Everton's League Cup Struggles and Pressure Ahead of Preston Clash
The League Cup has never really loved Everton. The feeling is probably mutual.
Since the competition began in 1960-61, Everton have made it to just two finals. Two. A club of their size, their history, their expectation, with only a pair of showpiece appearances to show for more than six decades of trying.
Both ended in heartbreak. Aston Villa in 1977 – a final that dragged on to a third match, only for Everton to lose it in the final minute of extra time. Liverpool in 1984 – another chance gone. Two cracks at it, no trophy, and a long trail of frustration in between.
The 1990s were worse. Portsmouth. Millwall. York. Oxford. Names that still grate when the League Cup draw comes around. Everton found ways to lose to them all. Lower-league exits became a grim little tradition.
Since 1984, they have reached the semi-finals only three times. The most recent, in 2016, still stings: 3-1 up on aggregate against Manchester City and somehow contriving to let it slip. The decade that followed has offered only flickers of promise – three quarter-final appearances – drowned out by early exits. Four of the last five seasons have ended in elimination before the fourth round. Five penalty shoot-out defeats in the last eight campaigns. A pattern, not a coincidence.
So why should this year feel any different?
Cameras, pressure and Moyes’ tightrope
Preston at home on a Wednesday night, Sky cameras in position. That in itself tells a story. Broadcasters rarely turn up for routine progress; they come for the scent of an upset.
The mood around Everton should be lighter. No European football means a cleaner calendar, a squad with room to absorb extra cup fixtures, and the chance to use a cup run as fuel for the league campaign rather than a distraction from it. Momentum can start in the cups and roll into Saturday afternoons.
Yet David Moyes has already managed to turn what could have been a straightforward tie into a talking point. His recent comments – framing cup success and Premier League survival as almost opposing choices – have landed badly with a support that has heard similar calculations before and watched the cups drift away as a result.
He did it last season. A heavily rotated side at Wolves in the third round, against a team that had lost five of their first six games. A clear opportunity to push on, tossed aside. Everton went out. The chance to build something was gone before autumn had really settled in.
His stance suggests a similar approach this time. If the team sheet on Wednesday looks like a gamble and the result goes the wrong way, that opening-day buzz from the win over Crystal Palace will not last long.
Preston: old rivals, long gap
Preston v Everton is one of English football’s original fixtures. Two founder members of the Football League, paired again in a competition that barely existed when they first met.
Preston were the first great power of the professional era. Champions and FA Cup winners in 1888-89, the original Double winners, and unbeaten in the league all season – the ‘Invincibles’ before the word became fashionable again with Arsenal in 2004. They retained the title the following year and then finished runners-up three seasons in a row. For a while, they set the standard.
The trophies slowed. The last major honour was the FA Cup in 1938, but they remained a serious top-flight presence into the 1950s, twice finishing runners-up in Division One. Only in 1961 did the drop finally come, the year they were relegated from the top flight – and the last time Everton played a competitive game at Deepdale.
Since then, meetings have been rare. Just two competitive fixtures in more than six decades, both at Goodison Park, both ending 2-0 to Everton in the FA Cup and League Cup respectively.
Preston have flirted with the top flight but never quite broken through. The closest they came were the play-off finals in 2001 and 2005. The first of those carried a familiar name in the dugout: David Moyes. Before he became synonymous with Everton, he spent five years as a player and then four as manager at Deepdale, hauling Preston up to what is now the Championship in 2000 and into that play-off final a year later.
There is another twist to the connection this season. Preston’s first-round win over Huddersfield did not take place at Deepdale at all. The pitch was not ready, so the tie was moved to Goodison Park. Preston won there, then lost both of their league games since, to Bolton and Wolves. Their form is fragile, but their route here has already run straight through Everton’s home.
The last time the two clubs actually faced each other was back in October 2004. League Cup, third round, Goodison again. Lee Carsley and Marcus Bent scored in a 2-0 Everton win. Twenty-two years have gone by since.
Moyes’ selection dilemma
This time, Moyes is expected to shuffle his pack again. Rotation is understandable; over-rotation is what worries the fans.
Tyler Dibling, Carlos Alcaraz, Beto, Brennan Johnson and Jake O'Brien are all pushing to start. Fresh legs, different profiles, players who need minutes. On paper, it looks like sensible squad management. In practice, Evertonians have seen this film before.
The margin for error is thin. A heavily changed side that wins is hailed as smart management. A heavily changed side that loses, in a competition that has already brought so much disappointment, turns the manager’s words about priorities into a stick to beat him with.
“Dead stupid?” – Moyes bites back
Moyes has not hidden his irritation at the line of questioning around the cups.
"This is a question every journalist asks every manager and, in some ways, I think: 'Are those journalists dead stupid? Do you think none of the managers want to win the cups?'
"If I asked you: 'Would it be more important than staying in the Premier League?' – what would your answer be? Your answer will half answer your own question.
"I can't think of any manager who wouldn't want a good run in a cup competition."
The logic is clear. The tone has jarred. Supporters hear the emphasis on survival and fear the cups will again be treated as optional extras, not opportunities.
And so a tie that might have felt routine now bristles with tension. Everton’s League Cup history, the TV cameras, Moyes’ Preston past, his comments about priorities – it all sits on top of a fanbase that has had enough of early exits and “what ifs”.
No wonder the nerves are starting to kick in.
