Everton manager Sean Dyche was asked whether Harrison Armstrong has "the edge" to make it as a top player after netting a hat-trick against Nottingham Forest in the FA Youth Cup
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Everton manager Sean Dyche believes that FA Youth Cup hat-trick hero Harrison Armstrong is developing what he calls “the edge” to be a Premier League footballer. Armstrong handed Blues Under-18s head coach Leighton Baines the perfect 40th birthday present when he netted a treble at Goodison Park on Wednesday night in his side’s 7-0 thrashing of their Nottingham Forest counterparts.
Dyche often references players having “the edge” and when asked whether Armstrong has it, he said: “First of all, just to qualify what I say, or quantify it, you can’t be a Premier League player and not have it, simple as that. Some players have it more clearly, even though their consistency goes in and out, between when they really have got it or they haven’t got it while they some are searching to find it because they’re too young and they don’t know.
“I don’t mean like somebody who plays five games. But if you can build a semi career in the Premier League, let’s just imagine 75-100 games, you can’t do that without having a competitive edge.
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“It doesn’t always mean a physical competitive edge, it can be your talent, it can be your tactical understanding, but it’s something that gives you more of an edge than others. I don’t think you can be a Premier League player, probably not even a footballer by the way, because the stats are still massive just to have a football career, but to be a top level player, there’s just something more, and I think that’s what I talk about with the edge.
“There’s a number of players here who have got it and someone like Harrison is still forming it, he’s still learning about it, and understanding it. That’s something that we guide him with and we let them naturally find their way.”
Armstrong, who turns 18 next month, has played four times for Everton’s first team this season, including two substitute appearances in the Premier League while he made his first start in the Carabao Cup tie with Southampton at Goodison Park, turning out for 62 minutes in front of his family from West Derby. While the midfielder made the headlines this week after claiming the matchball against the East Midlanders, Dyche insists the display was just part of the youngster’s ongoing progress.
The 53-year-old said: “It’s a funny thing with football. It’s like he just arrived on the scene, we’ve played him in the first team this season, he was with us from pre-season, I played him at Salford.
“It’s a funny thing, he scores a few goals and people go ‘wow, what about this kid?’ He’s been with us for months actually, and been doing what he’s doing, learning.
“I appreciate the fact that when I first saw him, I thought ‘hmm, I like him, so he can come with us. No more than that, he’s just another player who is developing, learning and working hard.”