David Moyes urges his Everton FC players to stand and be counted after latest defeat at Old Trafford

Nov 23 2009 by Philip Kirkbride, Liverpool Daily Post

DAVID MOYES has demanded his players “stand up and be counted” as he bids to mastermind an upturn in the club’s fortunes.

Saturday evening’s 3-0 defeat at Manchester United sent Everton crashing to a run of just one win in nine games in all competitions and down to 13th place in the Premier League table.

With a visit to 15th-placed Hull City on Wednesday night, where a win for the Yorkshire outfit would see them leapfrog the Goodison Park side, Moyes has issued a warning shot to his misfiring squad.

The Everton manager once again refused to dwell on the club’s crippling injury list and says the players selected are capable of far better performances than the one witnessed at Old Trafford at the weekend.

Although Moyes admits people are right to tone down talk of Everton gate-crashing the top four or even keeping pace with sides such as Manchester City and Aston Villa, he is adamant the club can draw on past experiences to meet their own lofty expectations.

Moyes said: “I think in the past, the word used with Everton is over-performing but I have always said we have performed at a good level and though I will protect the players all day long they have to stand up and be counted now.

“Is a lack of competition for places contributing to that? Massively.

“We can’t change (the side). But you are giving the players another opportunity to put that (poor performance) right but one or two are not taking that on board.

“We have (come back from difficult situations before) and we need to do it again because we are trying to get back to winning ways and I think our expectations have risen greatly on how we should be and at the moment I feel we are not reaching that.

“I’m looking for better performances and I’m looking for better performances from the players all round, definitely.

“We can only look after our own house at the moment and try and get it in order.

“We will start to get talked about less and less because people have spent more than what they have done in the last few seasons.

“What we’ve done deserves to be talked about (in that type of company) but if you have come to watch us recently you are right not to mention us in that breath because we are not performing like a team who should be in the top part of the Premier League right now.”