David Moyes surprised at how close Everton are to Mersey neighbours

Apr 1 2008 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

DAVID MOYES took a defiant parting shot at Liverpool after losing the Merseyside derby when he insisted Rafael Benitez’s side should be doing better in the Premier League.

The Everton manager had seen his side fall 1-0 on Sunday to slip five points behind their local rivals in the battle for fourth spot and the final Champions League qualification place.

Deprived of Tim Cahill, Victor Anichebe, Andrew Johnson and James Vaughan through injury, the Everton manager lacked the firepower to muster a response to Liverpool taking an early lead at Anfield.

But Moyes said: “I would expect Liverpool to finish higher than fourth. And I think it is incredible that we are still talking about Everton being in with a shout of (the) top four.

“Liverpool will see this season as a disappointment.”

Moyes maintains his injury-ravaged side can catch Liverpool in fourth, and sees the weekend fixtures – Everton are at home to relegated Derby County on Sunday and Liverpool face Arsenal the previous day – as the moment when the gap could be reduced to just two points again.

But the Scot concedes that Fernando Torres is key to Liverpool’s system, saying: “Liverpool can get away with playing just one up front, because Torres does the job of two men for long spells.

“We lacked penetration, we needed to be more creative when we attacked. We tried to use Mikel Arteta and Leon Osman in different ways, we wanted them more central and as close to Yakubu as they could manage.

“And when we had the ball those two tried to make things happen, but we lacked any real penetration. We needed better movement, we needed to get down the sides and behind defenders. We were static and did not move their defenders around enough.”

But he added: “It is great that Everton are involved in games that can see people qualifying for the Champions League. We have had a wonderful season and the boys are a great group of players.

“We don’t lose very often, we don’t concede too many goals and the real disappointment was that we did not create any chances.”

Moyes also dismissed any notion that skipper Phil Neville’s angry reaction after being substituted in the second half was any problem.

Neville snatched at a tracksuit top and marched furiously away, but made sure that he shook hands with his manager as he went.

Moyes said: “Neville’s withdrawal was tactical, he wasn’t injured. He was just disappointed with the way the game had gone, and he showed it.

“I have no problem with that attitude. He was fine with me and just upset with the way the game had gone. I understand that, he shook my hand and I have no problem with him being upset about things.”

Despite Everton’s defeat, midfielder Lee Carsley reckons the Anfield derby showed that Moyes’s men have nothing to be afraid of across Stanley Park and remain very much in the hunt for fourth place.

“It’s never nice to lose but when you lose a game that came from one of our mistakes then it is even more disappointing,” said Carsley. “It was hard to swallow.

“We started slowly. The gaffer told us at half-time that we were reacting to things rather than anticipating them and that was a big thing. Liverpool started off on the front foot.

“I don’t think this was ever going to be the game that settled fourth place.

“They’ve got a difficult run-in and we have got games that we think we can win.

“We have always said that if we could hang on to their coat tails, there will come a point where they will lose a couple of games and we can capitalise on it.

“We aren’t going to let things slip.

“Having played them now, I’m not scared of them one bit. I fancy our chances, really.

“In the second half, we outplayed them at times. The only problem was we didn’t create that many chances, which is something that we have got to address.”