3 Things We Learned From Everton vs Ipswich: Dibling, Moyes, AMN

Everton simply aren’t going to be pretty this season. If you expected that, well, you have learnt very little about David Moyes in the years he’s been involved with the club.

Pretty doesn’t always equal effective, though. Tottenham are probably a little better on the eye than Everton, but look where they are in the table. What Everton are is effective. We’re getting results even when we’re disappointed with the performances.

The game against Ipswich was a perfect example of that. We all wanted more. We didn’t like what we were seeing at times, but we came away with a 1-0 win and it could so easily have been more.

Forget the missed chances, if the officials award Thierno Barry’s goal, it’s a comfortable 2-0 win. 

With it now being a three-week international break, there is plenty of time for us to digest why everything isn’t perfect. The reality is, we should be staring at the league table, seeing Everton sat comfortably in the top half with zero losses under our belt and be pleased. 

We should start noticing the positives a little more. Yes, the Ipswich game wasn’t perfect, but we’re not a perfect team. 

Here’s five positive things we noticed during the game against Ipswich.

Tyler Dibling has been labelled a confidence player previously, and it’s hard to disagree. He’s an incredibly young footballer who is clearly introverted, and moving to the other side of the country at such a young age was always going to be difficult. 

It’s taken time. We’ve been over this plenty of times already, but it’s fantastic to see things starting to click. The performance against Wolves was one thing, but to come off the bench into a tricky game and make a serious impact in the Premier League is a huge step for the youngster.

So what have we learned? We’ve learned that Dibling is more than a capable footballer at Premier League level. We’ve learned that zero Premier League minutes in the opening few games was unjustified, and he’s not just a number anymore.

Dibling is a serious option and a serious talent. He’ll be inconsistent, that’s fine, but we can learn to appreciate the positives that he does bring. The Dibling we saw come off the bench against Ipswich was one filled with confidence, and hopefully that continues. 

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The biggest compliment I can give Maitland-Niles for this game is I barely thought about him. That might not sound like a compliment, but it is. 

If you’re doing your job properly, not necessarily to an elite level, you can often go unnoticed in games as a full-back. And that’s absolutely fine. 

I’m fed up of talking about the right-back situation, but Maitland-Niles is quickly turning that into a non-talking point. Again, that’s the best compliment I can give him.

Maitland-Niles is, quite simply, a solid right-back. Are we going to have clubs knocking on our door to try take him away from us? Probably not. But are we going to be begging for a new right-back in January or next summer? Probably not again. 

He’s a stopgap, and he’s one that’s kept the right-back situation quiet for now, and for that, he deserves plenty of credit. 

Johnson wasn’t playing well against Ipswich. Moyes made the change. He brought on a player we’ve not seen in the Premier League this season. 

Against Manchester United, he made three subs that all changed the game. 

A bit of luck? Coincidence? Maybe. But Moyes deserves credit nonetheless. 

Jack Grealish is clearly one of his favourites, hooked at 79 minutes. The ‘safer’ option might have been to keep Grealish on and have more control, but Moyes opted against that.

Moyes’ substitutions have been a criticism aimed at him in the past, but I don’t think he can be criticised too much recently. Maybe you think Dewsbury-Hall should have been subbed earlier, Hayden Hackney should have got more minutes, or George deserved more game time, but he made the subs and secured three points. 

Everton do have players who can impact from the bench now, and we’ve learned that although the depth is small, it’s filled with more quality. 

To put it bluntly, we brought on two of the most exciting, high-potential wingers in the country, and last season’s Championship Player of the Season against Ipswich.