David Moyes hailed the Everton supporters on his Goodison Park return but admitted he has got burning issues to deal with when it comes to improving the team
David Moyes has spoken of his ambition to have more “great times” with Everton supporters, but admits he needs to find ways of picking up results again. Almost 23 years on from when he was first appointed, the Scot was given a rousing reception by the home fans at Goodison Park ahead of the start of his second spell in charge, but the Blues started with a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa.
The loss leaves Everton with just 17 points from 20 Premier League games so far this season and Moyes said: “I thought the crowd were great. I’ve got to say I was really thankful for my reception.
“But I’m sort of keeping my head down because I don’t want to be a team near the bottom of the league and I’ve lost. I’ve had great times with Everton supporters over the years and I hope to have more great times with them again.
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“At the moment, I’ve got to find a way of getting the team a result. I’ve only been here a couple of days and I’m nearly burned out, looking at how we can score more goals and how we’re going to get players that can do that.
“With the squad we have, everyone’s going to say: ‘how are you going to find that?’ If we get something different, that’s not the case, but we’ve got to keep finding ways of scoring with what we’ve got at the moment to make goals, score goals and improve our attacking play.”
Despite being beaten, Moyes insists he is pleased with the commitment of the group of Everton players he has inherited. He said: “I’ve definitely seen enough to see that these players are up for the fight. I think they’ve been great in training, they’ve been really good in the couple of days I’ve had with them.
“We’ve been really surprised over how good they’ve been. I think they look like they’re a really good group of lads. They’re not there, trying not to play well.
“Maybe, they just need someone to give us a lift and a little bit of quality that might make the difference. We’re just lacking a little bit of that at the moment.”
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During his lengthy first spell at Everton, when he steered the Blues to nine top-eight finishes, including their highest ever Premier League position of fourth in 2004/05, Moyes was highly-regarded for implementing activities that helped foster team spirit. Asked if he might take the team away next week to try and get to know them better, the 61-year-old said: “I might do something. I hadn’t really thought about it yet.
“I was looking at it and thinking we’ve got Aston Villa on the Wednesday night and now we’ve got Tottenham. We haven’t really been able to breathe with what’s gone on and trying to find out how the players were.
“Even coming back here, as I said in my first press conference, it’s a different Everton than I left in how things work and probably a different David Moyes as well in some ways. I’m really just getting in but what happens is that we’re right in it and we need to win the games and get the points.
“I have to find a way of getting something that is going to get us a result. If we’d had scored and it was 1-1, people wouldn’t have said too much, but Villa are a really good side and they’ve been spending about £100million a year I think for the last five or six years.
“They’ve spent it brilliantly well and they’ve got a great manager and I think you can see that. They are the levels that we’re up against with a well-drilled team.”
