FOR DAVID Moyes the devil is always in the detail.

A man who prides himself on preparing everything he does in football immaculately, places huge emphasis on pre-season.

It’s why the Everton boss has reverted to his default vision for summer success again this year – heading back to the USA.

Moyes admitted he tried to coax a better start to last season from his squad by opting for a tour of Australia instead.

But when even a move to fly Down Under failed to cure his side’s costly tendency to start slowly, he is determined to go back to what he knows.

July’s mini-tour of the USA will be the sixth time in seven years the Scot has flown his squad over to America as part of their pre-season preparation, having visited Houston in 2004, Columbus and Dallas in 2006, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles in 2007 along with Chicago and Denver in 2008, and Seattle and Edmonton, Canada, in 2009.

“We’re looking forward to going back to America,” said Moyes recently.

“We’ve been a few times now and the facilities are always first-class.

“We’ve not yet been to Washington as a club so we’re really looking forward to the game against DC United.

“It will be one of our first games of the summer and it’s good that it will be against quality opposition. The RFK is a terrific stadium and I am sure we’ll all enjoy the experience.”

This time around the Blues will also be put through their paces in Philadelphia, where they will play new MLS franchise Philadelphia Union, in between some tough hot-weather training overseen by the club’s top conditioning team of Dave Billows and American Steve Tashjian.

As well as for practical reasons of access to the best equipment and fitness facilities, it is Moyes’ attempt to recreate the preparations which helped Everton qualify for the Champions League in 2005.

His aim is to try and produce the type of momentum they took into the 2004/05 campaign.

Everton won seven of their first 10 league games that season en route to finishing fourth, winning a place in the Champions League third qualifying round, and Moyes hopes he can produce a similar reaction.

Of course, of equal importance will be the Everton manager’s ability to complete his summer signings as soon as possible, something which is already seeming to be a tall order.

Everton’s opening 10 games of this season, after a summer spent in Australia, saw them pick up just three wins and suffer the same number of defeats with Moyes determined to avoid repeating such a sluggish start.

“I am going to try and follow as close as possible the path we took in pre-season in the year we qualified for the Champions League as far as preparation is concerned,” revealed Moyes, whose side face DC United on July 23.

“That was our first year in America, we will go there again. That is the one year we got off to a really good start.

“Last year I changed it the order in which I do the work, we took games early, we did the work in the middle, I changed to somehow see if I could find a solution and you couldn’t say it didn’t work we just didn’t score the goals. The lack of goals in the first six to eight games cost us.

“So maybe how we start has nothing to do with our preparations and sometimes for all the things you change, it is down to personnel.

“Most of our problems have been down to not having personnel in early enough.

“But we’ll try to go back to what we did in 2004-05 as well.

“Our record at the end of seasons is a good thing in as much that if we can get a good start, get in a good position, then Everton look as though they are someone who finishes the season strongly.

“But every year I say, ‘can we get this good start?’ and we haven’t.”

There is one final reason for Everton’s decision to go Stateside. The club’s profile flourished on the back of their loan capture of USA skipper Landon Donovan two seasons ago, and Moyes is determined to build Brand Everton across the pond, and encourage future Donovans to consider a switch to Goodison.