 Welcome to Toffy TV, we are going to have a chat about Tom Davies today doing very well this season, certainly very well of late. Is he proving the critics wrong as the thumbnail says Pedd? Is he proving them wrong? Yes massively, massively proving them wrong. It's a delight, it's a delight to sit here after all the years we've been pushing this lad and the years we've been supporting him and trying to deflect the haters and I still, for the life of me, don't understand why anyone would hate on a young lad using Evertonian and a scouter and wants to just do well for the club. But they have and for some reason I don't understand why they have. People like Tom Davies get more abused than people who are really, really bad at football and milk the club's eye. But here we are and we have our chance to sit here and look at the positives that have happened in the last few months. How much have you put down to the manager? The fact that he's starting to really find his role in the squad shall we say? I think you've got to put it down to the faith that the manager's showing him to say when Alan went out that Tom Davies was going to be that player. But that's only the start, isn't it? That's only where it starts. The player has to, obviously you get picked to be in the side and a lot of that will come from what he's seen in training. That's the start of it. The player has to then pick up the baton and take the cues of what the manager says and the tactical side of it. I think you go back to the Sheffield United game. I thought he was integral in that game to how we played that night. And I think it's just snowboard. It hasn't been smooth sailing, of course. But I think what we've seen is just the confidence of him grow. The confidence in him grow from the manager. And I think there's people at the club that really want to see him do well, but that's only the starting point. You have to have faith in it in some of it. I think we've seen that with Duncan Faggs and Adam Faggs and Dominic Carver. That's where it has to come from. People in the coaching set up pushing a player to the manager because that's where it comes from at the beginning of the day. It comes from people fighting for certain players going, you can do a job if you consider him doing a job. I think that's been missing in the last few years from the different managers. I think other managers have been happy to discount Tom Davis because he is a local lad because he is young. Because we've got this new shiny thing that we need to put in the side or spend this money or this lad will do it. I think that's what side-track Tom Davis and push them wide. But I think recently they've put him there and he's done it. He's doing it regularly now. He's starting to find a consistent level and a consistent position as well, which is really important. That is key. I spoke to Don Oetishon last summer. He went on a bar of marmeltidol. He was a really good player. It's all very well having the things in place. You've got to then go and run with it as the player. You've got to produce it week in, week out because otherwise people do come and take your place. It's going to be interesting now that Alan is fit to see what happens with Tom Davis because he's done really well. These are just the stats from the season so far. He's been involved in 21 games. He's averaging 1.4 tackles per game. It's quite good for my field player. He's won 56% of his joules per game and his passion, accuracy, is 80%. Just what you were talking about there, the games played, but 11 in defence of midfield, 6 at centre of midfield. We've also had seven sub-appearances. I know that 21 doesn't add up their cup games as well as sub-appearances. You've just said then, from where he is in terms of a position, that's always been key for him because he broke into the team. We know what happened that first season, Manchester City goal and all of that, which probably in other people's eyes made him a different type of player than he was. Although, saying that, in the under-23s, he was an attack on my field player. We brought players in, some of them are Davy Classon and stuff like that, and Guilfee Sigurddon and those kind of players. He just did nickel of lassage. He got pushed to the side and they were giving games. I think he lost his way a little bit from then. The key thing with him was finding him a position. We're just going to have a look now at his heat map from 18-19 season when he started playing regular games. You can see it, a bit of everything, but he's in both halves there. Still more, the red more where he spent his time and the attacking half of the game. But the problem I think with him in this situation is we're going to just quickly put a little video on of graphical video rather than the real one. You'll see the kind of things that I think he was doing which was this kind of thing of just chasing the ball all over the pitch and never really having a proper position to play in and going through. I think when you're a midfield player and you're all over the pitch like that, I think A, you've got to be a lot quicker. And B, you've got to have more control with what you're doing. And the box on the screen is the area that he was very kicking as a centre midfield player. Now at times, at times, you could have probably got away with that when we had Ghana in the team because Ghana would go and mop up those kind of areas. But since he went and he's playing in there, he is very kicking that area. I don't think what that shows is he's going over the pitch, but I don't think he's got the pace that he has. I don't think he's got the physical assets to do that. I don't think he had the reading of the game. You know, you've just mentioned Ghana there. Ghana was, number one, was covered the ground pretty quick, but also had the experience to know where to be at the right time. And I think we always find Tom getting to where he's at the pitch, maybe a couple of seconds late. And if they play round, he's out of position. Yeah, yeah, and then you leave holes and then you find you've left yourself exposed and you've left your position. And your centre backs exposed, which is what we saw. 1920, we'll have a look at his