Sean Dyche says there is a “very high chance” Everton’s summer signings will start against Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday evening, while a crop of Academy graduates are also set to feature.
The Blues host their League Two opponents at Goodison Park in the Carabao Cup second round as Dyche’s side look for their first win of the season.
From the four new faces who arrived in pre-season, only midfielder Tim Iroegbunam has made a senior start to date, with forwards Iliman Ndiaye and Jesper Lindstrøm coming off the bench and defender Jake O’Brien yet to feature.
Following disappointing results to Brighton & Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur, Dyche stressed the importance of the players he selects on Tuesday laying down markers in terms of their performance, with Bournemouth the visitors to Goodison on Saturday in the Premier League.
“I’ve made it clear in my time here of the importance of the cups, I do value them because I think they’re important,” said the Everton manager.
“On the other hand, it is fair to say we are going to have to use players to get them fit and fit for task.
“The players have come in and had not as many minutes game-time wise. So, we are obviously going to be playing some of those players, but I’ll certainly be putting out a team that I believe can win.
“I just want to see good performances. People laying down markers.
“If they haven’t been playing, they got to lay down a marker and make sure you’re playing on Saturday [against Bournemouth].
“It’s a message I say generally. Every day is a chance to show us what you can do, whether it’s in training or in a game.
“Obviously, games are more relevant because it’s a more visually measurable part of what we do, but even in training players lay down marks.
“They keep that high level consistency. We think they’re pushing. We want players to do that every day, but of course when games come around, show us what you can do.
“That’s what you want, especially the new players because they have only had a limited time with us.”
Everton are searching for their first goal of the 2024/25 campaign, and while Dyche said himself and his staff will continue to work on new ways to aid their forwards to hit the back of the net, the onus is on the entire group to deliver.
“We’re just going to keep working and keep finding different ways, maybe their best kind of way they can score goals and try to get them in an area and give them the ammunition to score their best goals,” he added. “Generally speaking, it’s always tough.
“Tottenham, for example, have got clinical players everywhere. You can see that, and they got players who can score a goal and want to score a goal from all different positions, all different areas of the pitch.
“You don’t just want strikers; you want clinical players.”
Saturday’s trip to London saw two of the Club’s latest Academy graduates in Roman Dixon and Harrison Armstrong earn their first Premier League appearances, with Jenson Metcalfe on the bench.
Both could feature in tomorrow evening’s cup clash, but Dyche believes the short-term priority is to get the Club’s youth involved in the senior environment when possible.
“[Harrison was] really good. A young player who we felt has been worth fast tracking with us during pre-season,” said the Toffees boss.
“He’s been mainly training with us, he played with the Under-21s just to keep his game tally up.
“In a game like the one on Saturday and it’s got away from you, it’s nice to just give him a feel of it.
“It’s really early in his career, but to get around it, the feel of it on the pitch. To travel with the team, these are all influences that will rub off on him.
“We believe in what he’s doing at a very young age, Roman [Dixon] as well.
“There are other players, but we’re trying to introduce them to give them at least a feel and fast track their learning when we think they’re ready and we think he is ready to at least be around what we’re doing.”