David Moyes faces Manchester United this weekend with a Premier League squad list that looks more like a work in progress than a finished article. He knows it. He isn’t hiding from it.
Everton’s summer window collapsed in the final days, stripping depth from a group that was already thin. Beto, Adam Aznou, Nathan Patterson, Iliman Ndiaye and Tim Iroegbunam all left in a late flurry of exits that turned a difficult market into what can only be described as a mess.
The club did manage to bring in Jack Grealish on loan and Ainsley Maitland-Niles from Lyon, moves that at least add some experience and versatility. But the failure to land Folarin Balogun underlined the sense of a plan that never quite came together when it mattered most.
The numbers tell the story. Everton have registered only 19 senior players in their 25-man Premier League squad. That is not squad management by choice; it is necessity. Behind them sit three more first-team options — Harrison Armstrong, Tyrique George and Tyler Dibling — listed as under-21s and now pushed several steps closer to the firing line.
Moyes, speaking before the visit of Manchester United, cut the figure of a manager who understands exactly what he is walking into.
“I know what I needed and I know what it’s like to build a squad for the Premier League,” he said. “I know the numbers you need. I’ve been around long enough to know that, but some things went against us and some things could have gone better. Ultimately, we didn’t want to lose a lot of the players, but for different reasons that had to happen.”
The departures have forced a reset. There is no hiding place now for those on the fringes, no comfort in being “one for the future” when the present is crying out for bodies and belief.
“They’re all going to have to be able to muck in as we’ve got a real small squad now,” Moyes said. “It gives opportunities to some people who have not had them and sometimes in football you need to be given that chance so that you can show what you can do.
“Let’s see if some of them can do that. I have no concerns. I am sure they will be fully at-it.”
That is the challenge laid down. A lean squad, a bruising schedule, and one of the league’s heavyweights up next. For Everton’s overlooked players, the door is no longer just ajar. It’s wide open, and Manchester United is not a gentle stage on which to make an entrance.
