- 7 months ago
Everton boss David Moyes on the injury blow to Jack Grealish and the challenge of facing Leeds in the Premier League
Finch Farm, Liverpool, UK
Finch Farm, Liverpool, UK
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00:00Good afternoon everyone, welcome to our pre-match press conference to preview our game against
00:04Leeds United. We'll start off with a penny from Sky.
00:07David, first of all can we start with Jack Grealish, what more can you tell us about
00:10the injury that he sustained and is the concern for him that this really puts pain to his
00:15hopes of breaking into the squad for the World Cup as well?
00:17Well it's not for me to give the timescales and we've not got it yet from the doctors
00:22but he's got a stress fracture on his foot, that's as far as that's all I can tell you.
00:28How big a blow is that though for you guys here?
00:30Yeah it's a big blow because he's been hugely important to us since the start of the season,
00:35he's played a big part in the team but we've had a few injuries but this is a big blow to us yeah.
00:42Is the plan for him to stay with you though and go through his recovery that way?
00:47Yeah we're in close contact with Manchester City so we'll see how that works as we go along and
00:54we get more decisions from the specialist.
00:56What impact if any does it have on any future plans to make his move here permanent?
01:02Well we're not thinking about it at the moment, we're only thinking about Jack,
01:05you know we're upset for Jack and disappointed that he's got an injury.
01:09What impact though potentially does it have on the need to bring in attacking reinforcements in
01:14this win though? Albeit you're obviously getting Illiman and Dyback from the African Cup of Nations.
01:20Well that'll add to our thinking that's for sure, you know getting them is a different story but
01:26it'll add to our thinking is there anything out there which we think we could do, we'd possibly consider.
01:33But at the moment we're just waiting until we get the assessment back from the specialist and then we'll know more.
01:38Can we just check on Beto, there's been talk of Fenerbahce coming in for him, do you know anything about that?
01:45No nothing about it at the moment, no.
01:47I'm guessing with the attacking options that you have that you wouldn't be prepared to let anyone go at the moment?
01:51No we wouldn't because we've not got enough but no, don't know anything about it.
01:56You've got Illy though and Idrissa back from AFCON, how ready are they to get back into things now?
02:00Well they've only walked in the building about half an hour ago so I can only tell you that I knocked
02:04a window at them and shouted out at the window at them but nothing else so I've not had the chance
02:09to greet them and say congratulate them so they've just arrived back really.
02:15What did you shout at them?
02:17They couldn't hear me thank goodness through the glass.
02:20What kept you getting back?
02:24I take it though they'll be assessed over the next couple of days?
02:27Yeah they've been assessed by the fitness team and the medical team.
02:34What has Harrison Armstrong's performances done to your plans as to whether or not he goes back out on loan?
02:39Well he had his best game for us at Aston Villa that's for sure and stepped up. I think like any
02:45any player whether it be an overseas player or a young player sometimes can take a few games to get
02:50used to the Premier League as well and get used to the games but Harrison's done a brilliant job since
02:54he came in. I still would like to give him back to Preston if it's right but if I can't and I need
03:00him here I'll be I'll more than do that. I think that you know I've got to make sure that I want to get
03:06him games I don't want him sitting on the bench and if I thought that I was going to have him
03:09sitting on the bench all the time then I would probably send him back.
03:12It's a difficult balance I suppose because the competition for places is good when we see the
03:16performances that the Holmanfield put in against Aston Villa for instance.
03:20Absolutely we're just beginning to get some players getting more likely to come back in
03:25around the squad but again it only takes one injury and then we could be struggling again so
03:31it'll probably be a late decision you know before the deadline before we make that decision.
03:36Does this one come too soon for Kieran and Dewsbury Hall and whereabouts is Jarrod Branthwaite?
03:42Jarrod Branthwaite, Kieran Dewsbury Hall back training but Kieran is just back in.
03:47Charlie Alcaraz is back in training, obviously Jarrod is just back in training as well so
03:56they're certainly getting much closer to it that's for sure.
03:58And as you look to build on that result against Aston Villa as well what kind of a test are you
04:02facing and I'm thinking in particular as well of the former Dominic Calvert-Lewin showing eight
04:06goals in his last 10 Premier League games and I know you didn't get that much of an opportunity
04:09to really work with him because of the injuries that he had while he was here.
04:12Well I think Leeds United have got a good team, I think they had at the start of the season,
04:17I watched them quit a lot last year in the Championship and when they played really well
04:21when they were getting promoted. So they've added to it, they've strengthened that's for sure
04:25and you know I think Leeds are a good team and certainly in good form at the moment and look,
04:31we look forward to seeing Dom. We just didn't quite able to sort of make things work in whether it
04:39was us to keep him or whether it was Dom to stay one or the other but he's certainly got his fitness
04:45back anyway and scoring goals. How much credit do you give to Daniel Farka having started this
04:55season with a pretty rigid formation and then halfway through the game against Manchester City
04:59he changes it all around and suddenly they're starting to find a lot of success?
05:03Very good, very good because in management you have to find ways of winning and sometimes when
05:09you're not doing so well you need to find other ways of getting results and I think he's done that.