heat map from 1920. And what we saw in 1920, was obviously Carlo Anciolotti involved in that as well, was that we saw a more even spread of where the darker spots, you know, where he spent more time. It was more even of being a midfield player trying to do both halves. He's covering the middle 30s, isn't he? Yeah. He's covering, you know, he's not too defensive, but he's also not too attacking. He is playing like a proper midfielder. And obviously, what we still saw on the next video, that he still was leaving a position and trying to join in as much, and you can see that from the heat map, is that again, when we stop it there, the area that's exposed behind him. So when he was playing maybe, and what we saw in the second half of the season, was he's playing in a two, but he's playing in a two with like Andre Gomez, or Guilffy Siginson. So when they were both leaving it, Everton were leaving a huge block there. And again, we know we bought John Felipe Gabaman for that role, and he's not being fit. You know, Garner did that role very well once more, and Snidlin went out of there. There was no, I mean, Snidlin couldn't do anything else, but that was good where he was sitting in that role. And Everton found it very, very difficult in those areas. And so, because Tom was still trying to, and this is what we're talking about, and trying to find a position in his head, it's, I want to do everything. You hit the nail on the head, he ain't quick enough to do that. It's not that he's not quick enough to go over five or 10 yards and get somewhere he can, but it's being able to sustain it with athletes. But it's also not his natural game. You said it straight away at the beginning. He started as an attacker midfielder, right? And he wants to go forward as a footballer. He wants to have the ball. He's not... This role that he's playing at the moment doesn't mean that, you know, he's running around like a lunatic trying to take the ball off the opposition. He's not, he's taking the ball off our back four. He takes the ball off our back four and then becomes a screen in front of them and can play, you know, wall passes one-twos, get the ball off the centre backs off the goalkeeper and then move it onto the full backs who've gone into advanced positions or try and get it to seeing the lines. That's what he's been doing. So it's not a case of him being this defensive midfielder. I think like the graphic show there, when he was doing that job that I think is more what we'll see if Alan doing getting round the pitch hurrying people, knowing how to get round them without filing them and it's a very modern sort of part of the press and a very modern way of taking the ball off someone without actually engaging them physically. I think that's what Tom does now. Like you said, he's got discipline now but it actually takes his best asset. I mean, I'm going to say a name now and it might sound stupid but it is the paleo role. It is that role of being the deepest midfielder but also being someone who's good on the ball and attacking on the ball. Paleo was the master at it and I'm just using that as in, like if I said, like the Michael Leary role. Same position but completely different things. He likes to take the ball and when he takes the ball it does take up some really, really nice angles so that the next pass is off and he's grown in confidence now and there was a lot in the last two or three years you could say this a few times about and maybe the pass isn't always right and if he is deep then you worry a little bit and it looks like he's losing the ball a lot of time. People still think he loses the ball a lot of time. He doesn't at all. There's average there of 80% over the course of the season but when you actually look at his average over the last 10-15 games it's up in the 90s because he doesn't give the ball away a lot. You're right, when he was leaving his position though and trying then passes and they were intercepting and breaking on us I think of Leicester last season, one of Silver's last games when two goals, it wasn't because of him but he lost the individual battle and they broke on us and he was face running back towards our goal and they were away and I think what he has done now is found the position. You're right, he's a good passer. I've always seen it with the second goal at Amffield at the weekend that could have moved that lead to the penalty. It was a fantastic pass into the challenge and the ball for Dominic Arvellunard at Old Trafford for the first goal. He's got that pass in range. The criticism I would have with him when he was playing a little bit higher up the pitch was he didn't get into the penalty area enough. If you're playing as an advanced midfielder and if you look at Alan and what he did for Napoli and what he did for Eden Easy he scored three or four goals as he was in the box a lot and he was creating goals and we saw that from Alan. I think later on was a big thing when he got the ball and just went and drove what he wanted to do. I think the manager's been quite honest about him I think he's been asked about him and he said he's not a number 10 he's not physically capable of being number 10 he's not quick in terms of picking the ball up and running away from people. We've seen that as well. So the job, I think it's been partly due to looking what we had in the squad and saying we knew already he could play six because he'd been playing there for the number 21s and he was good at it. They loved him, they raved about him and players raved about him in that position and of course that's against the same set of players. But I think its necessity is part of it as well knowing who we've got for available in that position. There wasn't many candidates and that helped but I think he's taken on really really well and as I said I don't see him as a defensive midfielder I see him as a deep line midfielder someone who takes the ball and then helps move it on and that's really important especially now because we know the manager likes to play out from the back we know he does and with experience you know you get the knowledge and you just, he could become like that like a Gareth Barry figure for us because I think