Sam Allardyce has been speaking on the situation David Moyes has inherited and how he believes it should be addressed
David Moyes’ belief in Dominic Calvert-Lewin will define his approach to Everton’s survival hopes, according to Sam Allardyce.
The former Blues boss has outlined his blueprint for a new manager arriving at Goodison Park under immediate pressure to climb the Premier League table – as Allardyce did back in 2017.
He said Moyes will need to assess the strength of his goalkeeper and centre forward and build his plans from there. Everton’s number one, Jordan Pickford, is in a fine run of form but Calvert-Lewin has not scored since September.
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The 27-year-old missed a golden opportunity to grab a late equaliser in Moyes’ first game since returning to the Everton dugout, firing Jesper Lindstrom’s cross over the bar in the narrow home defeat to Aston Villa.
With striker rivals Armando Broja and Youssef Chermiti out injured, Moyes’ hopes of an immediate impact rest on either helping Calvert-Lewin to end his drought, pinning his support on Beto, or using what funds are available this January to bring in help.
Allardyce said: “As David [Moyes] will do, you calculate how good your goalkeeper is, and how good your centre forward is at scoring goals, and you will build around that. Down the middle first and then around the sides after that. So it depends on how quickly he can do it.”
Allardyce added that it was important for Moyes to understand what support he can count on from new owners The Friedkin Group [TFG]. TFG are understood to have the finances and desire to strengthen Everton, but the extent to which they can splash the cash this month remains restricted by spending regulations.
Everton’s lingering problems with financial fair play rules are rooted in the excess of former owner Farhad Moshiri’s tenure. Of his own experience at Moshiri’s Blues, Allardyce was critical of what appeared a haphazard approach to recruitment.
Speaking on Footy Accumulators’ No Tippy Tappy Football podcast, he said: “This is a brand new relationship with the owners so he’s got to find the feel for them, which is the most important thing if he’s going to be successful. What they’re going to bring to the table to help him deliver an Everton team that’s going to rise up the league.
“There was too much talk about the money that Farhad’s going to pump in at Everton that made the club go and panic buy players without the right criteria or background. So when I got there, there were far too many players in one position and not enough players in another.
“They sold [Romelu] Lukaku [in 2017] and did not replace him with a centre forward. Wayne [Rooney] was brilliant, he was back to Everton where he loved, but he wasn’t a centre forward anymore, he was one off the front line.”
For all the problems Moyes and TFG have inherited, Allardyce believes there should be no conflict in their first priority, one that, if achieved, should pave the way for better times.
He said: “The main aim for him is to keep them in the league for when they get to the new stadium because that’s where there’s a great big boost in the finance.”
