Everton vs Manchester United: Steven Naismith demands 'better' if Toffees are to upset the odds against United

Forward Naismith explains the reasons behind Everton’s decline this season

Everton forward Steven Naismith (Getty Images)

None of the Everton players at Goodison Park the last time they faced Manchester United will ever forget it.

It was not just because they had so outplayed a team that could still call itself the champions of England. It was not just because the result suggested that Everton might make the Champions League. They were fifth, one point behind Arsenal, whom they had recently beaten 3-0, and 12 clear of Manchester United. It was late April. There were three games left.

They would also remember the next day, the one when Manchester United fired David Moyes, the manager who had made many of them during his 11 years at Goodison. His previous appearance at the stadium had seen him walk round the ground to an ovation as he prepared to manage the biggest club in the world. Now he was finished.

Steven Naismith was one of those who owed Moyes. The forward had signed for Everton in the summer of 2012, escaping the financial wreckage of Rangers. His first game was a 1-0 victory over Manchester United. “I just saw it on television when it broke,” he said. “It was strange and it probably took a few people by surprise. Without a doubt, I felt for David Moyes after working with him here and watching him from afar before I signed.

“He was a great manager. I think he has shown that when he moved over to Spain. From the outside looking in, there was a lot going on. It wasn’t just about a new manager coming in. He was replacing probably the best manager ever and everything that came with that. It was a big job but, over time, I think he would have been good for them.”

The Manchester United that Everton face this afternoon is a very different club to the one that sacked Moyes. “They are a bit more settled now, rather than a team that has just come together,” Naismith said. “They have had nine months and are now showing their true qualities.” Everton, too, are a very different club. While at Old Trafford, Moyes had been unable to escape Sir Alex Ferguson’s giant shadow. He constantly referenced him in press conferences, his teams and tactics would always be compared to the old master’s.

At Everton, Moyes was forgotten, at least in the stands. Roberto Martinez’s brand of football was slicker, quicker, better; the results remarkable. Suddenly, the man who had brought the FA Cup to Wigan looked a credible successor to Arsène Wenger and maybe he would be aiming higher than Arsenal.

That was then. This season has been a stuttering, juddering affair that took until this month for them to record back-to-back wins in the Premier League. Only now are Everton beginning to resemble the club that with Liverpool looked as if it might smash up the old London-Manchester Champions League cartel and now is far too late.

It might not have been coincidence that the wins against Queens Park Rangers and Southampton came immediately after they were eliminated from the Europa League. Of the seven matches moved to a Sunday to accommodate the competition, Everton had won one – at Burnley. Naismith knows, however, that some results – the defeats over Christmas by Stoke, Hull and Newcastle – require other explanations.

“There is not one thing you could say as to why this season’s not gone as well,” he said. “We have had to cope with Europe and with teams coming to Goodison showing us more respect and being happy to come away with a point. The season before, they probably thought they could have a right go and we’ve beaten them because of that.

“There have been injuries to important players that have dragged on a bit. The last thing has been individual mistakes. Our season has been littered with them.”

Martinez has endured a difficult second season at Everton (Getty)

If you judged Everton’s season by Martinez’s press conferences, you might imagine they would be clearing the streets around Goodison Park for an open-topped parade. The performances are invariably described as “unique’ or “incredible”, the players are nearly always “exceptional”. It is hard to imagine this club could possibly have started the weekend in 12th place.

Martinez is a harder man than he seems and there are reasons he sometimes talks as if he is delivering a party political broadcast. The defeat by Dynamo Kiev that finished them in the Europa League was, according to Martinez, settled by “narrow margins”. Kiev had scored five.

“For the younger players the way he talks has given them the confidence not to worry if they get it wrong,” said Naismith. “They are told just do your thing and, if it works, it works and you will learn that way. Ross (Barkley) Rom (Lukaku) and John Stones are three examples of young guys holding a place down. They are probably the ones who have benefited most from that.

“But he is tougher than he appears. If it has not been good enough, he will be straight in to tell us. He will tell us what is not going right, who is at fault and what the problem is. He does not hold back that way. As a manager you have to be like that. You aren’t going to get a high-ranked Premier League team if you haven’t got the bottle to tell it like it is.”

The sight of Aston Villa reaching the FA Cup final at Liverpool’s expense might have produced wry smiles in the blue half of Merseyside but it might also have produced a few pangs of envy. It was one of Moyes’s great regrets that his years at Everton produced no trophies and one Wembley final, against Chelsea in the 2009 FA Cup. That was lost, as was a semi-final against Liverpool three years later. In both matches, Everton had taken the lead.

“It does rankle,” said Naismith. “We have not done well enough and when you get to the later rounds you are stuck at home watching and thinking how good it would be to be out there – and regretting.”

Everton v Man Utd is live on Sky Sports 1 today, KO 1.30pm