Everton are ‘not ready’ for the new season, according to manager David Moyes after seeing the Toffees fall to a third-straight defeat on pre-season in Chicago.
The Scot, who made an emotional return to the club in January following spells with the likes of Manchester United, West Ham and Sunderland, criticised his team’s ‘poor’ attacking play and individual mistakes following their 2-1 defeat by the Hammers on Wednesday night.
That loss followed a 3-0 thumping by Bournemouth last Sunday in the first of their Premier League Summer Series clashes, while the Toffees have also tasted defeat against Blackburn and drawn with Accrington Stanley this summer.
‘We’re not ready to perform well enough in this tournament. We’re not ready to start the Premier League season,’ said Moyes. ‘I’m not overly concerned [by the results] because I don’t have the players which I need and what I want.
‘And obviously, we’re up against it right from the start. We knew before we came [to the US] we were going to be really up against it. So, it was never going to be us coming here and winning [games].
‘I think our attacking play at the moment has been really poor. I think we’ve not created enough chances anywhere.
David Moyes believes that Everton are not yet ready for the Premier League, which gets underway in less than three weeks
The Toffees boss saw his side suffer a third-straight defeat in the US on Wednesday night
‘I think the way we’re playing in that area of the pitch at the moment has been really below par. But we’ve made individual mistakes which has shown us up for that as well.
‘It stood out tonight, some goalkeeping mistakes. At the weekend we made a couple of mistakes against Bournemouth.’
Moyes faces another of his former sides on Sunday as Everton take on United in Atlanta. The 62-year-old admitted that Everton are running out of time to strengthen the squad. The club have made four signings so far in the window but Moyes revealed that he wants another six players to come through the door.
‘There’s a bigger turnover of players now at clubs. They used to say, “Hey, let’s sign maybe three or maybe four players tops every season”.’
‘But because of the way the bigger squads and maybe boys who not getting a game, they want to go, you find that there’s a bigger revolving door of players. So a lot of clubs will be signing quite big numbers, which they are now, more than what was done in the past if you look at it.
‘We wanted to have the players in a lot sooner, especially coming here [to the US], I knew we were going to be incredibly short.’
Everton begin their Premier League campaign with a trip to newly promoted Leeds United at Elland Road on August 18.
