David Moyes highlighted the positives in Everton’s performance, especially with the way they went toe-to-toe with Manchester City in the first half, before suffering a 2-0 defeat at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
The Blues were proactive in their approach right from the off and took the game to Man City’s half early on. They also managed to carve out a few big openings thanks to Iliman Ndiaye’s magic from the wings, but failed to break the deadlock.
The in-form Erling Haaland then took over the contest and scored a quick brace to wrap up the result for the hosts, who arrived into the game on the back of a seven-game unbeaten run.
Speaking to BBC’s Match of the Day after the game, David Moyes said, “I was quite pleased with lots of the performance. Not pleased with the result. We’ve come here and put on a good show, up until the first goal certainly. Created a couple of chances in the first half. I wanted to try and challenge the likes of City and Arsenal where we can. We’ve challenged them today but we’ve come up a bit short.”
Haaland has been playing at a very high level this season and has grabbed 11 goals in eight Premier League games already. He was also on target for his national side during the international break and gave the Everton defenders a tough time, especially in the second half.
Asked about the difficulty of facing a striker like Haaland, Moyes said, “They’ve got a Number 9 who knows how to find the back of the net. One occasion where, just as we were changing over from attacking to defensive phase, we got caught up with a pass. It was a terrific ball by Nico O’Reilly for Haaland to score but, if you give that level opportunities, you give them the chance to score. A bit of a scruffy goal the second one. He scuffs it through James’s [Tarkowski] legs; they won’t be bothered about that but not a great finish from our point of view. That puts us in danger at 2-0 but I was impressed with how well we defended after that because they had more chances.”
Of course, Everton missed chances of their own in the first half. Iliman Ndiaye intercepted a sloppy pass from Nathan Ake to weave his way towards the box and then laid off a sublime low cross for Beto. Despite stretching towards the ball, the Everton Number 9 failed to get enough contact to divert the ball into an open net and give his side the lead.
The Guinea-Bissau international had another golden opportunity just after the half-hour mark. Played in behind by Ndiaye once again, Beto dragged his shot wide off the post. The Toffees’ wastefulness was duly punished with City capitalising on their chances in the second half of the contest.
“I think the one he doesn’t get to, he should get to. The one that was given offside was onside I think and ultimately we get a VAR decision if it goes in. The first chance, we’re studs away from getting a goal,” said the Everton manager.
“We missed a couple of big chances in the first half, which might have altered things the way we were playing. We needed any opportunities we got to go in or to certainly get us something more positive than we did. So, look, no real problems with the performance overall – most of it. We’ve done a pretty good job.”
Iliman Ndiaye was the best player on the pitch in the first half. The Senegalese forward weaved his way out of danger with excellent touches and dribbles and created big openings for Beto. On another day, he would’ve ended the game with two assists.
“I thought Ili’s performance in the first half was outstanding,” he added. “I thought he was a standout player at that time in the game. I just saw signs that he had fatigue during the game because of [recent internationals], and even the [first] goal, we just get it a yard wrong from stopping the pass going through.
“Ili is playing really, really well…. but I just don’t know if maybe the two games for his international team just took a bit more out of him and the travel as well. But he played very well, just unfortunately he couldn’t get us a goal.”
Reader Comments (3)
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Jim Bennings
1 Posted
19/10/2025 at
09:31:38
It was the same as at Anfield in April, almost a carbon copy of it actually.
Beto clean through hits the post when you simply have to take those chances, ironically enough he did score a close call offside that same night and it at least gave VAR a decision to make.
But this is why we don’t win these types of matches unfortunately, when the few chances do present themselves the strikers are never clinical.
Pat Kelly
2 Posted
19/10/2025 at
10:32:19
We are a team without a striker. Neither Beto nor Barry would get into any other PL team. Yet we’ve got both of them. Nothing will change while we rely on them. Another season wasted due to poor recruitment.
Clive Rogers
3 Posted
19/10/2025 at
10:46:08
Unfortunately the lack of goals isnt confined to the strikers. Normally you would expect a couple of the midfielders to be chipping in with the odd goal, but that is not the case for us with the possible exception of NDiaye. Garner and Gueye are both one goal a season players while Dewsbury-Hall, the advanced mid has never scored more than two PL goals in a season. A striker and a mid capable of scoring a few goals are top of the list for January.
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