Moyes’ Christian Norgaard answer after Everton 0-2 Chelsea is frankly baffling

Christian Norgaard finally got his first minutes as an Everton player against Chelsea on Saturday, but it wasn’t a debut to remember.

The midfielder had made the bench against Hull City last weekend but was held back from playing by David Moyes. But against Chelsea, the Dane was sent on for the final knockings as the Toffees trailed.

Christian Norgaard arrived at the club carrying a groin injury, which saw him remain in the treatment room for a good few weeks. He finally started training during the last international break.

Norgaard got on in the 2-0 defeat against Chelsea but, as pleased as fans were to see him finally playing, his substitution was highly questionable.

And after the game, Moyes’ explanation for putting him on was actually rather alarming.

Plenty were surprised when Norgaard entered the action in the 85th minute as a replacement for Harrison Armstrong.

Norgaard is a defensive midfielder, and probably not most people’s go-to player in a losing situation. For Moyes it made sense – but what he said after the game will leave many fans baffled.

A reporter said: “You were saying Norgaard has still got a while to go, but you finally got him on the pitch today, but still a long way to go in terms of his fitness.”

Moyes replied: “I think everybody probably would have seen that today. We know that. But we’re trying to get him back, we’re trying to get some minutes into him.”

Moyes’ tone suggested he wasn’t at all surprised to see Norgaard struggle when he came on, which begs the question; why did he do it? Everton were still in the game when Norgaard came on at 85 minutes. And after the injury to Emi Martinez after a clash with Jarrad Branthwaite, there were 11 minutes of injury-time.

There was plenty of time left in the game, but Moyes put Norgaard with Everton needing a goal. Norgaard has not scored in the Premier League since January 2025, which was when he was still playing for Brentford.

There is a time and a place to get minutes into returning players’ legs. Being 1-0 down to Chelsea arguably wasn’t the right time to get minutes into Norgaard’s legs. And actually the decision to put him on proved costly.

Norgaard’s foul of Cole Palmer led to the free-kick from which Chelsea then scored their second goal.

Moyes had Hayden Hackney as an alternative, and he also had Charly Alcaraz. Both would have provided much more threat than Norgaard which is what Everton needed as they were chasing the game.

It’s actually almost like Moyes thought Everton were winning the game or something and wanted to shut up shop. Frankly, we may struggle to see a more bizarre Everton substitution for the rest of the season, and his comments to justify it were strange.