From Man Utd flop to Everton saviour – the remarkable return of David Moyes

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Everton v Man Utd 

©TM/IMAGO

David Moyes often presents himself as a polite and rarely outspoken Premier League manager, but few would deny the 61-year-old tactician the odd fist pump or smirking grin if his Everton side were to pick up all three points on Saturday. In what should be a fiercely contested affair at Goodison Park, the Toffees welcome Manchester United to Merseyside with every intention of continuing Moyes’ impressive return to the club and compounding more misery on the Old Trafford club as they continue to struggle under their own new manager Ruben Amorim. 

Indeed, since Moyes made the decision to return to Everton to replace Sean Dyche, the club have climbed to 14th in the league table with four wins, one draw and just one defeat in the Scottish manager’s first six league games in charge. In that period of time only Arsenal and Liverpool have won more points than the Goodison Park club and, to the chagrin of Man Utd fans, Moyes’s Everton side have won six more points than his former club. And he’ll undoubtedly relish the opportunity to extend that gap even further with all three points on Saturday. 

Having once been hand-picked to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson as Man Utd manager in 2013, Moyes lasted just under 11 months in the job before he was quickly sent packing and chalked up as little more than a bad appointment by the Red Devils. A lot has changed in the proceeding 12 years, but rather than Man Utd getting back to winning ways and finally finding a manager that could return the glory days once seen under Ferguson, it has instead been Moyes that has enjoyed a much-needed comeback. And he’s gone about it all by reforging his career as a Premier League manager. 

Aside from a brief one-year stint in Spain as manager of Real Sociedad, Moyes has spent his entire post-Man Utd managerial career in English football, coaching no less than three clubs. As we can see in the graphic above, despite a poor spell at Sunderland following his return to the Premier League in 2016, Moyes then went on to forge an impressive record at West Ham and over the course of six seasons at the London club helped the Hammers reach a high of sixth place in the Premier League. Although his average of 1.68 points per game at Man Utd was deemed below par by the Old Trafford club, his overall record of 1.34 points per game at West Ham was actually rather impressive. So much so that it was actually the best return for any of the seven West Ham managers that had come before him. 

Few would have expected the experienced tactician to repeat the trip at Everton, when he took over a club that were languishing near the bottom of the league table and had spent many years selling off their best players to comply with financial fair-play rules. However, as the graphic shows, Moyes is currently enjoying an average of 2.17 points per game at the Merseyside club this season, which is not only his best return in his last 10 seasons in the Premier League but also his best average ever, when we even include his first stint at Everton. Of course, very little football has been played and that figure will likely fall slightly in the coming weeks. But it certainly goes to show just how impressive his start at Everton has been this season. 

Indeed, Moyes may not have been the ideal man to steady the ship after Ferguson left Man Utd, but his ability to win points in the Premier League is now beyond doubt. In fact, when we collate the record of every manager that has coached in the league since Moyes’ dismissal from Old Trafford in 2014 and rank them by total points won, the Scottish manager comes in 8th, curiously behind his Everton predecessor Sean Dyche. However, as we can see in the table above, most of the managers above the 61-year-old head coach have also coached far more games than him, which again underlines his impressive points-per-game average at West Ham. And if he can continue such feats at Everton, Man Utd fans may begin to wonder whether they would have been better off sticking with Moyes all those years ago.