'If I had my way' - David Moyes forced to make unwanted Jack Grealish decision against Nottingham Forest
Everton are down to the bare bones just now with David Moyes having to make a decision about Jack Grealish that he didn’t want to.
Everton continue to climb the Premier League table against all odds with David Moyes working virtual miracles with a squad missing a third of its number.
It isn’t just the numbers that make the rise to eighth and knockingon the door of the Champions League places impressive, it is the fact that most of the eight players who are unavailable all have a claim to being regular starters. After seeing off Nottingam Forest again, the Toffees boss was delighted to see players like Tyler Dibling and Nathan Patterson come in from the cold to put in solid displays.
David Moyes made unwanted Jack Grealish decision
What hasn’t helped Moyes’ cause is not having Jack Grealish at his disposal for the last couple of games after his Christmas celebrations ended up with the mercurial playmaker getting ill. Grealish’s absence gave Dibling his chance to impress, with Moyes giving an update on why the on-loan City playmaker was on the bench, via the Liverpool Echo: “We don’t have a lot to make changes and we’ve only got Jack Grealish back on the bench. “He shouldn’t be, he’s still ill.
“But if we need him for a small period, then we might need to use him. But if I had my way he wouldn’t be on the bench at all.” Everton already had one of the smallest squads in the league which makes the current situation all the more impressive. Players are going above and beyond, playing out of position and buying into what Moyes wants his Everton side to look like and it is paying off.
What the win over Forest should also do is prove to Moyes that he can trust players like Dibling and Patterson and give them more minutes to rest and protect those that are being asked to start every week.
David Moyes picks out unsung duo in win against Forest
Everton under Moyes has always been about the team, but he couldn’t help but pick out two players for praise after the win over Forest, via the club’s website: "It would be difficult to pick individuals, but I will say, I thought Jake O’Brien back in at centre-half done a great job again alongside Tarky. The goalkeeper – the clean sheets we are keeping at the moment is giving us a chance of winning the games.
"Jimmy Garner, a lot of positives have been said about him this season. He puts in performances like that with the goal and the assist for Thierno's goal. It would be hard not to talk well about Jimmy at the moment. He's been playing so well. Tonight, he may have topped it again! Jimmy's all-round performance tonight was brilliant, it really was. He is doing a brilliant job at the moment." The knock-on effect of trusting Patterson more, is that Garner can play in his more natural position, a position that he has shown he can dominate games from.