Tyler Dibling, Everton’s most expensive summer signing, had to wait until the penultimate fixture of the year to make his second start for his new club.Arriving from the south coast on the back of a...
Tyler Dibling, Everton’s most expensive summer signing, had to wait until the penultimate fixture of the year to make his second start for his new club.
Arriving from the south coast on the back of a lot of promise and a £35m price tag, Dibling’s adaptation is taking longer than even the most pessimistic would’ve expected. Even after 17 rounds of Premier League matches, the 19-year-old barely had 100 minutes collectively in a royal blue shirt.
While it’s certainly not a simple endeavour to displace Jack Grealish and Iliman Ndiaye from Everton’s first-choice starting XI, especially given the form they’ve been in this season, to be fair, David Moyes hasn’t been proactive about giving minutes to the youngster either.
At Turf Moor against Burnley, when the opportunity did present itself with Grealish out due to illness and Ndiaye on AFCON duty, Dibling grabbed it and showed sparks of real quality to suggest why he was so highly rated in Southampton.
“I thought he played well today. I thought he'd done a lot of good things. Obviously, he's getting used to us and getting used to the team and what's required. He probably looked to our best attacking threat, to be honest,” Moyes said after the game.
“Certainly, in the first half, he had one or two moments and a couple in the second half as well. So, I'm pleased with him.
“He got himself booked late on, so we just made sure [by taking him off], there was no problem there.”
Dibling played 88 minutes and created two chances, including a big chance from the right flank with a deflected shot that just missed Beto’s feet at the far post. He also completed four of his six attempted dribbles and looked confident while carrying the ball and driving at the Burnley backline. Some of his touches also showed a lot of flair under pressure and his passing was tidy.
While Dibling is quick and agile, there’s room for physical growth, which is natural given his age. There’s definitely a promising player in there and the lack of game time so far is baffling. At the very least, he’s a far better player than Dwight McNeil and should be one of the first names to come off the bench to shake things up in the frontline.
Category: General Sports
