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Leighton Baines and Steven Pienaar during their Everton playing days
Leighton Baines and Steven Pienaar during their Everton playing days
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Tyler Dibling excelled again when he came on for Everton against Ipswich Town. He held onto the ball and showed a bit of calmness, which caused Ipswich’s full-backs to back off a lot more.
When Hayden Hackney came on, I thought it was a chance for us to get him in possession and calm things down, but he took up the number 10 role and was struggling to get on the ball. If he’d just dropped a bit deeper that might have helped us, so there are little tweaks here and there that David Moyes can learn about his players.
Hopefully, the way that David Moyes treated Tyler last season was a bit of a wake-up call that you need to show determination and hunger each and every day in training to be a successful Everton player. Tyler enjoyed a promising pre-season in which he looked sharper and showed a willingness to impress.
He seems to have a lethargic-looking, laid-back body language when he plays football. That’s his style. If things aren’t coming off, then it can look like you’re not trying but that’s his natural demeanour and Dimitar Berbatov was like that as a footballer, it appears brilliant when it works but a lot worse when it doesn’t.
Tyler had his opportunity in the Carabao Cup against Wolves and I thought he grabbed it with both hands, he was fantastic. He started a bit slowly but didn’t hide and kept getting on the ball, creating opportunities and making the right decisions.
The opponents knew he could hurt them and manipulate the ball very quickly and efficiently. Against Wolves, he held the ball up, which was an opportunity for Ainsley Maitland-Niles to overlap or underlap him and be an option and that’s what I’d like to see on the other wing.
Against Ipswich, Brennan Johnson doesn’t really show for the ball enough, which stops Maitland-Niles from getting forward. Johnson is a different type of player who likes the ball in behind, whereas Tyler likes the ball to feet.
It’s all about trying to get the right mix and the right partnership. Maitland-Niles is showing the Evertonians why we’ve missed having an out-and-out right-back for far too long. He’s got good decision-making on the ball, doesn’t panic and tries to build up a relationship with his team-mates on his side of the pitch.
We’ve got to try and create that kind of chemistry that we had with Leighton Baines and Steven Pienaar. Hopefully, that could be one for the future where, if Tyler can start getting into the starting line-up for Premier League games, those two could really gel and start causing teams a lot of problems.
We know getting bodies into the final third will cause issues. Maitland-Niles has got that power, pace and willingness to go forwards and that gives Tyler the opportunity to cut inside and have a go himself or try a one-two to allow an overlap.
That can only benefit Everton, so hopefully it’s something we can see in the not-too-distant future.
My Jarrad Branthwaite wish is clear
Some of Everton’s players are now going away to represent their countries and it will be a proud moment for all of them, whether it’s Jarrad Branthwaite and now James Garner joining Jordan Pickford in the senior England squad, Tyler Dibling and Tyrique George with the Under-21s or the others representing other nations like Jake O’Brien with the Republic of Ireland.
I wish them all well, but hopefully Jarrad can add to his solitary cap so far and then come back unscathed, as everyone at Everton just wants him to be able to enjoy an injury-free season.
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