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David Moyes has confirmed Everton will start Jack Grealish against Tottenham Hotspur this weekend. The 31-year-old made a brief appearance from the bench in the recent defeat to Manchester United, and Moyes now believes he is ready for a more prominent role.
That timing carries weight. Everton need quality on the pitch, and they need it fast. The transfer window shut with more frustration than progress for the club. Grealish returned on loan for a second straight season, but the late collapse of a move for Monaco striker Folarin Balogun left Moyes with a squad short on numbers and light on attacking options.
Everton Squad Depth Remains a Problem
Everton are not in a healthy position numerically, and there is no use pretending otherwise. Christian Norgaard remains out and is not expected back until after the international break. Moyes has only 18 senior players available, thin by any Premier League standard.
He has admitted Everton may look to the free agent market for cover, which says plenty about where things stand after deadline day. Moyes is still trying to sell the upside of a smaller dressing room: tighter bonds, fewer moving parts, greater clarity.
Moyes Explains the Small Squad Gamble
Asked to justify the thin numbers, Moyes pointed to recent Premier League history.
“I think it is interlinked. I think a small group together, the tightness that can happen, I think I mentioned Leicester City winning the league a few years ago and what it was like, it looked like a small group of players who did that.”
“It’s probably less and less likely given the extra amount of Champions League games and international games, which make it necessary to have the extra players in your squad. We’ve not got European football this year, so maybe we can find a way of getting through with what we’ve got at the moment?”
“I do think sometimes having a tight group can work. I’m not saying it will and if I had my choice I’d have more numbers obviously, but I certainly wasn’t somebody who needed 24 or 25 outfield players, it wasn’t that I was looking for.”
“I’ve tried to work mainly with 21 outfield players, that’s the number I’ve tried to have and sometimes you can maybe have 22, it can be a bit bigger, but around that number would have been my choice.”
Jack Grealish Boost for Everton
Moyes kept his assessment of Grealish simple.
“I think Jack is special – I think he is ready to play, yes,” said Moyes. “I think Jack is probably a boy who needs the football [matches] more than he needs the training sometimes.”
That captures Grealish well. He thrives on rhythm. He needs minutes, contact, pressure, and repetition. Training helps, but matches sharpen him, and Moyes sees that clearly.
“I think game time helps Jack. In ways, that’s him still building up to his best but, I’ve got to say, he’s had a good week of training and he’s beginning to look ready to start.”
Everton will hope this marks the point where his season properly begins. Moyes is not demanding miracles, only a return to the level Grealish showed in the opening stretch of last season.
“It’s incredibly exciting if he gives us what he gave us at the start of last season. If we get that level from him then we’ll be thrilled.”
That is the Everton reality right now: fewer bodies, little margin for error, and a need for Grealish to deliver immediately. A trip to Tottenham is far from ideal preparation, but it offers a clean test of where this squad stands. Everton need output, and Grealish now looks set to be asked for it from the opening whistle.
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