Everton: ‘Aggression, energy, desire’ – how David Moyes is re-inspiring the Toffees

I played more than 200 Premier League games under Moyes. The way he asks you to play can be a pleasurable style, but it is also very demanding.

Against Spurs, I thought some Everton players had more difficult roles than others.

Jesper Lindström, in particular, was almost asked to do two jobs on the right – a winger when he had possession, a right-back without him – but this freed up Illiman Ndiaye to remain higher up the pitch on the left. Given, that certainly benefited Everton in the final third.

If you’re going to play regularly for Moyes, that’s exactly what you need to do. Like Lindstrom, I learned very quickly that some days you just have to go deep into games and work hard and you won’t get any personal accolades.

However, that’s the way it should be. We were at our best under Moyes when everyone bought into his vision and believed in the end product the team was striving for.

He was brilliant at preparing us for the game, no matter who the opponent was. He’d get tactical information, wind us up and send us out – we’d be in the tunnel shouting ‘let’s go’.

Part of that confidence comes from hard work on the training ground and time spent building together as a team.

Moyes has only just taken charge, so the process has only just begun, but there is another area where he needs to start, which is understanding Goodison Park.

He has managed more Premier League games there than any other Everton manager, so he understands what the crowd are like, what they expect and how they react, and also in what moments they want to help the team. Can help you best.

If you come out of the net quickly, aggressively pressure the opposition and force them to make mistakes the crowd reacts to that. That’s exactly what happened against Spurs and it encouraged the players.

Everton won the tactical battle early on, but they also defeated Tottenham. It was only when they tired towards the end that Spurs could find any momentum.