Everton’s Future Struggle Can Be Seen in Real-Time Squad Mistakes
Everton seem to make a pig’s ear of some player situations
What you saw today is why Everton won’t succeed twelve months from now.
When we’re scrambling around for deals in the last week of August in 2027 and again starting another campaign with an unbalanced and dysfunctional squad, you witnessed the cause in real-time at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday.
And it goes back further. What you saw last season, is why we aren’t succeeding now. What you saw in 2018 , 2021 and 2023 is why the club failed time after time thereafter.
Every campaign is a placeholder, beset by past errors of judgement and ambition crushed by self-imposed limitations.
It comes down to a pretty abysmal use of the squad which proves costly not only in terms of final league standing but how the team looks heading into another new season.
Players, for a long while in recent Everton history, haven’t been given a proper run after showing positive signs while others don’t get a look in at all. Being honest, if it continues, I wouldn’t blame any player for having a word with his agent and pushing for a move.
Why this season is David Moyes not playing Jake O’Brien? Why are we not giving Tyler Dibling real faith in his ability by keeping him when he performs well? Why on Saturday was Hayden Hackney left on the bench and a player who has only recently returned from injury given the nod ahead of him? It was a decision which directly led to Chelsea’s second goal and a defeat for Everton. But it’s not the first such instance and it won’t be the last.
So, looking at the specifics…
Jake O’Brien arrived at Goodison Park from French giants Lyon with a strong reputation. The defender’s first Everton manager cited his lack of Premier League experience as a reason not to play him before Moyes deployed him at right-back.
At centre-back, O’Brien helped the Blues to wins and clean sheets away at Forest and Villa last season. His reward? Back to full-back and now, out the team and unused.
Michael Keane, who the stats show doesn’t have the same positive impact on the defence, is preferred ahead of him right now.
Two and a bit seasons O’Brien has been here and what is there to show for it, both for the player and the club itself? We haven’t established a strong centre-back pairing and he’s never had a sustained run in his position.
Who could blame O’Brien wanting to move on and not waste his time on the bench? Yet should he depart, Everton will need to replace him while Keane and James Tarkowski will both be 34 next season. Where is the planning? Where is the foresight?
Any smart club would have paired O’Brien with Jarrad Branthwaite at the back a long while ago now. Alas, not Everton and while a solution is ignored, a problem it will become soon enough.
Hackney, meanwhile, was the Championship Player of the Season last time out and has played nearly 200 games for Middlesbrough in the second tier. And yet, you get the sense Moyes isn’t ready to trust him fully. Instead, he’ll have to earn his stripes warming up on the side of the pitch while Everton fail to win games. Of course, Hackney has only been here a few months but his showings point to a player who can influence matches.
To play Christian Nørgaard, who has barely kicked in a ball in a year, ahead of Hackney on Saturday was a baffling decision. The latter would have got us on the front foot in search of an equaliser. The former was clearly not fit and gave away the free-kick that sealed the defeat by Chelsea.
Then there’s Tyler Dibling and Tyrique George. It’s like we don’t know what to do with talented footballers. There is such an emphasis on experience and trust that we seemingly stick with players based on age alone while the expressive players who dare try to make stuff happen must wait their turn. Harrison Armstrong seems to have secured his spot, for now, but this seems an exception to the rule.
When it comes to someone like Dibling, I say to mates that Everton often remind me of that Steve Buscemi ‘How do you do fellow kids?’ gif. It was the cool, right move to do but really, we’re not down with the sensible sides. Like, Everton will sign a supreme English talent in a way the lauded, forward-thinking Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth would buy a player from South America or the French second division, but then have absolutely zero idea what to do with him.
While those aforementioned clubs would throw the player in, with a deep awareness of how he fits into their starting XI and knowing full-well exactly his best attributes and position long before landing him, it feels like Everton are convinced 18-months on the bench observing our dire play is the way to go or, failing that, a two-year loan to Derby County, getting kicked by Championship defenders.
