- 9 months ago
Everton boss David Moyes on his hopes of finishing the season strongly starting with their Premier League clash with Newcastle United
Finch Farm, Liverpool, UK
Finch Farm, Liverpool, UK
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00:07Good morning everyone, welcome to our Premier League press conference to preview our game against Newcastle.
00:14David, first of all, going back to Newcastle, good memories of the last game of last season, I would imagine.
00:18Yeah, it was, thank you. It was a great win for us considering Newcastle.
00:23I think we're trying to qualify for Champions League and did on the end day from their point of view.
00:29But yeah, always good to try and back it up if we can.
00:33It feels like another key moment in your season though with Newcastle just a point behind you.
00:36So again, you're fighting for league position this weekend.
00:39Yeah, but I think the Premier League is like that anyway.
00:42I think there's a lot of teams and one result can send you up a bit or send you down
00:46a bit depending on how it goes.
00:48With Newcastle though, does it in some ways show the difficulty of maintaining league form with European competition as well?
00:54A challenge that you hope will be facing you in the not too distant future?
00:58Well, I think Newcastle have done a remarkable, you know, the last 16 in the Champions League.
01:03The level of the games you have to play in the teams to play in the group stages to be
01:07in that position.
01:08So, great credit to them.
01:11But yeah, it can have an effect on your Premier League games, your bread and butter really.
01:18Much like I'd seen it in the Europa League and the Conference League as well.
01:22As a fellow manager as well, how do you put into context the job that Eddie's done up there?
01:26I think he's done a brilliant job.
01:27I think everybody knows that.
01:28I think he's given Newcastle success.
01:32He's won a trophy with them.
01:33He's getting them in European football, which I'm sure all the Jordies are happy to be watching.
01:39For yourself, David, at the minute, obviously you want your best players on the pitch at any given time.
01:44But when a player is natural in a position and left out for someone who isn't natural in that position,
01:50how much of that is a wake-up call do you hope for them to raise their levels?
01:55I don't quite understand your question, but you can ask me again.
01:59Obviously, with Jared playing left-back, for instance, or Harrison playing out down the left-hand side,
02:05there are players who can come in who are natural in that position.
02:08If those players are being left out, are you asking for them, look, your levels need to be that much
02:13higher?
02:13No, not really.
02:14I think it's the first time we've probably had enough players to rotate and try things.
02:19Jared Brantwaite is as comfortable at left-back as he is at centre-back.
02:24I think I mentioned on TV, quite often when you're a young midfield player, central midfield player,
02:30you find your way into the first team, probably playing off the sides.
02:33I think Mikel Arteta, when he came here, probably had to do the same thing.
02:37I mentioned when you're a young centre-back, quite often you find your way getting into the team,
02:41starting at full-back because that's where you are.
02:44That's where you're put because you're probably not physically and all the levels ready to do it in the big
02:51positions.
02:52It's part of it. Harrison is great development for him, getting plenty of games.
02:57Jared Brantwaite, as I said, is comfortable in both positions, so it's easy.
03:00We've also got enough players to rotate around a little bit.
03:04Do you feel as well, though, at this point in the season, it's one of those periods where the fine
03:07margins
03:08are just going a little bit against you?
03:11I say that because of the five defeats in the last 13, only two have been by more than one
03:16goal.
03:18Yeah, the games have been tight, but the Premier League is suggesting that all season.
03:22I think it will remain tight, the way the teams are.
03:25There's a lot of teams fighting, probably from 7th position down to about 15th.
03:31You could end up anywhere, really, in those league positions at the moment.
03:34So every win you get is important.
03:37Every defeat, it's been quite narrow in a lot of the games.
03:41We have spoken many times about the opportunity to qualify for Europe this season,
03:47and it's obviously still there, but at the same time, how much of achievement would it still be
03:51to finish in the top half at least anyway, given where you've come from?
03:54Well, we're not quite ready to give up that what ambition is to try and make Europe,
03:59so we don't want to give that up. We're going to try and keep going for it.
04:02Why would we not? I could easily turn up here and say,
04:05hey, by the way, we're having a pretty comfortable season, so let's forget about it.
04:10But it's the opposite. We're desperately trying to keep pushing.
04:13I think I said a few weeks ago we'll need to win some big games on the journey
04:17if we're going to do that, and we'll get a really big game at Newcastle coming up tomorrow.
04:21Let's take a good look. Cheers.
04:25Hi there.
04:27With 11 games to go, in terms of league position and points,
04:31are you where you want to be, or is there a sense of frustration,
04:36especially with some of those narrow defeats, that you could be a little bit higher?
