2024/25 Tim Iroegbunam





Iroegbunam shares blunt admission over Everton standards and dressing room view
EXCLUSIVE: Chris Beesley speaks to Tim Iroegbunam about the changes that David Moyes has brought to Everton
10:27, 28 Feb 2025

Tim Iroegbunam believes Everton are playing the type of football appreciated by both players and fans alike since David Moyes returned to the club. What is also crucial is that it is effective play and having replaced Sean Dyche, who posted just 17 points with the Blues in the first half of this season (less than 50% of the total in 2022/23, which was the lowest equivalent haul in the club’s history as they avoided a first relegation in 72 years by a single goal on the final day), Everton have gone seven games unbeaten in the Premier League under the 61-year-old and having been just one point above the drop zone at the time of his appointment, there is now a 15-point cushion between themselves and the bottom three.

Iroegbunam told the ECHO: “I knew when I came at the start of the season as a group of players, we should have been doing better. David Moyes has come in and he’s got us playing football, playing the pleasing football that everyone likes to watch, and you can tell how much of a different team we’ve become.

“He wants to play with energy. You can tell how passionate he is and he’s been at the club before, so he has a connection that is already there.

“He just wants us to go out there and do well and prove what we can do, which we weren’t doing at the start of the season.

“We finished the stronger side at Brentford, most definitely. We played well and some would say we did enough to win the game, but we came away with a draw which was a very good point in the end.”

Everton’s first signing of last summer, joining from Aston Villa for an undisclosed fee understood to be in the region of £9million, the Great Barr-born midfielder impressed in pre-season and started the first five matches of the campaign in all competitions. However, after the Blues lost their first four Premier League fixtures, the 21-year-old then dropped down to the bench and after the goalless draw at home to Newcastle United on October 5, he suffered an ankle injury that kept him sidelined for the remainder of Dyche’s tenure.

Fit-again after his lay-off, Iroegbunam is now trying to impress the new manager but he is enjoying the new set-up and the feedback he is being given by the Scot. He said: “There’s definitely a positive environment.
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“You can tell we’re showing positivity on the pitch and playing with more confidence. Obviously he’s come in and given us more tactical bits and information and more clarity in the game plan with each team and that reflects in our performances on the pitch.

“I was out for four months so when I came back he was a few games in. I was always watching and when I came back, I was feeding in to what he was asking of the midfield players and the team, so I’ve been just taking each day as it comes and working hard.
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“The start of the season was hard. I played the first few games and then I was on the sidelines for a bit with my injury.

“It was just a case of getting back fit and doing whatever I can in training to get a few minutes on the pitch, whether it’s a 15-minute cameo or five minutes to see out the game, whatever it is, and to try and push for a starting position.

“It’s step by step for me but there’s more to come from me. I’m all good now from a fitness point of view, there are no problems there.”

Iroegbunam is determined to create as many highlights as possible in Goodison Park’s final days before the move to the new stadium. Having provided the assist for James Tarkowski to spectacularly equalise against Liverpool with the last kick from an Everton player in a Merseyside Derby at the ground and avoid a losing record there in the fixture after over 130 years of combat, it is put to him by this correspondent that whatever else he goes on to achieve in his career, he has already produced one of the most-important flick-ons in the club’s history.

The question brings a chuckle from the on duty press officer plus a smile to Iroegbunam’s face and he said: “It was a very big moment. I’d just had a shot before and it had gone way over, so I thought I needed to do something to redeem myself.

“The cross came in and I was a bit far away from the goal so I knew that if I headed it, the keeper would have probably caught it, so I thought: ‘Why not flick it on?’ I hoped someone was behind me and it was Tarky running in and firing it into the net.”

On saying goodbye to the Grand Old Lady – whose remaining fixtures you can now count on one hand – Iroegbunam added: “It’s a good thing to be a part of. We’ve said it from the start of the season, we need to make it a season to remember with it being the last one at Goodison, we’ve got to make it a big one.”
 


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