Winning comes harder for Moyes

Everton manager David Moyes admits he is having to become more creative to keep his side winning going into the second half of the season.

Injuries to key players – the Republic of Ireland’s Darron Gibson ruled out for a month with a thigh strain and forward Kevin Mirallas sidelined for a second time with a hamstring injury – have taken their toll.

In Sunday’s home defeat by Chelsea Moyes picked 18-year-old reserve-team defender Tyias Browning among his substitutes so limited were his options.

Things have improved slightly with the return of Marouane Fellaini from suspension and the possibility of Phil Neville being fit. But Moyes’ management skills are being tested again as he tinkers with his tactics.

One change which looked like paying off against Chelsea was moving Steven Pienaar into a central position behind striker Nikica Jelavic from where he scored in only the second minute.

The South Africa is usually a permanent fixture on the left, where he has a great relationship with Leighton Baines, but in Fellaini’s absence Moyes wanted to change things around.

“We will look to change it around when we can but we know we have a good thing going with what Baines and Pienaar do so we have to make sure teams don’t clamp onto it too often and we can cause them problems in other ways.”

Meanwhile, Newcastle boss Alan Pardew is hoping a successful pursuit of Mathieu Debuchy will help to secure the club’s biggest names.

The Magpies want to push through their protracted move for the 27-year-old Lille full-back later this week after tracking the France international for more than a year.

At a time when the future of striker Demba Ba is looking increasingly uncertain, that would represent a major boost for Pardew as he looks to build his team around Tim Krul, Fabricio Coloccini, Hatem Ben Arfa, Papiss Cisse and Debuchy’s close friend, Yohan Cabaye.

“When you sign good, senior international players, which he is, it’s going to give everybody a boost, your senior players too.”

However first they must concentrate on Everton and Pardew’s problems have been compounded in recent weeks by injuries and suspensions — defender Steven Taylor and midfielder Yohan Cabaye have returned to training, but are still some way away from being available – the list of absentees is not getting any shorter.

Central defender Mike Williamson is back after serving a one-match ban at the Emirates, but right-back Danny Simpson is out for up to four games after breaking a toe in that game and that could see James Perch asked to plug a different gap.

“We were a little bit more positive yesterday on the training ground,” said Pardew. “Cabaye was running around, Taylor is running around on the training pitch, and suddenly that has given everyone a little lift.”