David Moyes looks poised to include Jack Grealish in his starting lineup for the first time since his summer arrival, with Everton's manager confirming the 31-year-old is closing in on full match sharpness ahead of Saturday's away trip to Tottenham Hotspur.
Grealish featured only as a second-half substitute during last weekend's meeting with Manchester United at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, appearing for the final 25 minutes and providing a glimpse of the quality that persuaded Everton to sign him. Moyes had held him back from the starting XI at that stage, but the situation appears to have changed following an encouraging week on the training ground.
"I think Jack is special – I think he is ready to play, yes," Moyes said in his pre-match press duties. "I think Jack is probably a boy who needs the football [matches] more than he needs the training sometimes. I think game time helps Jack. In ways, that's him still building up to his best but, I've got to say, he's had a good week of training and he's beginning to look ready to start."
The Everton boss made clear how much of a boost it would be for his side if Grealish can rediscover the kind of form he showed at the beginning of last season. "It's incredibly exciting if he gives us what he gave us at the start of last season. If we get that level from him then we'll be thrilled," Moyes added.
While Grealish's potential involvement offers a fresh attacking outlet, Everton will still be without former Arsenal midfielder Christian Norgaard for the trip to north London. Moyes does not expect the Dane to be fit again until after the next international break, meaning he remains sidelined for what would otherwise have been a reunion with one of his old rivals.
Everton's threadbare squad has been a recurring theme this season after a difficult transfer window left Moyes with only 18 senior players at his disposal. The manager has acknowledged he is exploring options in the free agent market to bolster his options, but insists a smaller, tighter squad can still deliver positive results, pointing to Leicester City's title-winning campaign as a historical example of a compact group overachieving.
"I think it is interlinked. I think a small group together, the tightness that can happen, I think I mentioned Leicester City winning the league a few years ago and what it was like, it looked like a small group of players who did that," Moyes explained.
He acknowledged, however, that the modern game's demands make such an approach increasingly difficult to sustain. "It's probably less and less likely given the extra amount of Champions League games and international games, which make it necessary to have the extra players in your squad. We've not got European football this year, so maybe we can find a way of getting through with what we've got at the moment?"
Moyes reiterated that while he would prefer a larger pool of players, he has never sought to build an oversized squad. "I do think sometimes having a tight group can work. I'm not saying it will and if I had my choice I'd have more numbers obviously, but I certainly wasn't somebody who needed 24 or 25 outfield players, it wasn't that I was looking for. I've tried to work mainly with 21 outfield players, that's the number I've tried to have and sometimes you can maybe have 22, it can be a bit bigger, but around that number would have been my choice."
Everton will hope Grealish's potential involvement can provide the spark needed to secure a positive result against Tottenham as they continue to navigate a season complicated by limited squad depth.
Based on reporting from standard-football.