Marco Silva outlines where he wants Lookman to improve to nail down Everton spot

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Ademola Lookman has not been able to nail down a regular starting spot for Everton this season, despite the struggles of his direct positional rival Theo Walcott.

And the Liverpool Echo quote Marco Silva telling the winger what he needs to do in order to improve and get the regular gametime he wants.

Silva said of Lookman: “He needs to understand what the coach wants from him, and any winger in our model.  I expect Ademola to be on a different level already this season. I see Lookman doing fantastic things one day and say: ‘OK, it will be this week’ and the next day I have doubts.

“[Defensive work] is one of the things he has to improve. Against City, you have 30 or 40 per cent of the ball. Against these teams we have to answer 90 minutes of high intensity. But he also has to improve his offensive part.

So Silva wants to see more consistency and defensive diligence from the man the BBC report Everton spent £11m to land from Charlton back in 2017.

That’s a fair criticism but when Walcott is the direct competition – a player who has been struggling for consistency and maturity his whole career and is now 30 – it’s tempting to think Silva could afford to show more faith in Lookman.

Giving him a run of games could give him the confidence he needs to find his feet, and with Everton’s attack looking blunt at times this term, there are worse ideas.