What we need to see from Everton in the final week of pre-season

(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

All of a sudden, it feels like the new season is nearly upon us.

We’re just over 2 weeks away from Everton’s first Premier League game of 2026-27, while the Toffees have now played 4 of their 7 pre-season friendlies.

It’s fair to say it’s been a mixed bag so far: A 4-0 hammering of Dundee, albeit in which Everton were given a huge helping hand by the Scottish team’s goalkeeper, was followed up by a bore draw at Bolton Wanderers and a defeat to Stoke City. Saturday’s meeting with Hamburg was more entertaining, albeit Everton still looked largely disjointed — they did, though, come away with a 2-1 win thanks to a late own goal.

David Moyes’s men have stayed in Germany for a training camp ahead of facing another step up in quality on Saturday, against Stuttgart, as their pre-season preparations head into the final week before it’s full focus on Crystal Palace.

Newcastle United in Edinburgh follow next Wednesday, with a home game against Lille rounding things out. 

Here’s a few things we want to see across the final 3 pre-season games.

GET MORE NEW FACES IN

Christian Nørgaard’s arrival is definitely a boost, though it seems he will not feature against Stuttgart. Instead, The Athletic has reported the Dane will train at Finch Farm and link up with the squad next week.

However, Everton are still short, and they still do not have a right-back in, with the Alistair Johnstone deal now hitting the rocks. To not have the position filled by now is a failure, there’s no two ways about it. The club are trying, but frankly, trying isn’t good enough.

Everton need to get that right-back in, and they need to be acting more decisively in getting a deal done. They have left it far too late to be picky now, and whichever player comes in needs at least one or two friendlies before Moyes will trust them to be thrown in against Palace.

Poor all-round, and it should be better. A massive black mark against all involved.

MOYES NEEDS TO STEP UP

The first few weeks of pre-season are always about building up fitness, but we’re now into the games in which we should be starting to see some semblance of a system, especially in attack.

Everton are far too sluggish and disjointed most of the time, and it doesn’t look like much has changed from the disastrous tail-end of last season.

A fair bit of that is due to personnel, but we also need more in this area from Moyes and his coaching staff. We need to start seeing proper approach play and patterns of attack.

The return of Iliman Ndiaye will help, but he will need time to build up his sharpness. 

LET’S SEE MORE OF AZNOU, DIBLING AND ARMSTRONG

These are 3 players facing a crucial season.

Tyler Dibling, whatever the reasons, has been a huge let down so far at Everton. But with 3 games in a week, he should be starting at least 1 match, and getting plenty of minutes under his belt across the fixtures.

The same can be said of Adam Aznou, who has been impressive in pre-season; there’s no need to be flogging Vitaliy Mykolenko at this stage, either; we all know the Ukrainian is first choice.

Aznou, in my book, should have done enough so far to prove he can be an option this season, but if he’s not going to get the minutes then Everton need to be decisive and get him out on loan. Before then, though, keep playing him and get his confidence up.

Harrison Armstrong’s situation is slightly different. He is clearly trusted by Moyes and seems to be the next man up in midfield.

He should be aiming for 150 minutes of action across the final pre-season games, at least, albeit Moyes will have to factor in getting Nørgaard’s sharpness up.

Armstrong just looks the part; he looks ready.

O’BRIEN IN THE MIDDLE 

File this one under unlikely, but Moyes should not be using O’Brien at right-back in every game.

Perhaps in one of them, that’s fine, but he is a centre-back and needs to be playing centre-back. We also need to see what a defensive pairing of O’Brien and Jarrad Branthwaite looks like over a couple of games.

Nathan Patterson is back with the squad and, while no move has yet materialised, he should be used to fill the right-back position so O’Brien can move central.

We don’t need to see 3 straight games of one of James Tarkowski and Michael Keane starting.

O’Brien and Branthwaite should be the future, and if that means playing a player who is up for sale for just a couple of games, then Moyes should do it.

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