David Moyes has revealed that he wanted to ‘frustrate the crowd’ in Everton’s 2-0 win over Sunderland.
Moyes endured an unhappy return to his former Goodison Park stomping ground due to goals from Idrissa Gueye and Romelu Lukaku either side of the interval.
The result left the Black Cats rooted to the foot of the Premier League table as their chances of survival were dealt another frustrating blow.
And the ex-Blues manager admitted that he had attempted to trade on his knowledge of the Grand Old Lady upon his latest visit to Merseyside.
“I thought we were really poor in the first half but I wanted to come in here and frustrate the crowd,” admitted Moyes.
“I know what it’s like here. I wanted to keep them quiet, try and keep the game low-level as much as I could – and I think for long periods we did that.
“But we didn’t play well when got the ball; we gave it away, we never did anything well with the ball so that was really the key message.
“I was glad we only went in one-nil at half time because the boy (Tom Davies) hits the post at half time which could have changed it.
“While we were one-nil down, we were always in with a chance in the game and we couldn’t play any worse, I don’t think, than we did in the first half.
“I told them that and told them to take the ball a bit more and be a bit braver, and I thought we did that.
“It was never going to be an easy game for us but it gave us a chance.”