David Moyes praises Beto’s work ethic and backs him to recapture goal-scoring form

David Moyes praised Beto’s work ethic in training during the pre-match press conference before the Blues make the trip to Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City on Saturday.

The Everton number nine has struggled to recapture his goal-scoring form from earlier this year in the early months of Moyes’s return. He has scored just one goal in the Premier League so far this season and has had his fair share of struggles on the pitch.

During the international break, the Guinea-Bissau international was guilty of missing an open goal in his country’s 1-0 loss to Ethiopia in the World Cup qualifiers. Beto, who was the outright first choice in the second half of the 2024-25 campaign, has also had to share game time with newcomer Thierno Barry.

Speaking about Beto in the pre-match press conference, Moyes said, “I think every Evertonian has seen as much as I’ve seen. Of course, we’re working every day with him.

“The boy is mad to do the work. He’s a brilliant, brilliant lad and his dedication to try and himself is second to none, so you can only praise him for that.

“We want him to get back what he was doing, running away from people scoring goals. When I came in last year, he probably had eight or nine one-v-ones.

“Maybe the way we’re playing, we’ve had more of the ball, we’re playing slightly different now, so maybe he hasn’t had as much room to run into behind.

“It still doesn’t take away that we want him to score goals. He’s got a couple and he should have scored the header that Jack gets, but it doesn’t matter, we got the goal.”

The Everton boss was also asked about the situation of Dwight McNeil, who has fallen down the pecking order this season. The 25-year-old, who joined Everton from Burnley for £20 million in 2022, has made 227 Premier League appearances in his career. However, McNeil has played just 19 minutes of Premier League football this season and has remained on the fringes of the squad.

McNeil started for Everton’s U21 side against Bradford City in the EFL Vertu this week, a match they lost 5-1.

“He has to keep pushing to get into the side. As you can see, we’ve changed a few players in the attacking areas, we’re trying to improve there,” said Moyes.

“Dwight can give us something which we want. He has got the ability to create goals, make goals but he has got competition now.

“I think maybe this time last year, Dwight could have been Everton’s best player and he was injured when I first came in. So, he has to get back to that and show that and as I said, he’s got stiff opposition in front of him but he did ok for the Under-21s the other night.”

 

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