One of the biggest surprises in yesterday’s 3-3 draw at Manchester United was the performance of Everton midfielder Tom Davies.
After coming back twice in the match to secure a great point Everton can feel well satisfied with the effort and commitment they showed after a hectic game at Leeds on Wednesday.
The Toffees midfield was excellent, competing well defensively and providing good quality ball in attack as well and Davies was perhaps the best of the three of them. He worked hard and passed the ball accurately and effectively.
The former youth team product has had a tough few years over the last seasons after he initially broke into the Blues team back in 2017 and looked a promising prospect.
When he first got into the team he was a playing on instinct and as well as competing for the ball he would often produce bursts from midfield and get into decent goal-scoring opportunites.
Davies though seemed to have classic second season syndrome and found it much harder to make an impact on games and he was in and out of the side over the next few years.
More from Prince Rupert's Tower
- Everton 0 Arsenal 1: Blues fall to third home defeat
- Further chaos in Everton takeover as other lenders not keen on 777 Partners
- Everton need repeat of Arsenal win to kick-start their season on Sunday
- More madness at Everton as Moshiri now agrees to sell club to 777 Partners
- Everton takeover talk cools after UK govt doubts and further questions
His confidence and form declined and he especially struggled in the last campaign under Marco Silva and then Carlo Ancelotti when he took over as manager in December 2019.
He’s had to become a different sort of player now to the one who first played for Everton and the role he is now usually asked to play is a deeper, more orthodox and defensive one requiring greater self-discipline.
Davies has not found it easy to do that and both his defensive positioning and distribution have been very inconsistent.
Then in the summer Ancelotti moved to strengthen his midfield and brought in both Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure. It looked very likely that Davies would have to look for another club and be on his way out sooner rather than later.
But he didn’t leave either in the summer or in January’s transfer window. Last night though he came into the team as Ancelotti decided to revert to a three-man midfield. Davies’ role was to replicate the kind of defensive diligence and work-rate of Brazilian Allan, still out recovering from his injury.
Davies did the job he was aked to very well and this on top of better overall performances this season when he has played, indicate that perhaps he does have a future after all at Goodison Park. Now he needs to maintain this good solid form and make himself an important squad player.