The Toffees' visitors tomorrow in the Barclays Premier League are Manchester City, who appointed Italian Roberto Mancini as manager in place of Mark Hughes last month in controversial circumstances.

Hughes lost his job despite the fact that City had only been beaten twice all season and Moyes admits he is concerned by the influx of foreign coaches to the English game and its implications for the future development of British managers.

"At the moment it (appointing foreign managers) seems to be in fashion," said Moyes, who joined Everton in 2002 after starting his management career at Preston.

"But what the boys in the lower leagues, like I myself had to do is to battle against it, hope you get given an opportunity and when you do, take it.

"I'm lucky that I've been given that opportunity - many at the moment aren't getting that chance."

Fulham's Roy Hodgson is a salient example amongst the British contingent currently working in the Premier League of a home-grown manger who has enjoyed success all over Europe and Moyes would like to see other domestic talent given the opportunity to follow suit.

"I wouldn't mind if I was seeing three or four (British) managers walking into Serie A in Italy, or a couple in La Liga or maybe a couple in Germany," Moyes said.

"I think that would balance it out and would be the right way to go. But I get the feeling that the jobs the British managers get are maybe not the biggest in Europe.

"We might get jobs in Sweden or elsewhere, but not in the big leagues, whereas we are seeing quite a lot of people coming into our big league in management."

Since his arrival at Eastlands Mancini has barely put a foot wrong, with the team recording four victories and conceding only one goal.

A previously fragile City defence has looked more confident under the new manager and Moyes believes Mancini's influence is steadily showing through.

"A little bit has been noticeable and I'm sure given time he will want to bring his own brand to Manchester City," Moyes said.

"It's very difficult to change things in a short period of time, but in time he will alter one or two things.

"Every manager wants their team to be a little bit tighter - every manager wants first and foremost not to concede any goals, so if you can do that it always gives you a chance at the other end of the pitch.

"With the ammunition Manchester City have got, they are capable of that.

"It (a solid defence) gives you a real good platform to build on and get results and I think that is what he will be looking to try and do."

Australian defender Lucas Neill will be available for selection tomorrow even though he is set to join Turkish side Galatasaray the next day.

Everton have been linked with a move for Arsenal centre-back Philippe Senderos to fill the void, but Moyes would not be drawn on transfer speculation and admitted that Neill's imminent departure may create some problems for him in the next few weeks.

"I wouldn't be optimistic about replacing anybody because I think it's a difficult market," Moyes said.

"I certainly won't talk about players at other clubs because that's not the right thing to do, but I wouldn't be confident that we would be able to get a replacement in.

"It could leave us a gap, certainly in the short term. Joseph Yobo could be back in a couple of weeks time (from the African Nations Cup) and Phil Jagielka's not too far away on the horizon, but maybe in the short term it may leave me short.

"But over the piece, I think if I get over the next couple of weeks then I would be okay."