If Dibling doesn’t become a regular, you can already see how the story plays out. Double figures for RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga, regular goals and assists in Europe and then a Manchester United or Chelsea reaping the rewards after Dibling was given a stage to shine on away from the Everton dugout.
The club was the same with Ademola Lookman nearly a decade ago. Sure, he isn’t a world-beater but he’s played at a higher level than Everton in recent times but rather than play him, believe in him, we were certain he wasn’t ready. With each week and month that passes, the harder it becomes to bed these youngsters in.
There seems to be a real fear to just let players play. It’s why Adam Aznou is in Spain right now. We don’t allow for trust to grow and in reality, the left-back’s loan to Malaga is seemingly just kicking the can down the road before we take a loss on him next summer before he ultimately, in time, plays regularly in the Champions League for another club, considered one of Europe’s top young left-backs, again, by 2030. You can see it a mile off.
Moyes also appears to have a rigid outlook on sticking with players who have specific attributes and he shoehorns them into different positions. Like Merlin Rohl on the right wing ahead of, you know, actually wingers. Because he’s a strong runner, he seems to get given the nod despite being caught unawares and out of position on the regular as it doesn’t come naturally being out there.
Of course, Moyes sees the players in training everyday and will have his solid reasons for his selection choices. From a fan perspective, it’s all subjective but more and more, some of the decisions are looking objectively off.
Remember last season too? Dwight McNeil wasn’t playing and nearly moved to Crystal Palace in January. After that switch didn’t happen, he became a regular, starting ahead of players with a supposed future at the club. Completely non-sensical. There was zero logic to it.
The management of the team set-up is so obtuse at times and it’s going to hurt us, not only this season, but in the summer and future campaigns too. Players won’t be happy missing out if the team is dropping points and moves will happen. All the while, the squad is getting smaller and smaller, lacking numbers but also quality.
As it stands, you aren’t laying any foundations. You aren’t allowing the roots to take hold. You’re using short-term solutions for today’s problems with no thought for how the team needs to develop for the future.
I long for the day Everton sees what is staring the club right in the face and cottons on to what makes for a sustainably successful football team that competes, plays with no fear, bids to win every game and ultimately, lifts trophies.
Give players you have invested in the chance to improve with actual game time in their preferred position and they may just thrive at Hill Dickinson and not elsewhere.
Until that happens, every season will be a placeholder, Everton ambling through the here and now with the same old tired set-ups and failing to nurture a team that can grow together and achieve real glory.
Reader Responses
Selected thoughts from readers18/10/2026 08:38:57
Ell a great summary of our squad selection failures..everton don't do foresight and planning. My guess on Jake is he has expressed an opinion on his preferred position (I.e.not right back) moyes reaction is "I pick the team" so now Jake is on the naughty step !
18/10/2026 09:06:00
utterly depressing
18/10/2026 09:13:25
TFG buys young talent to develop and sell for profit, but they have to play to gain value. Moyes’ only remit is Premier League survival, so he trusts veterans and refuses to risk youth unless forced.
The catch: in the Premier League, your formula needs constant evolution to counter opposition analysis. Moyes’ rigid, safety-first setup is static.Teams figure it out, and he has no plan B.
The result is Young assets rot on the bench, TFG’s model fails, and the “safe” formula gets exposed anyway. Lose-lose as you say Ell.
18/10/2026 09:13:30
Good article Ell, Moyes and his dinosaur coaching cronies are obviously the issue, that’s just 2 wins in the last 14 EPL games and is not good enough, Rohl right wing was absurd when you have Dibling who can keep the ball, move us up the pitch and play others in, whereas Rohl runs around a lot, but not much creativity, his positioning is not great either.
JOB is definitely a better right back than AMN, I think he would do a decent job there, certainly better than the current incumbent, better at right back Jake than sitting on the bench, his time will come in January when Friedkin sells Branthwaite to enhance his profit.
18/10/2026 09:45:03
There is some light, possibly, at the end of the tunnel..surely this will be Moyes final season at Everton. Let us pray.
