Moyes makes Everton standards clear after Newcastle cup win

David Moyes did not need to say much about Jack Grealish after Everton’s 3-1 Carabao Cup win over Newcastle United.

The club had already explained his absence before kick-off, confirming that the winger was unavailable because of a breach of club discipline. When the subject inevitably came up afterwards, Moyes declined to provide any further detail.

He did, however, make his own position clear. “It was a club decision,” Moyes said. “I support the decision.”

Moyes points to Everton values

The more revealing part of Moyes’ answer came when he was asked about the response of his players on a night when Grealish’s absence could easily have become a distraction. He pointed instead to the values within Everton and the standards expected from his players, both on and off the pitch.

It was a straightforward answer, but the performance against Newcastle at least gave it some substance.

The Toffees had gone into the game off the back of successive 2-0 Premier League defeats by Chelsea and Arsenal and with questions over their attacking output. By half-time they were two goals ahead, James Garner opening the scoring before Hayden Hackney registered his first goal for the club.

Newcastle responded with three changes at the interval and applied pressure after the restart, but Everton dealt with it before Thierno Barry added the third. There was no Grealish and no great fuss about his absence once the game started.

That is perhaps the most significant part of last night from Moyes’ perspective. Everton have a relatively small squad and can hardly afford to lose senior players, but that does not mean standards have to be relaxed.

Nor did Moyes use the victory as an opportunity to make a bigger public example of Grealish. He backed the decision, declined to discuss the details and moved on to the players who had taken Everton into the quarter-finals. There was similar restraint when Fleetwood Town were mentioned.

Respect…

Everton will travel to Highbury as favourites to reach the semi-finals, but Moyes was quick to point out that Fleetwood had just eliminated Arsenal. The prospect of a favourable draw was acknowledged without treating the next round as a formality.

That approach probably tells us more about where Moyes wants Everton to be than any grand statement could. Standards off the pitch. Focus on it. Respect for the next opponent.

After a difficult week in the Premier League, Everton managed all three against Newcastle.

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