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David Moyes praised Sir Alex Ferguson yesterday for speaking out in support of Rafael BenÍtez as the Spaniard fights to retain the reins at Liverpool. Talking to TheGame Podcast, the Everton manager said that his Manchester United counterpart was right to criticise the “ridiculous” pressure that BenÍtez has faced during his dispute with Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, the Liverpool co-owners.

“I thought it was tremendous that Sir Alex Ferguson came out and said the things supporting Rafa and in a way had a go at the board, because it’s the board who make the decisions,” Moyes said. “It [the Liverpool situation] is ridiculous. Sir Alex has stood up because he is very much part of the LMA [League Managers Association].”

Moyes, who has spent ten years as a manager at Preston North End and Everton without being sacked, said that clubs have become too impatient for immediate results. “It might need to be the managers who need to interview the board and the chairmen, rather than the other way round,” he said. “The secret as a young manager is to have a chairman who will help you and not get too high when you win or get too low when you lose.

“I feel that nowadays, with so many billionaires coming into the game, they may be thinking, ‘We’ve been successful in our life so we should have instant success.’ There can only be one or two winners of competitions every year, which means the majority aren’t winning.”

Everton, who are fourth in the Barclays Premier League, have thrived under Moyes with a midfield and attack containing many relatively short players, such as Mikel Arteta, Tim Cahill, Leon Osman and Andrew Johnson, and the manager said he would like to add some height to the team.

“It’s very important to have big players, [but] we’re tending to find that the best players are the smaller ones at the moment,” he said. “A lot of the smaller players are maybe better on the ball. Maybe at the moment we’re slightly towards the small side. A big part of English football is still set-pieces and we have to try and add a bit of stature to our side.”