Moyes injects positivity as Everton enjoy a ‘bit of freedom’ from pressure

Manager has overseen three wins in a row and wants to go deep in FA Cup in final Goodison Park season. Everton played their first FA Cup tie at Goodison Park 132 years ago and on Saturday could play their last. What a miserable, defeatist outlook that is, although it is typical of the mindset David Moyes has tried to break since walking back through the door four weeks ago. “Oh I’d love to get to the Cup final, I really would,” the Everton manager said on Friday. “We need to start bringing some good news back around Everton if we can and getting to the next round would be a good news story.”.

The recent transfer window may have reacquainted Moyes with familiar frustration at Everton, with one loan signing made, the attacking midfielder Carlos Alcaraz from Flamengo, and several attempts to land a striker hitting a brick wall. But he has made a decent start at changing the news agenda nevertheless. Three successive wins in the Premier League, as many as Sean Dyche achieved in five months this season, have eased relegation concerns and altered the mood at the club. There is new belief within a team who have only one fit striker, Beto, and the connection between fans, players and management is repairing having taken a battering during Farhad Moshiri’s ownership. Any fears Evertonians harbour over the fourth-round tie against Bournemouth are more likely to stem from the quality of Andoni Iraola’s team than the painful experience of watching their own under Dyche.

Moyes’s tactical and selection tweaks – though limited with a squad that lacks depth – have had an impact. Jesper Lindstrøm has been revitalised on the right flank. Behind him Jake O’Brien, the towering central defender signed for £16m from Lyon last summer but rarely seen under Dyche, has made an assured start to a new life as a right-back. Vitalii Mykolenko, instructed to play further forward by his new manager, has improved the service from the opposite flank.

Arguably the biggest difference, however, is the positivity that the 61-year-old Moyes has injected into Everton’s players and performances. “It’s not me personally who has made the change,” he said. “I think the players have changed how they perceive themselves. There are a lot of talented players here and they’ve shown it. The last thing we need here is pressure. They don’t need it because they’ve been living under so much pressure from different things: the form, even their own supporters saying: ‘No, we’re not liking this.’.

“Suddenly they might be feeling a bit of freedom and thinking: ‘I can breathe here, I don’t feel quite as uneasy.’ But let’s be fair. We’ve had a good start but we’ve a long way to go and there are going to be choppy seas ahead. We’re going to have to work through that.” Leicester’s woeful defensive display last weekend, plus Tottenham’s pitiful first-half performance in the previous home game, are two more reasons the Scot is not getting carried away by Everton’s recent upturn.

Bournemouth are a litmus test of their improvement, having gone 12 games without defeat before losing to Liverpool last weekend. They are also likely to trigger disturbing flashbacks for Goodison regulars. Everton put in a vibrant, creative performance for 70 minutes when the teams met there in August. Two-nil up in the 87th minute and on course for a first league win of the season, a shattered home team lost 3-2. No side in Premier League history had enjoyed a two‑goal advantage that late in a game and lost.

Iraola transformed the contest with five second-half substitutions. Dyche reacted too late with his but questioned his players’ approach instead. Everton were never so bold under him again as defensive, direct football took over. Dyche’s decline can be traced back to that fixture. Beto gave a revealing answer when asked after last week’s 4-0 rout of Leicester to identify the biggest change Moyes has made.

Sign up to Football Daily. Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football. after newsletter promotion. “I think the mentality,” replied the two-goal striker. “The mentality of the team now is that we put ourselves in situations that we want to win games, and the gaffer always speaks with us in terms of we have quality and we need to play with our qualities. The boost of confidence that he gave us is really good and really important.”.

Beto then qualified his answer. “I will not say the previous manager didn’t want to play and didn’t want to create chances, but it is a different type of football. We now have confidence to play, and we are showing people that we are capable of doing a good run and a good season.”. Iliman Ndiaye has scored in each of Everton’s three wins under Moyes and believes the team are benefiting from being “a bit more structured. We are closer to the goal and closer to each other, which is what we want.”.