“Dom (Dominic Calvert-Lewin) scores a goal, Jesper (Lindstrom) crosses one in and suddenly your front players are having an impact on the team, which was great,” said Everton manager David Moyes after their 3-2 home win against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
Even a week ago, such a turn of events would have been practically unthinkable.
The Spurs game marked the first time Everton had led 3-0 at half-time in the Premier League at Goodison Park for nearly eight years, and at kick-off they had scored only 15 times in this season’s first 20 top-flight games. Lone striker Calvert-Lewin alone had been on a 16-match run in the division without a goal.
Football tactics have always been about compromise, and that has been the case early in Moyes’ second spell as Everton manager too.
When he had what is now Moyes’ job in the first half of the 2021-22 season, Rafa Benitez used his “short blanket” metaphor to explain how moving resources to fix one area of the team would create another issue in a different part of the pitch.
Under Moyes’ direct predecessor Sean Dyche, Everton retreated to deeper positions this season after conceding 13 goals in their first four games. This resulted in an improved defence but also a side who had stopped scoring.
Moyes has immediately prioritised resuscitating that ailing attack during his first two weeks back at Goodison, pushing his side higher and sacrificing some of that defensive solidity — Everton conceded twice in the final 13 minutes of the 90 plus added time on Sunday — in his quest for more goals.
At the risk of sounding mealy-mouthed, that was just Spurs. And a Spurs side lacking key personnel and confidence to boot. But there have been indications — including at home against Aston Villa in Moyes’ first game back four days earlier — that they are closer to finding tangible, sustainable solutions in a critical part of the pitch.
The return of the high press and patience
Under Dyche, Everton had stopped doing some of the things that brought them relative success last season.
Dyche’s setup looked broken. As mentioned above, Everton retreated further down the pitch, leaving their lone striker increasingly isolated, and had few ways of alleviating pressure. With open-play creativity in perilously short supply, they had been reliant on high regains to create chances. By the end of Dyche’s tenure 13 days ago, even this had been compromised.
Moyes has been more aggressive in his first two matches.
Everton only allowed Tottenham 11.5 passes per defensive action (PPDA) — a metric that measures a team’s defensive pressure and intensity — compared with their season average of 16 before Sunday. They also managed seven high turnovers, their most in 2024-25 so far, and won possession on average between five to 10m higher up the pitch than over the previous games. The result was an energised Goodison Park crowd.
Moyes will know from his first spell as Everton manager from 2002-13 that he needs to harness the home support, and this has been a good start.
There have also been changes in how Everton are using the ball. They are still direct at times, but look far less one-dimensional than under Dyche. Iliman Ndiaye’s goal on Sunday (Everton’s second, on 30 minutes) came at the end of a long passing sequence in which they lured Spurs higher up the pitch and then played the Senegal international into space.
Elegance personified ✨ @iliman_ndiaye pic.twitter.com/bATCBDWKfS
— Everton (@Everton) January 20, 2025
Defenders and midfielders have been instructed to build play more from the back and keep possession for longer at times, with last summer’s £17million ($20.9m at the current exchange rate) signing Jake O’Brien brought into the back line, after not starting once for Dyche in the league and making only three appearances off the bench, to help them break the initial wave of pressure.
More support for Calvert-Lewin — and empowering attacking players
One of the main criticisms of the football Dyche’s sides played was that there was little guidance or semblance of a coherent blueprint in the attacking third. Wide midfielders in his system, in particular, were given so much defensive responsibility that they struggled by the time they got forward into the attacking third.
Moyes has focused on getting more support to the striker and allowing his attacking players to show their best in advanced areas.
Lindstrom, a 24-year-old Denmark international on a season-long loan from Napoli in Italy’s Serie A who has flattered to deceive this season, has spoken of having more “freedom” now to break forward and create — even from a hybrid role that saw him drop in as a wing-back when out of possession but play as an advanced winger when Everton had the ball.
He produced the best performance of his time at Goodison against Tottenham, adding speed and positive intent to a previously one-paced attack.
