David Moyes says Manchester United passed 'brilliantly', despite 2-0 defeat to Everton

Manchester United manager was eager to point out the positives after humiliating return to Goodison Park

David Moyes said Manchester United passed the ball “brilliantly well” and said his team had “great control” prior to conceding two goals against Everton.

In what was his first return to Goodison Park since replacing Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager last season, Moyes endured a difficult afternoon as United lost 2-0.

Booed by fans of the club he presided over for 11 years, things quickly got worse when Phil Jones daftly handled in the area to allow Leighton Baines to score from the spot.

Kevin Mirallas then added a second just before half-time.

United were unable to muster much of a response in the second half and never really looked likely to take something from the match. Despite that, Moyes said he was happy with how his team started the game.

"We gave away two terrible goals but prior to that we passed the ball brilliantly well, kept the ball, had great control of the game," he added.

"What we couldn't do is make enough chances but we had a great control and we got done by two stupid decisions.

"We didn't have a final through pass at times, we didn't have a final finish when they came and there weren't very many of them.

"That was the disappointing part, that we just couldn't do that in the final third but I couldn't fault how we played because we kept the ball incredibly well."

Despite making many more passes than Everton, it was all for nothing as United left with no points and stayed seventh in the league. While a top-four finish hasn't looked possible for some time, it is now mathematically impossible. Moyes though is eager to ensure United are quick to return to the Champions League and revealed much is going on to make that happen.

"It's part of this club, we want to be in it and we'll do everything we can to get ourselves back in it as quickly as we can," he said.

"We've already done that and we're doing that behind the scenes just now.

"We'll try and do everything we possibly can to try and get a team which is capable of winning better than we have done recently."