Why David Moyes needs to change as Everton teamsheet vs Hull proves

David Moyes and Everton died wondering against Hull City on Sunday.

The Toffees may well have maintained their unbeaten record this season at the MKM Stadium, but a 2-2 draw was cause for little celebration.

For how much of a surprise package they've been so far in 2026-27, Sergej Jakirovic's Tigers team are still a newly-promoted one.

If Everton have genuine aspirations of breaking into Europe this year, they need to put teams like Hull to the sword.

Despite monopolising possession in the game, Moyes' men couldn't prevent the Tigers from breaching their defence on two occasions.

And when the Everton boss looks at the options he had on his bench, he should feel the weight of the missed opportunity.

Everton bench vs Hull offered window into David Moyes' thinking

Moyes is starting to come under growing criticism from many Evertonians for his lack of faith in young players.

There is a feeling amongst the fanbase that the 63-year-old has his 'favourites' at Hill Dickinson Stadium.

A piece of evidence to support this notion came by way of his starting line-up against Hull on Sunday.

In Vitalii Mykolenko's absence, Moyes opted to move Jarrad Branthwaite out of central defence and over to left-back, with Michael Keane coming in at centre-back.

This felt like him shoehorning Keane into the XI, when starting either Merlin Rohl or Jake O'Brien on the right and moving Ainsley Maitland-Niles to left-back was an option.

Then there's the substitutes he picked, with the average player age on his bench at the MKM Stadium being 23.6-years-old.

If it wasn't for Christian Norgaard (32) this would've been even lower too, in what was a group of young players desperate to come on and change the game.

However, Tyrique George got the longest cameo of 24 minutes, whilst O'Brien and Hayden Hackney got 12.

Charly Alcaraz and Tyler Dibling meanwhile were afforded a mere four minutes on the pitch; hardly enough time to make an impact.

Quite simply, this isn't good enough from Moyes, and given his contract situation at Everton, it doesn't make much sense either.

Why Moyes should be inclined to roll the dice this season

Speaking via The Herald post-match, Moyes said: “I thought that showed in so many of our players but Kiernan (Dewsbury-Hall) was the one who got us the goal and obviously made the assist for Thierno (Barry)."

If that was the case for him, why leave it so late to make your substitutions and give them little chance to make an impact on proceedings?

“We didn’t play well enough today, we might have ended up winning the game with not a great performance but the goals we conceded were naive to say the least," he also added.

Naive is certainly how many Evertonians would describe his handling of the Hull game too, and that's so frustrating given his situation on Merseyside.

Of course, Moyes is out of contract at the end of the season, and talk is naturally increasing surrounding the likelihood of this being his last term in charge.

If that's to be true, then Moyes has little reason to play it safe; roll the dice, take risks in pursuit of victory, throw caution to the wind.

This is his chance to prove to Everton's current, and potentially new ownership down the line, he's still the man to lead the Toffees forward.

But with game and substitute-management decisions like Hull, he won't do himself any favours in that regard.