18/10/2026 09:50:26
Alan#6, Moyes is already making noise about extending his contract, and he probably will, with all the uncertainty around the sale of the club, the Freidkins will be indifferent whether he stays or goes, and any new owners will see him as a safe pair of hands for the foreseeable.
18/10/2026 09:52:52
Please, please, can somebody wake me up from this nightmare of false Dawns, false Managers and false players, that have hitherto haunted our beloved Club?
Yesterdays performance was not surprising, as much as it was shocking.
one of the Worst performances that I have witnessed in recent times, where only two players came our with any merit.. both Tarkowski and George.
I am talking about the second Half !
It is almost absolutely impossible to get any kind of result, even against a league one team, if only 2 of your Players show up.
I offered a theory, that the acquisition of Norgaard, was a cynical attempt to replace Armstrong.
I’m now convinced that it’s either that, or a lame effort to show us that we were doing Buisness and adding to our Squad.
This, coupled with the 4M spent on Maitland Niles, when we urgently needed Competent RB, preferably a Full international.
That combined 11/12 million on both these players, have proven to me, that you really do get what you pay for!
it also proved, that Moyes knew a lot more about the sale of the club, than he let on, hence the big Splurge, on his behalf.
isn’t that the crux of a top Team, that their squad be blessed with Full internationals ?
We possess such a motley Crew of a Squad, of misfits and Competence, a model that we have followed, that’s guaranteed to get you running, to Stand still.
18/10/2026 10:47:42
Jeff 7.
If he gets a new contract that will see me not renewing my ST.
My grandsons will still keep there's.
Everton mad the kids and with the same enthusiasm I had at there age.
He is a coward of a manager,starts every season with "lets get to 40 points"
Plays tactics that sees a 9th -17th finishing position to keep his job.
Sadly,ive had enough.
Give my ticket away 7 times last season.
Already give it away twice this season.
18/10/2026 10:53:08
There is no doubt in my mind that David Moyes has been a plus over his time at the club. He has twice turned us from strong relegation candidates to a club that doesn't worry about it any more. During his first spell he had us best of the rest, often finishing higher than better resourced clubs. Even last year European football looked a possibility.
Yesterday was the down side of having Davey as our manager. An utterly negative KITAP1 mentality, trusting the players that earned that trust years ago. You would think we were away to Real Madrid, not a team we smashed to pieces just a few months ago by going at them.
George and Dibling, maybe Johnson, are our future, or should be. They are the only way we are going to improve, I like Rohl but he isn't a specialist right winger and shouldn't be picked ahead of fit players who are. Last year Dibling looked lost, this year it's been different, he needs to know the manager trusts him to flourish. Every time the manager picks a centtral midfielder ahead of him that confidence will be going down, not up. The same with George, yes not every thing he tries comes off, with his age and experience, why would it?
But that's it with Davey, the future is too far away, he can't see past the next game. He has been (again) stitched up by our (lack of) recruitment team and his ultra-defensive 'Man the Ramparts' mentality is in overdrive. He sees nothing past 'Lets scramble our way to 40 points' and only the most trusty foot soldiers will do.
He has been a great servant to this club, I hope him and us make it too the end of the season intact, and he's given his Carriage clock and thanked for a job well done, and then we both move on to pastures new.
It maybe worth noting though, managers picking their favorites is not limited to David Moyes. I am struggling to think of any of the managers in between his two reigns that didn't bafflingly persist with players that a lot of the fanbase thought shouldn't be automatic choices.
Maybe it's a manager thing! Or maybe it's a manager at a poorly owned club thing! But that's another story!
18/10/2026 11:08:00
Excellent piece, agree with every word.
I'm still baffled and infuriated by yesterdays performance and, especially, the subs. The bloody subs!!
It was just so incredibly negative, experience over talent almost every single ******* time!!
Lookman and Dibling are definitely going down the same path, as you said, you can just see it a mile away. Our only hope is someone like Eddie Howe takes over and gives him some trust.
We live in hope.
