David Moyes backs himself to keep Everton away from a relegation fight

David Moyes admits his return to Goodison Park is a “sticking plaster” solution to Everton’s relegation issues but is confident they can escape the drop and return to the heights he led them to for 11 years in his first spell.

Moyes, who left for Manchester United in 2013, is back at the club after Sean Dyche’s sacking last week with the club in 17th, a point above the bottom three, after just one win in 11 Premier League matches.

The 61-year-old Scot may not be the ideal man new owners The Freidkin Group envisaged would lead them in their new era at Bramley-Moore Dock next season but he is the man best-suited to getting them there after struggling for a number of years.

“At the moment you never can tell how managers are going to do but managers can’t really tell what owners are going to do, so it works both ways,” said Moyes at his first press conference.

“They want to get us back on track and we all know we need a bit of a sticking plaster at the moment and we have to try to make that work.

“A couple of weeks (ago) I didn’t think there was any chance Everton could be in a relegation fight, I thought they would be strong enough to get out of it.

“I’ve come into the seat and I’m going to back that and say I believe we will be strong enough to stay away from it.

“But I’m not kidding myself or anyone else, we need everyone behind us, we need the players playing better, scoring more goals, if we are going to make that happen.”

Moyes, who admitted he was “really nervous” on his first day back at the club’s Finch Farm training ground, has signed a two-and-a-half-year contract and wants to be part of the club’s medium-term future.

“Winning football matches is always a priority, obviously there are other things: building a club back up if possible,” he added.

“I had a great time here, I’d love to be part of making it better if possible. At the end of it there is a stadium that looks the business, it looks elite, so we need to start getting some elite players and start looking at the level of players to give people something to shout about when they move to the new stadium.”

Recruitment has been an issue off the pitch, while goals – just 15 in 19 league matches – have been a major stumbling block on it.

Moyes hopes to be able solve the latter himself by telling striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who scored the last of his two goals in September, he has to come to the team’s rescue.

But has not ruled out turning to the transfer market if he cannot have an immediate impact, although he will still have to work within Profit and Sustainability rules, however.

“I think if we all knew the answer then we would have done it, or the past manager would have done it as well. We have to find a way of scoring goals,” said Moyes, who has promoted Leighton Baines, a player he signed in his first spell as manager, from Under-18s manager to his backroom staff.

“We will put more pressure on the forwards to be the ones to try to do it.”

On Calvert-Lewin specifically, Moyes added: “We’ll give him as much confidence as we can but then there’s a bit where you need the player to stand up and do his bit as well.

“I have told him I am needing goals off him right away and he has to start delivering.

“And we might look to strengthen in those areas if we can’t get results ourselves.

“It is probably the thing managers do, although it’s never that easy and probably more difficult here because it hasn’t been a great situation for a while, but I need to impress the people, tell them we need them to come, what we are going to try to do here.

“New players who come here we want them to be excited by the idea we are going to the stadium.

“Overall, I hope we can all get together and find a way of spending some money, but as you well know we still have a bit of work to do (on PSR) to clear everything, so we have to be mindful of that as well.”