“We are desperate for more quality in attack” - David Moyes makes frustrated claim after loss to Leeds United | OneFootball

David Moyes is “desperate” to add more quality in attack as his side laboured and languished in the 1-0 defeat to Leeds United at Elland Road on Monday night.

It was a dispiriting performance from the Toffees in their season opener. Although the makeshift backline looked solid until a “bizarre” penalty call from referee Chris Kavanagh effectively decided the game, there were precious few forays into the opposition box.

Despite signing Charly Alcaraz, Thierno Barry, Jack Grealish and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, among others, during this transfer window, the Toffees are still without a natural attacker on the right wing.

Speaking after the loss to Leeds United, Moyes complained, “The attacking players, we are desperate to get more quality. But let's be fair, it's something I think I've been saying for a while that I'm having to try and find ways of getting that better.”

While they did have half-chances here and there through James Tarkowski, Jake O’Brien and Alcaraz, the side created little danger of note. They effectively had zero xG in the entire first half and their first shot on target was after 75 minutes.

The Everton boss’s first change of the night was also left late. Jack Grealish came on at the 70th-minute mark to replace Tim Iroegbunam. When asked whether Grealish was ready to start a match yet, having been left out of Manchester City’s summer schedule, Moyes said, “Jack's trained really well. I want to try and bring him in at the right time. I don't want us to put him out there and the expectations be too high, too quickly for him.

“I think if you look into it, I think he's very rarely played two games in a row, he's rarely played three games in a row, so if you actually look into his history you'll find that he's not done that, so we'll have to bring him on and we'll need to do it at the right times.”

While Moyes was disappointed with referee Chris Kavanagh’s penalty decision, he also accepted his side’s poor performance and that they deserved little from this match. Injuries to Jarrad Branthwaite and Vitalii Mykolenko led to a major defensive shakeup and James Garner slotted in at left-back.

“We had to play someone there,” said Moyes.

“Well, look, we've lost two of our better players that were in the back four, so that happens. Other teams will lose players at different times of the season. We've lost a couple at the start here, which is a blow.”

Curiously enough, Adam Aznou, the teenage left-back signed from Bayern Munich, was missing from Everton’s squad despite the injury to Mykolenko. Asked whether either Mykolenko or Aznou would be available for the match with Brighton at the weekend, Moyes said, “I don't know. I'll tell you when I find out.”

Reader Comments (16)

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Robert Tressell 2 Posted 19/08/2025 at 14:25:56

Yes he is being a knobhead.

He either tried to be over clever with the formation etc and ballsed that up.

Or he is trying to send a message to TFG and seems to have ballsed that up too.

For an experienced man he's not handling himself well.

Anthony Hawkins 4 Posted 19/08/2025 at 15:04:16

Has Moyes just said that Grealish is essentially the same as James? He’s not fit enough to play a match each week?

Kieran Kinsella 5 Posted 19/08/2025 at 15:09:53

Anthony

Exactly in which case why pay him 250k a week if you think he can't play two games in a row and can make the odd appearance sparingly.

Tony Abrahams 6 Posted 19/08/2025 at 15:12:03

After we had rode the storm and looked to be the more likely team for a period during the second half, it soon became apparent that we never had enough craft, desire or technical ability, to go on and win the game.

N’Diaye, produced a lovely little flick but Dewsbury Hall, never had quite enough drive or options, Alkaraz, played a nice give and go, that saw him get booked for being kicked, but other than that we had very little movement, so yes…. We are absolutely desperate for more quality in attack.

Kieran Kinsella 8 Posted 19/08/2025 at 15:15:31

Tony

What strikes me is that it is a reminder of what separates great players from OK players: Consistency. N'Diaye and Alcaraz can look great offensively on their day but they don't perform like that every week. Same with McNeil. If you have enough of those kind of players you can try and shuffle them around and if you're lucky you pick the right guys at the right time. We don't have enough to shuffle the pack so we have to wince most weeks and wait on the occasional "great" performance.

Kieran Kinsella 9 Posted 19/08/2025 at 15:21:47

Kevin

If he is not match fit after no preseason I understand that. But Moyes is talking about "expectations being too high." This is a guy who played in and won the European cup, played in the European Championship final. I don't think he is some shy lad who needs to keep a low profile because of "expectations."

Tony Abrahams 10 Posted 19/08/2025 at 15:23:40

I think it’s about getting a better balance Kieran, and a few better players, because both of these things should help bring us more consistency.

I was reading ToffeeWeb, on holiday and when we sign a player, some people start writing other players off.

It’s crazy, because we simply need a bigger and better squad of players, if we are to ever truly start moving forward.

Get the players in the squad and then find out, who compliments who.

We need creativity, we need pace and we need to be a lot more direct down the sides, imo.

Last night was dismal.

Even when the Everton players got the ball in a potentially attacking position, they were invariably caught by at least two Leeds players before they'd gone a couple of metres. They looked like a team of old men up against athletes.

There wasn't a single player or performance that looked more than adequate for a Sunday pub team, and as for motivation and fight, I've seen more aggressive duvets.

The relegation battle started last night, and the first skirmish was a rout.

Kevin Molloy 13 Posted 19/08/2025 at 15:28:07

this is why Moyes released the statements he did. Cos he knew these utter barmcakes were exposing him to this sort of criticism whilst they continue to piss around on deals. I still can't believe the Friedkins spent a billion on Everton, then thought, 'right, let's put everything in the hands of some yorkie from the Championship so he can appoint a bunch of his no mark mates,, and then we'll route all our decisions through that'

Kieran, he's barely played in two years, I'm sure you'll agree the last thing we need is him breaking down with an injury. I never expected him to start last night, he's not match fit, how can he be.

Did the Echo say anything about Aznou's absence from the squad?

I can't bring myself to read the bloody thing with all that shite talk down the side of every fucking story they post about Everton.

Or I could just ask my little electronic friend... who tells me:

As definitively confirmed by Everton themselves in their official match report, and reiterated by manager David Moyes in his post-match comments, Adam Aznou was absent from the Leeds United game due to an injury.

The lack of specific detail for Aznou's injury is a notable omission in the available information, suggesting either it was less severe, or the specifics were not deemed necessary for public release at the time.

Hmmm... he's starting to sound more and more like Big Brother!

Since the end of last season until the Dibling deal stalled, we were constantly being “linked” with player after player.Now, with many of those players having moved elsewhere, new rumours have largely dried up.Southampton will surely agree to a compromise deal at around £44M so just get it done. We don’t want him coming in on the last day of the window then sitting on the bench for a month until Moyes adjudges him to be match fit.Meanwhile, the failure to sign a right back is equally damning, with Patterson endlessly injured and evidently not good enough when actually deemed to be fit.Finally with DCL foolishly rejecting a new deal and Chermiti giving no impression that he will make the grade, we are short of striker options.I don’t fear a relegation battle just a disappointing lack of progress.