18/10/2026 11:56:33
Fans can take mid to lower level league finishes over a number of seasons if there are positive incremental changes. Giving talented young players a chance to develop takes time. If fans see them improving, and by extention, improve quality of play over the course of a season, then we can be happy. Say we finish a couple of league places higher each season, with a more positive goal difference, more wins and more clean sheets each time then you can see a plan, a positive direction.
With Moyes, your getting mid to lower league finies, but with no obvious improvement in any aspect from one season to the next. Its depressing and predictable.
Lee, Eddie Howe popped into my mind as I read the article. We live in hope alright.
Somebody asked me on another thread what I thought it would take for dans to walk away. Another five or ten years of this nonsense surely will.
18/10/2026 12:46:18
John,10.
Each to their own opinion mate,can I ask you why Moyes has been "a great servant to this club" please
18/10/2026 13:01:45
Lee, that is the fear with younger players. They leave the club under a cloud, we lose quality for a marginal profit, then go back to square one with a younger less developed player.
It's farcical to the degree that its beyond 'Everton that'. Is it any wonder pundits and journalists don't take us seriously. Why should they?
For all the giving out about Chelsea and City cheating, they made full of it by being perfect on the pitch.
18/10/2026 13:34:23
Jeff#7
I think Moyes will at least get a one year extensio.Who else will TFG get to do the job of keeping Everton in the Premier League and not have to speak to ?, whilst they sell their majority stake.
18/10/2026 14:11:46
John @10
You can ask me how much » The Dour one « Was a Non Loyal servant to our Club and I will kindly remind Yourself and my fellow Blues, of his visit to M&S to Aquire a new Pair of « Slacks «, to wear to an invitation to Dinner,
chez Alex Ferguson.
According to Moyes, it would have been rude to turn up in a pair of Jeans !
I mean, who would possibly wear a pair of Jeans ,to go and Dine with an ex Citizen of Goven?
Apparently, the Topic on the agenda, was SAF’s endorsement of Davy Lad, as the next Manager of the Manure!
Not only did he accept the Post, but he wanted to buy two of our best Players, in Baines and Fellaini, in a two for the price of one coup !
I was hugely opposed to his return, based on this argument alone, coupled with the « never go back » element.
The Club seriously has to rid itself of the Ugly ethos of stooping so low, as to hiring Bottom Feeders like Alardyce and Dyche and ex RS like Benitez.
Now, that’s only the Managerial side.
There are of course players like Niasse, Sandro, Kone, Maupay, etc,
We also have to rid ourselves, of the habit of buying injured players in the Transfer Market, when we are desperate for players for the here and now.
Has any other Club bought as many Crocks in the Transfer Market as ourselves ?
WTF!.. Norgaard, Niasse, Grealish?, Gbabin?,??? Can anyone add anyone else.?
This is seriously unprofessional behaviour from a PL Club indeed.
18/10/2026 15:35:19
While Moyes can do some things better, that's not our biggest fault as a club.
The squad of players is not good enough, apart from not picking Dibling, George and Hackney that was our best team he picked. Ok you can argue we would be a better team with them playing but on the other hand we might have been worse.
How many chances did they produce, one I think in total. We are ok in our half but we can't develop it into the final quarter of the pitch, our midfield is not creative enough.
Chelsea were not that much better and they have spent ten fortunes, they did improve a little after their goal which changed the dynamic of the game, but they weren't two goals better.
Change the manager by all means, we have tried doing that before with no effect. Until we have players to match the best teams we wont equal them, it's bloody depressing I know but that's the bottom line for me.
18/10/2026 15:56:01
Since we moved to the New Stadium the Club have continued to sell over 50,000 tickets for each game, that s a big increase on the numbers sold at Goodison Park. I wonder just how long this will continue. Access to and from the New Stadium is really difficult, particularly for supporters who cannot make the the walk to and from the City Centre, and the work to the Mersey Rail tunnels will add further difficulties through the winter months. And although the New Stadium is beautiful and a real attraction in itself our football there has generally been quite poor and it doesn't generate the same atmosphere as G P. So as winter approaches and fixture changes happen with the possibility of more inconvenient night matches I wonder just how long we will be able to maintain these high attendances.
