Jack Grealish changes Liverpool minds as Everton temptation grows strong for David Moyes
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ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley has covered Everton and Liverpool both in the Premier League and abroad since 2005.
Chris is well-known for his sartorial elegance and the aforementioned Scottish manager once enquired of him at a press conference: "Is that your dad's suit you've got on?" while the tradition continued in 2023 with new Blues boss Sean Dyche complimenting him on his smart appearance.
Other than for their two goals, some of the loudest cheers from Liverpool fans came whenever Jack Grealish was thwarted.
Bt Everton’s on-loan star remained a constant menace to the hosts throughout this contest.
Having deployed Dominik Szoboszlai as an auxiliary right-back at Burnley, Arne Slot at least plumped for an orthodox option in the position for the Merseyside derby, but when it comes to home wins at Anfield, Conor Bradley will have many easier afternoons than this and whenever Grealish was able to get one-on-one with his marker, alarm bells were ringing in the home camp.
Years of dominance, the Blues' recent relegation battles, as well as the employment of Sean Dyche as David Moyes’ predecessor, seem to have created a caricature of the threats that the visitors are viewed as presenting in the minds of some Reds fans, with one steward admitting he was expecting a barrage of long throw-ins and set-pieces.
In truth, Everton’s current manager himself has been deeply critical since he returned of his side’s deliveries in dead-ball situations and the reality is that their most potent dangermen are actually their twinkle-toed wingers.
Leading the charge of course is Grealish, who was the most gifted individual in the group from the moment he first walked through the door at Finch Farm.
Reigning Premier League Player of the Month having picked up the gong for the first time in his career in the week of his 30th birthday, here is a talent who in 2021 became the first £100million English footballer, some four years prior to Liverpool – with their record Premier League spend in a single transfer window – snapping up a pair of nine-figure acquisitions in the same summer, and deploying them both off the bench here.
Everton are now a very different beast with Grealish in their ranks and while his artistry was not able to earn his team a share of the spoils here, even the neighbours recognised his threat and there should be plenty of other opponents who succumb to his powers.
Striking the balance
Beto has taken on the mantle of wearing the number nine, the most coveted of Everton jerseys.
But the title of being the club's first-choice striker this season still seems very much up for grabs.
As pointed out by EFC Statto, 2025 was the first time since 1991 that there have been three league Merseyside serbies in a calendar year, and for Beto himself it’s been something of a mixed bag.
Having netted against in Goodison Park’s last ever derby in February, he then produced his most dominant display against Liverpool on Everton’s last Anfield visit in April, giving Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate a testing evening and striking the post with a chance he really should have converted.
Against the same centre-back pairing here, Beto was much more subdued and by half-time, Moyes had seen enough.
Thierno Barry, still waiting for his first Everton goal, got the nod after the break and asked more questions of the home defence, but again there was no breakthrough.
At this early stage of the campaign, it’s still very much in the balance as to who might become the main man up front with this team – unfortunately not because they’re both on fire – but while Beto netted at Molineux less than a month ago, the manager might be tempted to go with his summer signing from Villarreal against Wolves on Tuesday as he looks to get him up and running.
Moyes misery continues
One bookmaker with a penchant for publicity stunts once erected a mock statue of Moyes outside of Anfield with the cheeky inscription of 'for services to Liverpool Football Club'.
While it no doubt elicited some cheap laughs, it was a low blow to one of the game’s most dignified characters and a man who this year followed up his OBE for services to football by moving up to third on the all-time games list for Premier League managers behind multiple title winners, Alex Ferguson of Manchester United and Arsene Wenger of Arsenal.
The Premier League era and Everton’s fall down the football food chain, partly because of Goodison Park’s dwindling status that prompted the move to Hill Dickinson Stadium this summer, have meant that bossing the Blues has often been an arduous task, especially when it comes to trying to keep up with the neighbours.
But Moyes has done that better than anyone else and while derbies are always difficult, as he said in his pre-match press conference for this game, his teams have always been competitive at Anfield.
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His successor in 2013, Roberto Martinez got spanked 4-0 away to Liverpool twice and at least one of those could have been much worse if the hosts hadn’t eased off the gas, yet it was after one of Moyes’ side’s dogged goalless draws, in the same season Everton had won the Goodison derby 3-0, that Rafael Benitez made the 'small club' jibe he was later forced to back-peddle on when taking the Blues reins himself.
Yet ultimately, that big zero remains on the Glaswegian’s Anfield win list.