Everton manager Sam Allardyce has again been singing the praise of young midfielder Tom Davies given his growing form this season.
Plenty have waxed lyrical about the Academy graduates development and he notched up his 52nd Premier League appearance in our two nil victory over Brighton at the weekend and the 19 year old put in another impressive performance to win him further words of praise from the gaffer.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media the week, the topic of conversation was once again Davies and the progress he’d made since debuting back in 2015/16 and Allardyce felt he couldn’t ask for more from him – but he was probably going to!
‘He was very good. In two seasons he has had a massive learning curve for one so young. He was part of the brilliant season Everton had last season, particularly here at Goodison, and received many accolades. And now he has experienced more of a struggle as a team. And the experience should hold him in good stead to become a bigger and better-quality player than he already is.’
With Davies now having more Premier League matches under his belt than the likes of Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes by the time they turned 20 years of age, he’s not going to reach Wayne Rooney’s tally of 106 top flight appearances before he was out of his teens, and the experienced England international also came in for praise – especially given his performance in a less than familiar role.
‘We were already picking a very attacking side so decided to sit Wayne in the middle, where Gana would normally be, to see if we could get him on the ball and producing. And what a masterful job he did for me. His passes were the reason we were so fluent. It was just a shame Wayne did not round off an outstanding performance (the late penalty). But missing when you are 2-0 up is not so bad! It was still an outstanding performance and the penalty would have been the crowning glory.’
He added.
‘After the hiccup of losing Gana in the morning we were left wanting in terms of defensive midfielders. That was why I was so pleased with Wayne and what he did. What has been missing as a team is the constant level of performance we showed against Brighton. But for far too long we have been missing those players on form to make us better and long may they stay fit and continue to help the team go forward.’
