David Moyes has warned his Everton team that Manchester United have several ‘talented’ stars despite their ‘very rare’ Premier League position.
The Toffees host Ruben Amorim’s side at Goodison Park on Saturday in fine form, having not tasted defeat across their last five top-flight games.
The same cannot be said for Moyes’ former club United, who have lost their last two Premier League games to Tottenham and Crystal Palace.
Everton head into the clash 14th in the Premier League table, with the Red Devils one place below them in 15th in what has been a poor campaign.
Ahead of this weekend’s showdown, Moyes said in his pre-match press conference: ‘I always think Manchester United is one of the biggest fixtures of the season, wherever you are.
‘They’ve always got good players. They’ve got so many talented players who are so good at what they do.
‘They’re probably having a bit of a difficult patch at the moment. It’s very rare to see Manchester United in the league position that they’re in. But we need to see if we can build on what we’ve done here at Everton.’
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Moyes is currently in his second spell as Everton manager, returning to the blue side of Merseyside in January following the sacking of Sean Dyche.
The 61-year-old previously managed Everton from 2002 to 2013, with his fine work at the club earning him the United job, as he took over from Sir Alex Ferguson.
It didn’t work out for Moyes at Old Trafford, though, with the Scotsman dismissed in April 2014 having only arrived at the club in July of the previous year.
Following his sacking, Moyes took charge of Spanish side Real Sociedad -and after a spell at Sunderland – he arrived at West Ham.
Moyes led West Ham to glory in the 2022-23 UEFA Conference League, marking his biggest managerial achievement to date.
‘I played [against Manchester United] a lot when I was manager of West Ham,’ Moyes added ahead of Saturday’s clash.
‘It’s another game in many ways. It’s a great football club, but my job is to try and beat them at the moment.
‘It’s part of the life of a football manager. There are very few managers who have things always go in one direction. You have lots of ups and downs. Even the best managers have times when it’s not so good.
‘I had to find a way of fighting back from the disappointment of losing my job at Manchester United and finding ways to get myself back to a good level. We’ve done that at West Ham, won a trophy at West Ham.
‘Now that I’m back at Everton, the first job is what I had to do at West Ham and make sure we stay as a Premier League club and then hopefully find our way to start getting closer to European football and see where we can go from there.’