David Moyes has confessed his eagerness to shake off his dreadful Anfield record. The Everton manager has yet to secure a victory at Liverpool’s home ground, with a track record of 21 games and only seven draws while managing Everton, Manchester United, Sunderland, and West Ham.
When questioned about this record, Moyes admitted: “Yeah. I don’t want it, I want to win and I want to make sure I get rid of it if I can.”
“Am I sick of it? I would be lying if I said I look forward to going to it all the time because it has been such a hard place to get results.
“It’s nothing to do with the surrounds, nothing to do with the pitch, nothing to do with anything else, it is to do with them always producing good teams.
“I think every team in the Premier League, when they go to Anfield, has a game on their hands. We might be further away from Liverpool than we have ever been at the moment.
“By the time I had left here maybe 10 years ago we were much closer to Liverpool, we were competitive, competing around the same areas of the league at the time. “I think at the moment it is the biggest gulf between the two clubs.
“It would be huge for us as a club to get that because it is not something the club have done particularly often.”
(Image: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
Everton will march across Stanley Park tonight, confident it can secure a result against its rivals. The Toffees are currently on a nine-game unbeaten streak in the Premier League and have distanced themselves from the relegation zone under Moyes’ management.
It was back in February when they fought hard to secure a 2-2 draw with the Reds thanks to James Tarkowski’s last-minute goal. It caused a stir among the players, and Reds manager Arne Slot was visibly frustrated with the officials. The game was intense, with tackles flying in from all directions, something that Moyes confessed to enjoying.
He stated: “I think there were so many people who enjoyed the game in many ways. Liverpool supporters might have not enjoyed the end, but I think generally there was a real sort of competitive game to it.
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“We’ve got to watch that we don’t sanitize the game too much and everything’s stopping and starting, and we’re not getting any flow to the game. It was good to see that type of game.
“We probably needed to make it tough for Liverpool, so we’ll now get another chance to do it again. Anfield is a different version of it.
“It’s always been difficult for any team to go there and put that type of game on Liverpool. So we’ll need to be clever and do the right things – try to make the right decisions at the right moments.”
Everton may have Iliman Ndiaye back in the squad, but Dwight McNeil won’t feature despite returning to training this week. Vitalii Mykokenko could also play despite picking up an injury with Ukraine.
