The World Cup will be all over on Sunday, and there’s been something very clear about the tournament that hopefully David Moyes has noticed.
It has been a tournament filled with great games and also controversy, and in just a few days we will see who comes out on top – England, Argentina, France or Spain.
Club football will then come back into focus, with plenty of teams having already started their pre-season training programmes.
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Everton are currently up in Scotland going through the motions, with a number of players still yet to rejoin the group after their international involvements.
David Moyes heads into the new season under a bit of pressure after overseeing a really poor run to end the 2025/26 season.
One of the biggest criticisms he got was that he didn’t rotate enough, and we’ve seen at the World Cup this summer just how important that is.
David Moyes must rotate more for Everton as value of substitutions clear at World Cup
Moyes can be very stubborn sometimes when it comes to player selections, both from game-to-game, and in matches.
Everton finished last term going seven games without a win, and Moyes angered fans by constantly playing players who were out of form and putting square pegs in round holes.
Younger players like Tyler Dibling and Tyrique George didn’t get many opportunities. Adam Aznou did not even play a single minute in the Premier League.
The likes of Tim Iroegbunam and Charly Alcaraz also watched on from the bench a lot in the final weeks.
At the World Cup, the value of making substitutions regularly has been very clear.
England, for example, have got to the semi-final with Thomas Tuchel really maximising his squad, using the likes of Dan Burn, Djed Spence – who Everton admire – Anthony Gordon/Marcus Rashford, Noni Madueke/Bukayo Saka. All of these players have made good impacts.
Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni has turned to the likes of Nicolas Gonzalez and Lautaro Martinez to good effect.
Mikel Merino has bailed Spain out a couple of times. Nico Williams, Ferran Torres and Fabian Ruiz have also been regular impact subs.
France have huge quality in their squad and Didier Deschamps has not been afraid to use it. Bradley Barcola, Desire Doue and Rayan Cherki have all often come off the bench.
Just last week, a report from Opta stated that of the 250 goals scored at the tournament by July 8, 52 were scored by substitutes.
Now, of course, tournament football demands that substitutes are used regularly. With games being played every few days, managers have to take into account fatigue.
But one hopes that Moyes has been paying close attention to how substitutions can have so much value. He has actually been in the US over the summer and was pictured at the Scotland vs Brazil match earlier in the tournament
The Scot is a great manager, but his stubbornness is easily one of his most frustrating habits.
Hopefully, he will be much more willing to trust the players he has in reserve if the game needs changing.
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