18/10/2026 16:24:10
2 wins in 14 league games is relegation form.
At an outcome level judged by results, Moyes’s approach is not working.
Relying on a small core of 12 to 13 senior players regardless of performances, adopting a cautious gameplan, limiting minutes for young talent and delaying substitutions - why persevere when it stopped working months ago?
18/10/2026 17:35:14
Paul #16
Wow, shock horror! Imagine a manager wanting to leave a under-funded club to go to a club what regularly wins things. It's something I imagine only 99.9% of managers would do.
Then he has the temerity to try and do the best for his employers by trying to buy the players that he thinks will improves his new employer's club. Something only 100% of managers would do.
This you blame him for. I'm not sure you actually understand how professional sport operates.
John #13
Well, there's all the statistics about where we finished when he was at the club and when he wasn't, the Manager of the Month/Year awards, and the many players/ex-players that have only good things to say about him. But I know Moyes-haters aren't interested with facts, as they have all been listed many times before to no avail.
18/10/2026 19:18:29
John @20
My understanding of Professional Sports does not encompass all Sports, such as Baseball, Formula one, among others.
but I’m certain that there all operate on the same Basis as Football.
Which is to say that only the most competent people are chosen at the helm, to make an effort to please, owners, shareholders and Fans alike and of course make every attempt to make a huge profit.
The last seven games of last season were an absolute disgrace and entirely Down to Moyes.
But, he got a free Pass, as his remit was to bring some stability to the Club, who had survived previous relegation threats.
so, for him, Europe was a Bonus.
At the Start of this current Season there were nine new Managers in the Premier League we were left with our Dinasaur.
The very one that couldn’t manage a Transfer window, left us without a RB and a second striker, sent Aznou out on loan, the only cover we have for our World Class left Back, Mykolenko.
He has also chosen to splash 4M on right back that he deems more competent than Jake O’Brien. The very one that was hauled off yesterday, as he was having a shocker.. that’s two in a row!
He has now presided over 11 games, of which he has won two!
Now, that is relegation form, to match the relegation form that he finished the last 7 games with last Season.
18/10/2026 20:46:55
How many of those players or ex/players, actually won anything under David Moyes, though John?
I’ve just watched a little clip of Rio Ferdinand, talking about David, when he was at Manchester United, and he talks about how his team talks, often consisted of him talking about containment, when they played the better teams.
We have moved into our new state of the art stadium, but we are still acting like plucky little Everton.
This might not be the manager’s fault, but if the cap fits…
18/10/2026 21:41:18
Antony, how many of those players or ex-players were good enough to win something?
How many Man Utd managers since Moyes have won them the League?
How many times have teams with the 11th/12th best squad in the division won anything?
Is Moyes negativity holding us back? Well, it did yesterday!
Can we do better with another manager? Possibly, I hope next season we try!
Could any manager win us the league with THIS squad? No!
I think we employ pragmatic managers who know our limitations and behave accordingly. The only manager who I think thought differently was Martinez, he was more positive but was let down by his own tactical inflexibility.
18/10/2026 00:01:41
John @ 22, nothing wrong with Moyes attempting to purchase our players. But trying to get them on the cheap is completely wrong.
Agreed nothing wrong with him wanting to better himself at United. But the way he went about it stinks and has no defence, not even from you, one of his staunchest supporters.
How many domestic trophies has Moyes won during his managerial career? Not counting those manager of the month awards you seem to covet. Maybe we should have had an open top bus parade on his behalf?
Not to mention all those trophy winning stats attributed to our very own Dinosaur. We must be the envy of the Premier League knowing how successful our manager has been at accruing top stats. I wonder how they look in the trophy cabinet?
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18/10/2026 07:20:46
The Norgaard substitution was baffling when you consider the attacking options we had. Perhaps if we were 1 nil up and attempting to hold out. I can't see him making any significant changes next weekend either as we all know what the tactics will be heading to the Emirates.