Everton's Premier League Squad Challenges: Moyes Faces Tough Season
David Moyes knows exactly what a full Premier League squad looks like. This isn’t it.
Everton head into the season with a group stripped back to the bone after a chaotic, bruising end to the transfer window that saw key depth disappear and solutions arrive only in part. The consequence is stark on paper and even starker in reality: just 19 senior players named in the club’s 25-man Premier League squad.
For a league that punishes weakness and stretches resources to breaking point, that is walking the tightrope without a safety net.
A window that unravelled
The final days of the window did the damage. Beto gone. Adam Aznou gone. Nathan Patterson gone. Iliman Ndiaye gone. Tim Iroegbunam gone. Five players out in quick succession, stripping away options across the pitch and leaving Moyes with a group that suddenly looks alarmingly thin.
Everton did manage to land two deals. Jack Grealish returned on loan, a headline arrival with obvious pedigree, and Ainsley Maitland-Niles came in from Lyon to add versatility. But the one that got away lingers.
A move for Folarin Balogun failed to materialise, and with it went the chance to ease the pressure in attack and change the mood around the club’s summer business. Instead, the window closed with Everton looking lighter, not stronger.
Moyes did not dress it up.
“I know what I needed and I know what it’s like to build a squad for the Premier League,” he said. “I know the numbers you need. I’ve been around long enough to know that, but some things went against us and some things could have gone better. Ultimately, we didn’t want to lose a lot of the players, but for different reasons that had to happen.”
A small squad, a big test
The numbers tell their own story. Nineteen senior players registered. Six spots on the 25-man list left empty. Behind that, three more first-team options – Harrison Armstrong, Tyrique George and Tyler Dibling – listed with the under-21s, ready to be called upon when the fixtures pile up and the injuries bite.
This is not squad rotation. This is survival management.
“They’re all going to have to be able to muck in as we’ve got a real small squad now,” Moyes said at his pre-match press conference before facing Manchester United. The message was blunt: there is no hiding place now, no passengers, no spectators in tracksuits.
The upside? Opportunity.
“It gives opportunities to some people who have not had them and sometimes in football you need to be given that chance so that you can show what you can do,” he added. “Let’s see if some of them can do that. I have no concerns. I am sure they will be fully at-it.”
That is where Moyes is trying to turn a problem into a platform. Players who might have expected to drift on the fringes now find the door wide open. Minutes that would have been shared across a deeper squad will instead fall to those previously waiting in the shadows.
United first, then the grind
Manchester United is hardly the gentle opening act for a manager juggling numbers. The demands of that fixture alone are high; the demands of the months to come will be relentless.
Moyes, though, leans on experience. He has built squads, rebuilt squads, and patched them together across long seasons before. He knows what is missing. He also knows this group cannot afford to dwell on what walked out of the door in those final four days of fury.
Everton now move into the campaign with a slim, exposed, but clearly defined core. The margins will be thin. The workload will be heavy. The question is no longer who they failed to sign, but which of those unexpected beneficiaries of the club’s misfortune will seize a chance they never thought would come this quickly – and whether that will be enough to keep Everton’s season on course.