05:14He's got some good players at Leeds United, they certainly have and you know his change of
05:19style and system has certainly helped him. I'm just moving on from the Villa game, I know you're
05:26very keen to see just how well you can perform as a team overall this season and your overall ambitions
05:32but moving past that 30 point barrier, does it feel pleasing at this stage in the season to have that
05:37one at least ticked off? No it does, it's another step forward too. I mean 40 points was always the
05:43numbers which were branded about you have to get to be safe so I think over many years in the
05:48Premier League it's not quite been those numbers but I certainly think that you know once you're
05:53starting to get over the 30s then you're starting to look up how many points can we achieve and gain
05:59but so tight the Premier League you know it could easily flip so you've got to be careful what you
06:05say you know I wish we could make Europe or I could be high in the league but you've also got to watch
06:11that you know looking over your shoulder isn't that far away either.
06:14Thanks Fraser, we'll go to Julia at Radio Merseyside.
06:18Hi David, Leeds was the first game of the season for you, how do you assess your progress now you
06:27face them again, where do you see you've got to for now?
06:31Well I think we've stepped up, I think some of the players have made big big contributions to us who've
06:38come in, certainly helped us, I think the team's improved greatly in many ways it really has
06:44but also you know the sort of stalwarts who've been here for a long time, Tarki, Jordan, you know,
06:50Michael Keane, you know, Mikhailenko, a lot of those ones have stood up over the period and
06:56and probably improved this first half of the season so we hope they remain that way.
07:01I'm not pretty pleased in a lot of things, not always thinking hey we're only, might only be three
07:08or four points away from being in a really really good position but also you could look at the other
07:12way and say you might only be three or four points away from being too close at the bottom end so
07:18hopefully we can keep it going and as I said I hope we get a couple opportunities where we could
07:22maybe break into the top, top echelance you know as the season goes on so Monday night might give
07:28us another big opportunity to try and step up again. When you've been away from home this season
07:33your record, nobody can beat the away record of Everton right now, what is the difference between
07:38home and away form? Have you been able to pinpoint that? I can understand, I mean you've got to remember
07:45first of all it's a big change moving to a new stadium and new surrounds, all those things make a
07:50big difference and I don't at any time underestimate what that would be like. At the start of the season
07:58we started brilliantly well but also you know there's a responsibility, we want to play better,
08:03we want Everton to look better. I want Everton to win all the games and it doesn't really matter to me
08:09how we do it but we also want to try and do it with a bit of style if we can. I think having the likes of
08:14Jack Grealish early here in Dewsbury Hall have given us a different style, different look but
08:20once you lose your better players then we've found it a bit difficult to try and keep up the levels
08:27so that's something we need to try and find a way of you know that we don't drop so much when
08:31when we lose those those sort of important players to us. How have you as a manager been juggling that
08:38because it feels like sometimes at the moment you get one back and then another one's out, it's one
08:42step forward, one step back with the availability of players. For you as a manager how is that to deal with?
08:47I've got to say I found January really difficult probably since we played well at Chelsea but lost
08:54and then on that day we lost early in Ghana to the African nation. We also lost Kieran Dewsbury Hall
08:59to a hamstring injury on that day and really since that point it feels as if we've been losing players
09:05as we've gone along. By the way some for our own fault you know sending off so our own fault nobody else
09:10to blame but ourselves but the other the other parts of it are now like the injuries which we
09:15picked up Charlie Alcaraz then picks up an injury as well and and before we know it we're running
09:21into you know we get sending offs etc with with Jack and Keno so it's been a difficult once I have to
09:29say you know and I'm glad we've pulled a couple of really big results out of the bag because we've needed
09:34it and in some of the games maybe we expected to get do more say Wolves at home or maybe Burnley away
09:40the likes of Burnley are showing how well they're doing and Wolves as well are showing how well
09:43they're doing so there's a little bit of you know maybe the timing and when you play teams in the
09:48Premier League and you know are you playing them at a good time or a bad time and you know I think
09:54that that's really important as well. When you mentioned Villa before and sort of how players have been
09:59stepping up again this season James Garner's one that's been mentioned in here a lot he got the
10:04player of the match in the Villa game you were seen speaking to the England manager afterwards firstly
10:10where is his contract situation up to if you can lift any information on that but also what did you
10:16say was it about James Garner? I told Thomas that James was Scottish really
10:22and I would be surprised if he could play for England
10:29his name sounds Scottish so it's so that was that was it but no like just with the chat about a few
10:38things he's been at a couple of games we've won narrowly so he's a wee bit of our club mascot at the
10:44moment and just James's contract as well is that coming on? Yeah things are moving on
10:50Thank you good luck. That's Julia we'll go to Carl at the Press Association
10:58Hi David. Hi Karen. Sorry to go back to Jack and stuff and I know you said you haven't got
11:03uh I've been given a time scale yet but have you? We've not been given the from the specialist yet
11:08we've not had the all the information back from the specialist yet. Have you got a best case scenario
11:12to try and look on the positive side in terms of because there's been some wild speculation it could
11:17be up to three months which obviously would take I wouldn't I wouldn't say anything here at the
11:21moment and I wouldn't speculate and I wouldn't put any numbers to it no. Okay and in terms of uh the
11:27two to Senegal lads who are back I'm just wondering what impact that can have on on the squad when you've
11:33got two players who who have won a major tournament and obviously there aren't probably many players in
11:38the squad who have uh experience of winning tournaments so what can they bring from their
11:44experience? I think having winners in and around your club people who are involved in teams you know
11:50get to finals and come through competitions and do so uh I hope that I hope that it helps I think the
11:57experience with the likes of uh well Ghana's got the experience already and around the dressing room
12:02but I think Ellie will will learn and see a lot from it as well uh I want players who want to be in
12:09in finals and and do well and and hopefully uh get us as high up the league as we can so hopefully
12:15they'll both come back uh playing well and fit and healthy to to go.
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