'Needs to improve' - David Moyes sends challenge to three Everton players as plans confirmed

David Moyes has challenged Vitalii Mykolenko to deliver more assists for Everton after finally breaking his Premier League duck.

The Ukraine international created his first goal in the top flight during Wednesday’s 1-1 draw at Brentford. In the 77th minute, Mykolenko whipped in the cross for Jake O’Brien to stoop low and head home Everton’s equaliser as their unbeaten streak in the top flight extended to seven matches.

It’s been a lengthy wait for the left-back to record a Premier League assist. It arrived more than three years since he moved to Goodison Park from Dynamo Kyiv - and in his 100th top-flight outing. to boot. And given the injuries to attacking players, it’s something Moyes wants to see more regularly.

The Everton boss said: “He needs to improve on it. We probably crossed four balls into the keeper’s arms tonight and if we’d done that better, we’d have given ourselves a better chance of scoring. The one half-decent ball we put in, Jake (O’Brien) gets in round the back and scores.”

More goals from wingers

The other milestone against Brentford was O’Brien bagged his first goal since arriving from Lyon last summer. Purchased for £16.3 million, the defender was a bit-part figure under former manager Sean Dyche. But since Moyes’ return to the Everton hot seat, O’Brien has been deployed as a makeshift right-back and thrived.

Given that Everton currently have Dominic Calvert-Lewin (hamstring), Iliman Ndiaye, Dwight McNeil (both knee) and Armando Broja (ankle) all sidelined, Moyes has believes his defenders - along with wingers Jack Harrison and Jesper Lindstrom - need to contribute in the final third.

He added: “After we come in, there were not many goals being scored. Beto stepped up to the plate in the main for us. Doucs [Abdoulaye Doucoure] has been getting a couple of goals for us so we’re needing goals from Jesper and Jack but we’re needing the centre-halves to get a goal from a corner. We had one right after half-time, looked a certainty, I didn’t know how it stayed out. We had enough opportunities to get some other chances.”

Plans

Everton are without a fixture this weekend after exiting the FA Cup at the hands of Bournemouth earlier this month. They are not in action until Saturday 8 March when they travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers. As a result, they will use the gap in their calendar for some warm-weather training in the United Arab Emirates.

Moyes said: "We're going to train away for a few days now. I think, not so much me, but I think the players at Everton have worked really hard and had a lot of rubbish to deal with. So I'm going to go and try and train with them and have a few days in the sun if we can."

Since Moyes took charge of his second stint as boss, Everton have hurtled up the table. He arrived with the Toffees just one point above the relegation zone. But after succeeding Sean Dyche in the driving seat, Everton are now 15 points clear of the bottom three.