say how different we are going to play under Moyes this season but the indications are certainly positive with his signing of creative attacking players and the seeming desire of the players to get the ball forward more quickly rather than pass it backwards.
This is a far cry from Dycheball which quite frankly was awful to watch at times even when we scraped a win.
Maybe my memory is failing me here, but I seem to remember in his earlier tenure that he favoured a strong defence and played not to concede and perhaps nick one to win.
If so this is a big difference from what seems to be his present philosophy,as he has hardly signed any defenders this time around and as we all know we definitely need 2 or3.
Depending on where he’s going to play Dibling,we could also use a genuine right winger with pace as we tend to play much too narrow at times.
As far as compared to change from Lampard,I can’t really comment as I hadn’t a clue what Franks plan was and I’m not sure he did either!
Time will soon give us a better idea of how he is going to play and anyway there’s not that many games before the next transfer window opens!!
9 Posted 05/09/2025 at 17:22:25
But. now we are deciding who is best and with potential and below 35 years of age.
Jaysus 64 and either full of dementia or maybe, just maybe, it is a great new reality.
10 Posted 05/09/2025 at 17:50:28
I think how Moyes has changed is largely down to the player additions. Not taking anything away from Moyes, but the additions have allowed some extensions of our basic play which was much improved. We were never going to unsettle defences with one ball carrier possessing speed.
That said, Moyes has a fantastic opportunity to remake himself and bolt from the defensive, knife to gunfight type of manager.
This plays two ways: Everton now have some quality and chemistry across the core of the squad, mainly in midfield. Additionally, there is no established style of play or system opposing teams can anticipate and setup to contain.
I could go on but it is international week and some are exhausted with Moyesology. I will add that to have this quality assembled without a lot of disgruntled deadwood players could really lift the team's spirit and Moyes is a type of manager who can tap into that well.
11 Posted 05/09/2025 at 19:16:06
The problem for Moyes and all the other managers managing sides who don't usually finish in the top 6 is finance. Because of PSR clubs outside the elite are limited much more than those who regularly compete in Europe and the top end of the league. And even clubs like Forest will find it hard to compete in the league while now having to compete in Europe.
So who should we compare ourselves against, to know if the manager has done a good job or not. We cant buy the players the top 6 can buy and our 11 may be good but its what you have on the bench that determines games more and more.
12 Posted 05/09/2025 at 19:35:51
13 Posted 05/09/2025 at 20:49:21
As of now - opinions differ.
14 Posted 05/09/2025 at 21:05:46
From an Everton perspective... following Rafa or Lampard.
Back in the day... following Moyes MK1 was argued by some to be a penalty kick.
15 Posted 05/09/2025 at 21:24:27
16 Posted 05/09/2025 at 21:39:13
There's another thread?
17 Posted 05/09/2025 at 21:55:43
18 Posted 05/09/2025 at 22:09:44
The "Goodnight mate" bit... I understood.
19 Posted 06/09/2025 at 02:41:36
20 Posted 06/09/2025 at 03:37:14
I’m with you mate. I got frustrated with Moyes glass ceiling mentality but after everyone we’ve had since, coupled with his WHU trophy success I was torn. So far the results speak for themselves. We hired him as we were staring relegation in the face. We survived comfortably and now we’ve two wins from three. I think he’s earned the right for us to be open minded and optimistic
21 Posted 08/09/2025 at 14:37:00
22 Posted 08/09/2025 at 14:37:04
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1 Posted 04/09/2025 at 15:28:49
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