Ndiaye, meanwhile, talked about being “closer to the goal and each other”. He had six progressive carries against Spurs and made 166 yards on them — his highest total for that metric since his summer move from French club Marseille.
Even at this early stage of his second stint as Everton’s manager, Moyes has recognised that he needs their most gifted attacking player, Ndiaye, dribbling with greater frequency than under Dyche, and doing it closer to the opposition goal.
“I want him to ball-carry more than he’s doing,” Moyes said of Ndiaye in his post-match press conference on Sunday. “I want him to be an attacking threat. He can take people on and face them up and do that at the right times. I actually think he has more to come.”
Lindstrom, meanwhile, made 23 carries in the game — his highest total of the season. He is likely to get a new lease of life under Moyes, who has admired him since before his summer 2023 move to Napoli.
“I remember him really well against Eintracht Frankfurt (who beat his West Ham side 3-1 over two legs in the semi-finals en route to winning the 2021-22 Europa League) and he was a really talented footballer,” Moyes told Everton TV.
Everton have been crying out for a player with the Dane’s speed to break the lines. Now they have one.
Proper service for Calvert-Lewin… finally
The result of all of this was that Everton had 25 touches in Spurs’ penalty area — their season average for that statistic is 20, third-worst in the Premier League. Calvert-Lewin had 10 of those, his joint-highest this season, with six of them resulting in shots, his most in 2024-25. He had three big chances, another campaign high.
The England international has never been the most clinical of strikers, regularly being the biggest underperformer in the league compared to his expected goals tally. But he has been starved of service for so long. But Calvert-Lewin had 48 total touches against Spurs, 12 more than in any other league game this season, and recorded his highest xG (expected goals) figure since October.
In these past two games alone, he had a combined xG of nearly 1.5 — a considerable improvement from his time under Dyche.
“People have been telling me he didn’t get many chances. Well, he has got a few in these games and got a goal,” Moyes said.
“The biggest thing is he played like a proper No 9 at times. He made the centre-halves worried — he left a bit on one. He was a threat, challenging, won a good percentage of his aerial duels (11 out of 15 against Tottenham, both season’s bests). He came out and switched the play. He did a lot of good things.
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“People who have watched this club for longer than me will tell you we’ve tended to have a No 9 who has never made it easy for any centre-half at any time. Because of that, there is a bit of expectation he has to be that type as well. For different periods, he has been.
“Sometimes, someone needs to tell him straight, and it’s good he’s getting chances, got a wee bit of belief.”
💪 The move
🌀 The footwork
🔊 The noise!Kickstart your day with DCL’s opener! #EVETOT
— Everton (@Everton) January 20, 2025
What comes next…
Sunday was a step in the right direction but sterner challenges await. It remains to be seen how Moyes’ Everton will cope against sides who look to simply frustrate, and in games where the onus is on them to break down deep blocks.
Despite Sunday’s result and their four-point cushion above the three relegation places (Everton have a game in hand on all four sides below them too, although it is against league leaders Liverpool) Moyes said they “desperately need to keep adding” to the squad before the winter window shuts on February 3. Another pacy winger remains a priority, as does more quality from full-back.
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Moyes has persevered for now with playing Abdoulaye Doucoure behind the striker. The former Watford midfielder brings energy to the press but lacks guile, and with his contract up at the end of the season, the 32-year-old looks like a stop-gap. The Scot has spoken positively about Harrison Armstrong, a young midfielder who is pushing for more first-team minutes. The 18-year-old may end up being the future in that role for Everton, but is short of experience.
Elsewhere, Moyes will look to make inroads on Everton’s attacking set pieces, where they have slumped this season after being so successful under Dyche in the previous one. The seemingly imminent returns from injury of James Garner (back) and Dwight McNeil (knee), two of their best at delivering balls into the box, should prompt something of a revival here.
Again, it is early days in his return to Goodison, but Moyes’ Everton look like they are in a much better position to remedy their long-standing attacking woes.
(Top photo: Matt McNulty/Getty Images)
