How the Moyesiah miraculously fixed Everton's woes

The beginning of David Moyes’ second spell as boss signalled a sensational return to form for the Toffees — thanks to smart management by the Scot

- ADAM CLERY

During the first eight weeks of David Moyes’ return to Everton, his side amassed 15 points from just eight games - only Liverpool collected more. Given where they were prior to that - one point above the relegation zone, with 17 points from their first 19 games - you'd have forgiven the Goodison Park faithful for not seeing that coming.

The term ‘Moyesiah’ has been thrown around in both jest and irony in some of his previous jobs; a sign that things at a club had got so bad that their only recourse was to abandon their dreams of progressive play and entertainment, and get a weather-beaten Glaswegian into sort it out. This used to be Sam Allardyce’s gimmick, except he didn’t have a catastrophic run at a big club on his CV to undermine it.

But through a combination of subtle tactical tweaks - to individuals and the team as a whole - this messianic figure appears to have worked possibly his greatest miracle yet.

1 What was wrong

The preconceptions that you have about Sean Dyche’s Everton are mostly true, but they were also a better team than they occasionally looked.