04:41Yeah, we could be, but we also have had quite a lot of narrow victories away from home as well.
04:46We've won games tightly.
04:49You only need to think and go back to Old Trafford.
04:51We won with 10 men at Old Trafford on the night.
04:54We got a goal in the last second against Brighton,
04:57so we've done the same away from home as well.
05:00But this is what I'm referring to.
05:02I think the Premier League this year is really tight,
05:04and there's not many games I think you're running away with them in any way.
05:09We got a really good result against Fulham a couple of weeks ago away from home.
05:14But again, incredibly tight the games.
05:16Nothing has stood out really in any of the games that you've won really comfortably or won by many goals.
05:23We certainly have, that's for sure.
05:25And in terms of Premier League away games, St James' Park is always special, isn't it?
05:32It's always a great stadium.
05:35I think it's a real iconic sort of stadium, really fitting for the North East really in some ways, St
05:42James' Park.
05:44And I think over the years I've done a really good job in trying to better it inside the stadium,
05:50enhance it.
05:52And, you know, I don't think it would be easy to get a ticket for any Newcastle game at the
05:56moment, that's for sure.
05:57And just finally from me, I want to focus on James Garner.
06:01How good is he and how much better can he get in the time that you've managed him?
06:08I think James Garner's played really well this season.
06:15He's predominantly a midfield player but can play in several positions.
06:18We had to play him left back at the start of the season in a couple of games when we
06:24didn't have MD available.
06:26And we've had to play him at right back in different times because we think he's as good as MD
06:30there.
06:31And also, you know, but in midfield he's been excellent.
06:36I actually believe he's getting close to being the levels to play for his country.
06:44So hopefully he can keep that up and could possibly get selected.
06:48Best of luck. Thank you, David.
06:54Just on that, James Garner, the stats at the moment.
06:56He's in the top five players in the Premier League group.
06:59When you add them all together, so people like Declan Rice, he's in that level of stats.
07:04When you take him out the midfield, is that a big risk for you and how do you balance that
07:09up?
07:09It's a big risk because we know he's so good in there.
07:12But sometimes you have to make these decisions and think what are the best options.
07:18Does that show still how small your squad is and the work that's still to do?
07:23I think that we've said quite often that we've probably been short of a right back.
07:28I think we made that clear that we were looking, even said I think we've been looking for about a
07:32year for one.
07:33So I think we've been short at times in that area.
07:37But Jake O'Brien's done a great job for us over.
07:40I think when I came in, not much more than just over a year ago now.
07:44Everybody was looking for Jake to be in the team.
07:46We got him in the team.
07:49And he's done a great job at right back, really.
07:51He really has.
07:52The home game, you were massively disappointed with the performance against Newcastle.
07:58Are you a different side now, moving on?
08:00Have you improved in areas, do you feel?
08:03I don't know about that, because obviously we're without Jack Grealish,
08:06who's made a huge impact in the early part of the season for us.
08:10I hope we're a bit more streetwise than we were that night.
08:13We lost a couple of goals from corner kicks,
08:15which was probably the key part of the game, if we've been honest.
08:20And we lost a goal after 25 seconds.
08:23So we were on the back foot from minute one.
08:25So hopefully we can overcome those parts of the game.
08:29But Newcastle are a good side.
08:33They're beating good teams in Europe.
08:35So it's not going to be an easy game.
08:37When you talk about having to move people into other positions,
08:42Asnu, Dibling, Merlin Roll, they're younger members of your squad.
08:45How close are they to get into a starting position?
08:49Some of them quite close, some of them not so close.
08:53We're trying to keep our ambitions going and trying to see if we can be near the top
08:58or stay in the top half of the league.
09:01If we're lucky enough, we'll make Europe.
09:03So I want to try and play the players who I think are the best chance of getting us those
09:07results.
09:08What do they have to do then?
09:11Improve.
09:13Simple as that.
09:15Can I just quickly check on injuries?
09:17Obviously, apart from the obvious ones, there's no Jack Grealish.
09:20Everyone else okay?
09:21Charlie Alcaraz has got an injury, which is probably going to keep him out for three weeks or four weeks,
09:28we think.
09:29He picked it up in the last minute in training on Sunday, I think it was.
09:36So he was a bit unfortunate.
09:38That's frustrating for him as well, isn't it?
09:40Yeah, because he would have probably started on Monday night if he hadn't picked up the injury.
09:46Thank you, good luck.
09:47Thanks, Julie.
09:48Any further questions in the open section before we move on?
09:51No? Okay, thank you.
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