Tyler Dibling was the most expensive signing for Everton this summer, arriving from Southampton for £35 million.
One of English football’s most highly rated prospects, the teenager has struggled for game time and has played just 62 minutes of Premier League football all season. In contrast, he made 33 top-flight appearances for the Saints last season before they got relegated.
David Moyes believes that Dibling is finding it difficult to break into the first team given the form of Jack Grealish and Iliman Ndiaye ahead of him.
“At the moment, he’s got Ili Ndiaye and Jack Grealish in front of him, so that’s probably the reason why he’s finding it difficult to break into the first team,” Moyes said in the pre-match press conference before facing Fulham.
“We want him to up his levels, up his training.
“When I first came here, Leighton Baines, John Stones, Joleon Lescott, you could go on… they all had to sit and wait for their time and the right moments to find their way into the team, that’s the way it is.
“For Tyler at the moment, he’ll have to do that as well.”
Dibling has made only four appearances in the league this season, all of them from the bench. He also featured in two games in the EFL Cup before Everton’s run came to an end against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Another major talking point concerning the Everton frontline is the strikers’ efficiency, or lack thereof. Both Beto and Thierno Barry have disappointed massively so far this season. They have scored one goal between them after 10 matches.
Barry was guilty of missing a sitter against Sunderland in the last game and the French U21 international, another of Everton’s summer signings, is still searching for his first goal in a royal blue shirt. Beto, meanwhile, is struggling to replicate the form he showed in the second half of last season when Moyes first took over.
“I think we’re all wanting our centre-forwards to score goals,” Moyes admitted.
“I think when I came in last season, nobody expected Beto to score any goals but Beto did fantastically well and probably helped make sure we were a Premier League team by his goals and the opportunities that he made in the second half of last season.
“So, we’re not going to give up on them right away, but we’re putting them under pressure to score goals as well.
“We need to give them a bit of confidence, a bit of belief, but they have to give something back as well, they have to show what they can do to get the jersey.”