Evans Sees Positive Signs

David Moyes’ tactical vision for his Manchester United team is beginning to come to fruition, according to Jonny Evans.

The Reds experienced mixed results at the start of Moyes’ regime but are now 11 games unbeaten after finding the groove to beat Bayer Leverkusen 5-0 on Wednesday.

Though Evans admits it has taken time for the players to adapt to the manager’s plans, he feels the Champions League result shows things are coming together nicely.

"He is very tactically aware," Evans said of Moyes. "He is definitely improving the team in that sense, in terms of how he wants to play and the tactics he wants.

"The things he is teaching us can only benefit us as players. It is maybe taking us a bit more time than we would have liked but performances like that [against Leverkusen] maybe show things are knitting together a bit more.

"But it is okay me saying that after one game. We have to put a good run together to prove to people we are moving in the right direction."

Both Evans and Chris Smalling scored at the BayArena and the Northern Irishman believes it’s important the defenders keep chipping in with goals.

"It takes the pressure off the forwards," he told reporters. "Wayne has been scoring a lot of goals recently. Patrice scored at the weekend [at Cardiff], myself and Chris got on the scoresheet on Wednesday. It is important.

"If you look back to last year there was a spell around the Christmas period where a few defenders were getting on the scoresheet. They want to get goals because they don't always get the glory."

Evans was delighted by the way United played in Germany, following the disappointment of conceding a late equaliser at Cardiff on Sunday.

"It is nice to get five goals away from home but we were more pleased with the way we played, especially after dropping points away from home in the league," he said.

"I thought we controlled the game. We defended well in terms of our team shape and our midfield was very compact. Once we got the ball we were able to break on Leverkusen well. We had a lot of pace and created a lot of problems for them."

Next up is a league trip to Tottenham this weekend and Evans isn’t reading too much into Spurs’ 6-0 reversal at Manchester City in their last league outing.

"They will be pretty motivated," the 25-year-old said. "Watching the Spurs-City game, their heads went down after a couple of goals. It was similar to our game against Leverkusen.

"They will be looking for a fresh start on Sunday, especially at White Hart Lane, which is always a tough place to go."