A new and second era under David Moyes gets under way tonight when Everton welcome Aston Villa to Goodison Park. It will be returning manager's first match in charge of the Blues since May 2013.

Back then, Moyes signed off with a 2-0 win at home to his future club West Ham United thanks to two goals from Kevin Mirallas. And how the Scot will hope to replicate that result this evening.

The Everton he left behind finished sixth in the Premier League. But the team Moyes inherits are in danger of being dragged into another relegation battle.

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The Blues will go into the game with eighth-placed Villa just one point and two positions above the drop spots. So how will Moyes line-up?

Our Everton writers have their say...

Joe Thomas

To some extent, I’d be really interested to see David Moyes go with the Sean Dyche’s recent approach and just watch whether the side looks any different - is there a morale surge or an attitude shift that suddenly makes things click?

I don’t think huge tweaks were needed, part of me thinks the struggles going forward were because of Dyche’s caution. He used the defensive fragility of the opening weeks of the season as his justification for tightening things up and his explanation for being unwilling to show more attacking ambition. That wasn’t unjustified but I think at the end, there was a failure to acknowledge this Everton team isn’t the one that started the season.

Jarrad Branthwaite is back, James Tarkowski is fit, Vitalii Mykolenko is fitter, Oriel Mangala has come in, Ashley Young and Jordan Pickford are in a sustained run of good form and Iliman Ndiaye and Jesper Lindstrom now have months of Premier League experience.

All that hopefully means you can trust the players a bit more. The biggest problem has been how isolated Dominic Calvert-Lewin has been.

With Dwight McNeil still out I’m not sure Everton can look to swing balls into him, so tonight I would go for the Nottingham Forest approach. They always have players around Chris Wood. It’s why they are so effective going forward.

So I would keep things direct and tight but be more aggressive and adventurous up top, as a starting point.

For me, this means having a flat midfield three of Idrissa Gueye, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Mangala to shield the defence and support the full-backs, allowing Ndiaye and Lindstrom to push up and support Calvert-Lewin, whose return is welcome, to make sure the Villa defence and central midfield always have to be aware of a threat that curtails their own ability to build attacks. There is talent there and I’m keen to see Ndiaye given more freedom to drift inside, and both him and Lindstrom given more creative licence.

Whether this is a long term solution I’m not sure, but Moyes hasn’t had much chance to work with the players and I think this change in intent and ambition could work in front of a bouncing Goodison.

My team (4-3-2-1): Pickford; Young, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Doucoure, Mangala; Lindstrom, Ndiaye; Calvert-Lewin.

Chris Beesley

Everyone is waiting to see what tactical tweak returning Everton manager David Moyes might make for his first game back as Blues boss against Aston Villa. After almost exclusively being a 4-4-2 man for almost a decade in charge of Burnley, Moyes’ predecessor Sean Dyche went 4-5-1 to defeat table-topping Arsenal 1-0 in his first match and kept with the system for most of his reign.

Moyes deployed a version of that in the early years of his first spell at Goodison Park with the 4-4-1-1 popular as Tim Cahill typically operated behind the main striker, but by the time his lengthy tenure had finished, the Scot was lining up 4-2-3-1 and given that was his favoured tactic at previous club West Ham United, that might be how he starts back at Everton.

If that’s the case, could the 61-year-old decide to go with a more naturally attack-minded player in the number 10 role than Dyche’s ‘advanced number six’ Abdoulaye Doucoure? With Dwight McNeil still sidelined, Iliman Ndiaye appears the most likely candidate, although Jack Harrison, who has been mostly out of sorts on the right-wing this season, is also an option.

At this point, I’ll throw a googly though and mix things up. Ndiaye does get his chance in a central role, which means Harrison comes back in on the right-wing and Ashley Young rolls back the years against his former club to go on the left. This ensures Moyes’ fellow Glaswegian Nathan Patterson comes in from the cold to start in the right-back berth.

My team (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Patterson, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Mangala; Harrison, Ndiaye, Young; Calvert-Lewin.

Paul Wheelock

All eyes on 6.15pm when David Moyes names his first starting line-up since returning to Everton. Will there be a change in system? Will there be a surprise selection?

But whatever the answer to those questions, there has to be a change in intent. Too often at home this season under Sean Dyche, the Blues have been instructed to sit back and let the opposition have the ball. And too often, that killed the atmosphere at what can be the fiercest grounds in the country when it is at its belligerent best.

Moyes will know that. And while I wouldn't expect him to go gung-ho against a Villa side who, despite their inconsistency so far this season, are one of the best teams in the Premier League. But I am expecting Everton to have more of a go and tap into the fervour in the stands.

One of the difficulties Moyes has is the players who are unavailable to him. Dwight McNeil, Armando Broja, Tim Iroegbunam and James Garner - who, encouragingly, has returned to training - would all help the Blues play more on the front foot.

But they will play no part tonight and Moyes will largely have to select from the same group of players Dyche did toward the end of his reign.

However, I would go with a change in system with Abdoulaye Doucoure pushed further up alongside Dominic Calvert-Lewin rather than the extra midfielder he became under Dyche. I would also start Seamus Coleman at right-back. Fit again, he proved in his last appearance, against Manchester City, that he remains Everton's best attacking full-back.

The rest of the back-four picks itself, as do the two central midfielders. Jack Harrison - could this be the night he finds his form in front of goal after a number of missed chances? - and Iliman Ndiaye operate either side of Doucoure, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin leading the line, but this time offered much more support.

The Blues need a big performance from their No.9. But they also need to improve the supply to him.

My team (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Coleman, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Mangala; Harrison, Doucoure, Ndiaye; Calvert-Lewin.