David Moyes has long since moved on from his own difficult spell in charge of Manchester United 12 years ago. But there may be a knowing nod across the touchline at Goodison Park this weekend towards Ruben Amorimwho is experiencing an even more chastening start to his tenure.
Whereas Moyes was Sir Alex Ferguson’s immediate successor — infamously anointed as the ‘Chosen One’ — Amorim is the sixth manager trying his luck at stabilising a club that has plummeted the depths in the past decade.
Amorim may draw sympathy from his opponent this weekend. After all, Moyes was dismissed after just ten months in charge at Old Trafford.
Yet, after spells with Real Sociedad, Sunderland and West Ham United, where he won the Uefa Conference League, his first trophy in management, and now back at Everton, the Scot is over the disappointment of that particular part of his coaching career.
“I played them a lot when I was manager of West Ham. It’s another game in many ways,” Moyes said. “It’s a great football club but my job is to try and beat them at the moment.
“It's part of the life of a football manager. There’s very few managers who have things always go in one direction. You have lots of ups and downs. Even the best managers have times when it’s not so good.
“I had to find a way of fighting back from the disappointment of losing my job at Manchester United and finding ways to get myself back to a good level. We’ve done that at West Ham, won a trophy at West Ham.
“Now that I’m back at Everton, the first job is what I had to do at West Ham and make sure we stay as a Premier League club and then hopefully find our way to start getting closer to European football and see where we can go from there.”
Everton have moved up the table with Moyes
Moyes’s return to Everton has been an exhibition of a manager and club fitting like a glove. Clearly his history with the club and its supporters has stood him in good stead, but nevertheless it has been notable how they have climbed 13 points away from the relegation zone, making fears of relegation subside.
Everton have taken 13 points from six Premier League games since his return and only Arsenal have matched their tally in that time.
What’s more, Everton have scored 12 goals in those matches, which contrasts to the meagre 16 they managed in the previous 19 games. Although their shot count may be marginally down, the quality of them are improved, with more finding the target.
Such a managerial bounce has not been experienced by Amorim at United. The Portuguese head coach has lost eight of his 14 Premier League games since taking charge in November and the club are on track for their worst campaign since being relegated in 1974. It means Everton will host United sitting one place above them in the standings.
“I always think Manchester United is one of the biggest fixtures of the season wherever you are,” Moyes added. “They’ve always got good players. They’ve got so many talented players who are so good at what they do.
“They’re probably having a bit of a difficult patch at the moment. It’s very rare to see Manchester United in the league position that they’re in. But we need to see if we can build on what we’ve done here at Everton.”
Although Moyes didn’t want to admit that relegation is now unlikely for Everton, he did say that two more victories, taking them to 36 points, should be enough.
“It sounds simple to say another two wins and you might get over the line,” he said. “When you’re sitting in this seat, every win in the Premier League is really, really difficult. I’m certainly not taking anything for granted.
“We’ve had a really good run and we’ve got to try to keep that going now. When you take over a team a little bit into the season, you have to find a way of getting the best results.
"Whatever we have asked the players to do, they’ve been fantastic. We are playing a lot better and doing a lot better in recent games.”
