Yeah, another season of two halves for Everton

I wrote a piece for ToffeeWeb this time last year comparing the first half under Dyche and the second half under Moyes and it would seem that the momentum from the end of 2024-25 was carried through into this season, before it all went pear-shaped. As is quoted, there are lies, damned lies and statistics. I’ll leave readers to decide (and comment) which statistics are, in our view, 'lies'.

Performance

First Half of the season:  Won 8 Drew 4 Lost 7 – Scored 20 Conceded 20 – Points 28

Second Half: Won 5 Drew 6 Lost 8 – Scored 27 Conceded 29 – Points 21

On a comparative fixture basis, by the time Thierno Barry found the net in the 3-0 beating of Forest, we had improved by 12 points compared to the fixtures the previous season. Matching the results of the previous season in the remaining games would have put us on 60 points, the same as Liverpool with the same GD but finished 6th on goals scored. That was the level of improvement in the first half of the season. Knowing that makes our final placing even more depressing.

It was all downhill as first Ndiaye and Gana went off to Afcon and then as soon as they returned, we lost Grealish for the rest of the season.

Compared to the games where Moyes was in charge in 2024-25 he had the following record.

Dyche was the manager in 2024-25

2024-25: W3 D8 L8 Scored 15 Conceded 25 – Points 17

2025-26: W8 D3 L8 Scored 22 Conceded 21 – Points 27 

Moyes was the manager in 2024-25

2024-25: W8 D7 L4 Scored 27 Conceded 19 – Points 31

2025-26: W5 D7 L7 Scored 25 Conceded 29 – Points 22

Moyes continued to significantly outperform Dyche's performances from last season with 10 more points, but did not match his own performances of last season by losing 9 points.

With such a fall off over the 2nd half of the season, the frustration and anger felt by many is clear because the improvement up to December is now forgotten, and so much “could have been”. 

Much has been talked about our lack of a striker. Playing a 4-2-3-1 system meant a lot of pressure was on Barry and Beto to score. Surprisingly, we scored the same number of goals as the year of Ancelotti and James, Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin, and the last time we scored more was 2018-19 when Marco Silva was the manager.

Beto and Barry were only used as twin strikers for 67 minutes, and most of them were the match at home to Brentford. While we all moan about their inabilities, can we argue we have a 17-goal striker called “Barry Beto”? Only Haaland and Thiago scored more than “Barry Beto”. Beto scored every 174 minutes, Barry once every 239 minutes.

As a comparison, a goal every 175 minutes was the record of Lukaku over his 4 seasons. Super Kevin Campbell scored once every 244 minutes. Both are better than Ferguson (265), Calvert-Lewin (277), and Richarlison (260). Maybe they are not so bad. I’ll get my tin hat.

With Dewsbury-Hall scoring 8 and N’diaye 6, there is not enough from the rest of the team. In terms of shots, we were marginally better (according to BBC), 422 v 404 with 141 v 146 on target. Whilst in 2024-5 we needed 7 shots on target to score 2 goals, this season we only needed 6.

Team

Based on Minutes played, the team was:

Pickford,
O’Brien, Tarkowski, Keane, Mykolenko,
Gueye, Garner,
Ndiaye, Dewsbury-Hall, Grealish,
Barry.

The back 4 played 88% of the time. Branthwaite was only able to play just over 7½ games in total, and his loss had some (a huge?) impact. The lack of a reliable right back (Coleman's age/injury + trust in Patterson) meant the supporters' preferred pairing of O’Brien and Branthwaite was never seen. Keane, released last summer and then re-signed, played almost 80% of the time, but I think most agree that as the season progressed, two 33½-year-old centre-backs are showing their age. Aznou will turn 20 next week, but his ball watching when Roma scored in the pre-season probably sealed his fate in replacing Mykolenko. If nothing else, Moyes is KITAP1 and letting in the one means scoring two.

Other youngsters did get chances. Iroegbunam (is 22 a youngster?) started almost half the games. Dibling played 350 minutes and George 209, though their sum of goals and chances created was – 0. Armstrong came back just as our decline started – pure coincidence, while Röhl (23) finally got his chance at the end of the season, although the BBC blamed him for the Spurs goal. Alcaraz (23) started 6 games, but who would he replace on a regular basis? 

The average age of the starting team was 27 years 10½ months, 7½ months lower than last season – and half of them were a year older! The supporters age even faster. The youngest team was away at Forest with an average age of 25½, and the oldest away at United with an average of 29y 10m. We won both games! The latter had 6 players over 30 starting the match – Pickford, Coleman, Tarkowski, Keane, Gana, and Grealish, and this was the only time this season we had that number. 

Moyes used 22 different players, all of whom started a game at one point in the season. This equalled the lowest number since 2012-3, Moyes’ final season first time around. My personal opinion is that trust is important to Moyes, and he selects players he knows will do a job, and if he can’t trust them, they don’t get picked, although often those he does fail to do their job.

Substitutes. On average, Moyes used 3.03 subs per match and gave them 15 minutes on the pitch. One of those subs was swapping Barry for Beto, which happened in 32 of the 38 matches and on average in the 72nd minute. There were 8 players hooked at half time – Dibling & Barry at home to Palace, Dibling and McNeil at home to Brentford, McNeill and Armstrong at home to Leeds, Iroegbunam at home to Newcastle, and Beto in the away derby. 

We had our most red cards since 2021-22 with 4 – but Keane’s hair pull, Grealish’s sarcastic applause, Gueye’s slap of Keane, it does seem to suggest we were more harshly treated than most, and only O’Brien’s deliberately accidental coming together with Amine Adli was maybe the only possibly deserved Red Card.

Overall

It was the first season since Ancelotti (2021-22) where we were never in any danger of relegation. I have sympathy for West Ham. Only Birmingham 39 and West Ham again with 42 have ever been relegated with 39 points since the league moved to 20 teams.

We were effectively safe at the end of February with the win at Newcastle, game 28. Perhaps "what could have been" is our major source of frustration, rather than the joy of having a relaxed and peaceful spring without recourse to stiff drinks, screaming at the kids because our nerves were shot, and sleepless nights spent in prayer to whatever god you have.

Against the top 6, we had 3 wins (all 1-0 away), 2 draws, and 7 defeats (11 points), scoring 9 goals and conceding 15. Slightly better than last season, which had one win, 6 draws, and 5 defeats (9 points), scoring 7 in the 12 games and conceding 12. 

Against the 7 other teams placed 7th to 14th, we had 5 wins, 4 draws, and 5 defeats (19 points), scoring 21 in the 14 games and conceding 22. 

And against the bottom 6 we had 5 wins, 4 draws and 3 defeats, the same as last year, gaining 19 points, scoring 17 and conceding 13, although 10 of the points came at Forest and Palace, so only 9 from 24 against the bottom 4. Noticeable that the two teams that made European places last season, and who made it to the Semi-final/Final stage, finished 15th and 16th in the table this season.

Highlights? Moyes winning at a Sky 4 at his 51st attempt (I don’t count Spurs as my favourite wind up is their last title is nearer Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee than today – and we have 4 titles since their last one, nor City, who were not in the Club when Moyes joined us in 2002, having been relegated the season before). The first game at BMD. The thrashing of Chelsea.

Lowlights? Too many to mention. Home Derby, Spurs at home, Newcastle at home, Brentford at home, City at home, Sunderland at home. And with 8 losses and 23 points compared to 5 losses and 27 points last season, Fortress Goodison was sorely missed.

 

Read more - Everton's summer and the need for urgency

 

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