- The Toffees host their neighbours in the last Merseyside derby at Goodison Park
- Moyes is keen to bridge the gap on the red half of the city as he did previously
- LISTEN NOW: It’s All Kicking Off! Is there an agenda against Ange Postecoglou?
David Moyes insists his biggest target at Everton will be to replicate what he did in his first tenure: knock city rivals Liverpool off their perch.
The Toffees host their neighbours this evening in the last-ever Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, ahead of their move to the docklands this summer.
And Moyes is keen to bridge the gap on the red half of the city… just like he did in his first stint.
Everton finished above Liverpool two seasons in a row before the Scotsman jumped ship to Manchester United and Moyes’s target now is to narrow the gulf again.
Asked if he can do that, Moyes said: ‘At West Ham, we had to stay up and in the first year I was asking, ‘how am I going to do this?’. Then the next year we ended up getting into Europe.
‘I don’t know if it is dreaming, but the idea is to try to have that as my goal. How can I do it? If we are fortunate to get ourselves of this position and stay in the Premier League, then we have to try to target getting into a European position if we can. If we pull up short, so be it, but we will try.
David Moyes insists his biggest target at Everton will be to replicate what he did in his first tenure: knock city rivals Liverpool off their perch
Tonight’s fixture will be the final-ever Merseyside derby to be held at Goodison Park
‘The task (tonight) is a big one, let’s not kid ourselves on, but it’s a one-off game, especially this one. There is a gulf between the teams in quality at the moment and obviously that is shown in the league position as well. That’s where you have to find a way to bridge the gulf on the night and bring it much closer.
‘I don’t think Evertonians want me to kid them on or tell them any lies. They’ve probably gone through the worst times they’ve felt as a club. We had to fight unbelievably hard for 11 years to get into a situation where we were more competitive against Liverpool.
‘Year-on-year we were getting more competitive. It took a long time to build that up. Now the gulf has come back. There was a gulf there when I first took over but I think at the moment it is back to that level again, if not further.’
Meanwhile, Arne Slot was effusive in praise of his opposite number ahead of his first Merseyside Derby — this fixture was postponed due to Storm Darragh in December — and said Moyes has a clear identity.
The Dutchman said: ‘I can see the structure he had at West Ham and that he had before at United and before at Everton. He has a clear idea how he wants the team to play and that is something very positive for a manager.
‘If you just look at his team, it doesn’t matter which shirts they wear and you just say, ‘Ah, this is a David Moyes team’ or ‘this is a Pep Guardiola team’.
‘This is something he always brings and that is a great accomplishment because that is not done by every manager. You know what you get when you bring David Moyes in and that is mostly success.’
Liverpool will make a late call on the fitness of Trent Alexander-Arnold after he missed the last two games with injury.
He has returned to training but may not be risked. Joe Gomez will miss out but Curtis Jones is fit again after being unfit at Plymouth on Sunday.
