Sean Dyche has not ruled out Armando Broja from Everton's trip to Manchester United this weekend.
The on-loan Chelsea forward has yet to feature this season due to an Achilles injury which he was carrying when he joined in late August. However, the 23-year-old Albania international played 45 minutes for the under-21s on Monday night and also started against Nottingham Forest U21s on Friday.
Speaking on Friday, Dyche revealed he would make a decision following Broja's second outing for the youngsters that evening. “We’re getting there. AB (Broja) will get some minutes again today, as will Youssef Chermiti on his journey back to full fitness, which is good,” he said.
“AB is in front of Youssef. This is only Youssef’s start point, really, but AB is looking really fit. We’ll see how (Broja) gets on today. He’s done a lot of background work and I’ve spoken to him about possibly being involved (against United).”
Only bottom side Southampton have scored fewer goals than the 10 in 12 managed by Everton, who have failed to find the net in their last three matches and have just three goals in the last six games. Main striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin has not added to his two goals since mid-September, a run of eight matches, while leading scorer Dwight McNeil has not scored since his third Premier League goal at the end of that month.
Everton’s other striker Beto has been restricted to just eight substitute appearances in the league and his only goal was a 90th-minute equaliser against Fulham last month. Dyche knows he has to find improvements from within as the financial restrictions on the club mean there will be no January transfer saviour.
“You can’t change things overnight not unless you have lots and lots and lots of money – and they even tried that here and that didn’t work that well so it’s not that easy,” he added. Most clubs buy strikers, it’s rare you develop them, and we’re trying to develop the ones we have got to be even better strikers because I think they are good strikers. It is consistent work, not overthinking it for the strikers particularly. But it is very difficult to coach that moment of truth.”
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Keep warm on the sidelines