There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel for Everton.
Just before Christmas Last year, the ownership of the club was finally stabilized with the Friedkin group that completed the deal to buy the club from the previous owner Farhad Moshiri.
The progress has continued with the construction of a new stadium, where the club is expected to play home games there from the start of next season.
And that is reinforced by a revival in shape after the return of David Moyes, with four wins from the six Premier League matches that he took the lead.
The in-form Toffees are taking their new manager in a collision with Moyes' old Club Manchester United, which he originally left Everton in 2013 to manage before he was fired ten months later.
Below we look at the subtle tactical changes that Moyes has made since taking the lead and how they will make life very difficult for the Red Devils this weekend.
A more modern approach
One of the most undeserved criticism of Moyes during his career is that he is a tactical 'dinosaur' that could not have kept track of the tactical shifts of the modern game.
This is a lazy criticism of the Scot, because he has consistently shown smart tactical characteristics in his teams.
Everton was very organized under Sean Dyche, so much so that it oppressed their attacking approach with too few players who made supporting attacking runs to keep the team compact.
One of the first changes that Moyes implemented saw the line of defense shifting from a rear four to a more smooth structure, in which Jake O'Brien came in right back and played a deeper, more hybrid role.
Vitalii Mykolenko has allowed this on the left to move higher and to connect the attack with the back line that shifted in a three.
This little tweak has enabled Everton to stay strong in their defensive structure, while also releasing more players to participate in the attack.
This switch to a rear three in possession created more opportunities for creative attacking patterns through the middle and along the left side of the field.
The movement and attacking intention of Mykolenko are the key to making overloads while he is progressing.
With Everton who is now less structured in the way they attack and penetrate into the last third part, they are clearly more difficult to defend against and they start to create more opportunities on goal.
This more creative approach in possession will be difficult for Ruben Amorim's side to deal with, because a number of teams have already been successful against his 3-4-3 system.
The movement of Mykolenko and his combinations on the left causes a threat, but they are now only present because of the change in the way the line of defense is structured.
Moyes has retained the defensive power of the Everton team and has unlocked more offensive creativity only with a change in the role of the right back.
Unlock the threat in the center
We have already touched Moyes to change Everton's basic structure to get the best from Iliam Ndiaye on the left side of the field.
Under Dyche we saw how rigid Everton was when they attacked the front three that were for the most part supported by one midfield player.
But under Moyes, the left -sided attacker has more freedom to drive in and out of the channels or even the central spaces.
Unfortunately for Everton, Ndiaye has taken on an injury and it is confronted on the sidelines for at least a few weeks.
Jack Harrison will probably play the left-sided attacking role this weekend, since he stood up for the affected Ndiaye when he was injured against Liverpool.
Although Harrison has a completely different profile than Ndiaye, the role remains fluent while Harrison comes in to receive in the room where he can be reversed to attack and harm the opposition with his ball food.
Having a player with the profile of an Ndiaye or a Harrison who can wear the ball in the channels or even forces and forcing defenders to involve them will immediately create space and time in the last third part.
This will be especially important against the Red Devils who have struggled in recent weeks with an inability to deal with intelligent movement and positioning.
We saw this in their last match against Spurs, with James Maddison had a real impact with his positioning and creativity.
This is why the left -sided attacker and their movement to central areas will be extremely important this weekend.
Expect this weekend that Moyes Harrison will release with Mykolenko that regularly makes aggressive runs to stretch the field and occupy the right wing for United, probably one of Diogo Dalot or Patrick Dorgu.
How United responds and dealing with the overload in central areas can be the key when determining the outcome.
More attacking presence and casual creation
One of the clear improvements since Moyes took over from Dyche is the opportunity for Everton to create opportunities for scoring goals.
They went from one of the worst teams in the competition in terms of the quantity and quality of opportunities that have arisen to be one of the best.
Much of the credit for this goes to Moyes because he gets the best out of players such as Ndiaye – although he is from the man from the man – and Beto in the attacking third.
It is crucial that the toffees are now willing to commit more players to attack positions in all parts of the field.
This sees them stretching the width of the defensive structure of the opposition and send more runners from central areas to overload the opposition through the middle.
Their willingness to send numbers forward in the attacking phase will be an important tactical concept against Man Utd this weekend.
Some of the problems they have confronted so far was their lack of organization in defensive transitions.
Teams that can stretch them and aggressively attacks with figures, especially central, can really harm Amorim's setup.
It will be interesting to see if Moyes stops the same structure and playing style against Man Utd, who won a 4-0 win against Everton when Amorim was previously confronted with Everton under Dyche.
The side of Amorim will have to push and attack no doubt when they look to find a shape and create their own opportunities.
This will make them vulnerable to attacking the counterattack and this is a clear power of Everton so far under Moyes.
Conclusion
Although it is difficult to be too critical about the work that Dyche did at Everton, it is undoubtedly that Everton looks much more and more effective under Moyes.
If they can secure all three points this weekend when United Goodison Park visits, Everton would have to climb comfortably.
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