he was the last player who did that position like that I mean Gareth Barry was brilliant, he read the game so well and that comes with experience but don't forget he didn't start in that position he started left back and centre back and then he moved into that. And he's another player who wasn't very quick fantastic don't get me wrong with great player but wasn't quick was he, Gareth Barry but just going to look at what Davis has been doing this season and where it's really changed in terms of because a lot of people wanted them out but look at this season I thought that was going to be like a skateboarding no no no, no skateboard I could have put, we could have gotten it to put that on button now so this is this season and quite clearly you can see it's set more or less in front of our back four there is some ventures into their half but not as much anywhere near as much in their final third and that's a real, for me that's a real example that you can see and look at where he's spending his time and how more disciplined he is there's a nice care to it as well isn't there there's a nice care to it and what we're seeing, we'll see a little graphic what he's tending to do now when the team breaks is he's just hanging back into that zone there and he's allowing hammers to cross over the corey to support the other may feel the little press you will always go creating that triangle with the centre back with the centre back, which is what you want for that role and I think by playing that and you just said it there as well by playing through that and where he is in that zone he is able to take the ball off the centre back you're right he creates angles someone was talking about how comfortably he makes a wall pass for someone to knock it in the angles there back for the ones who but also what's really important about that is is that when the opposition are heading towards our goal he's got himself in a position there where he can go left or right and stay he's already in that area and the full backs can be a little bit and this is why I told my Gareth Barry the full backs and this is when the full backs let's be honest when we think of full backs playing for Evan we think of Shane was coming on one side and we think of Leighton Baines and the other when they were at the best was probably Mark Ness's first season when they were both at the peak of their powers was probably that season as a pair and Gareth Barry just sat in there and it allowed them to go all the way and I think what you need is you always need a midfielder who just sits in there so when the opposition are coming at yet there's a line before they get to the back for and I think you just mentioned before towards the back end of last season and I think one of the city goals we can see that last week was the same where you can our midfielders are goals are goals side not defensively goals side offensively goals side you should never be left with a midfielder with no midfielder on that side this must be said Tom Davis wasn't on the pitch no no he wasn't on the pitch that's what I'm saying he'd been taken off in Guilfee we'd gone a little bit more offensive we'd gone more offensive and Guilfee finds himself on that side Tom genuinely finds himself on that side and that's really important because not only for not only for stopping the opposition but the second goal that I'm feeling where Michael Keane is making a block really the ball fell to the box now instead of the ball falling to an opposition player coming onto it it falls to Tom Davis and Tom Davis sets with Gareth enough to see what comes after so it's really important defensively and offensively for someone to be sitting in that hall but that's not going to happen and it wasn't even happening when Alan was in the team because Alan was pressing and pressing so that it's a really interesting position now because you mentioned it before Goebbamon he might be more suited to it if we ever see him but Tom certainly seems and this is where it's interesting the idea of where people are like as soon as Alan comes back Tom's out the side where my thoughts are well actually Tom will sit in that position and Alan can then go and play Keane's in that position but you're absolutely right it's about being able to create keep that tillidity while having two people pressing it's another reason why I want another Miffiel in the summer in more of a decor as well that kind of athlete physical presence to get about that Miffiel but I think what's really key for Tom Davis is that people ask I think there is being a real turn now I think a lot of people who maybe wrote them off were going well you know what actually he's a good player and it's important it's what we've said quite a lot and I think sometimes I understand people's frustration you're looking at a team and you're going where can we get better and it's almost like right we just get rid of him and him and if we got this and many him it would be that good but the make up of a good side is that your players are able to do jobs and he's really what I think is really important now is he knows the role and that's the key thing for me is that it's almost like it's like with Dominic Halvert-Lewin once he kind of knew that he had the opportunity to become the number nine everyone question if we were going Mason Holgate another one alright he might be a little bit different cos he wants to be a centre back whether it's long term he will or he won't but that's not important what's important is the manager that's fading we were talking on this slide last season saying Mason Holgate, Dominic Halvert-Lewin now big important can Tom Davis become that player and to be fair the manager is allowed back to happen okay there's been a lot he's been fortunate cos of injuries but it's happened and that's I think now like what you've just said there people now look at Tom and go he can do a job for us and I think once that mindset changes where you are looking at the positives and not the negatives of course he still makes mistakes in games of course he does and I sometimes look at his mistakes and I don't go oh Tom you've made a mistake I go people are going to jump on that and it's about not jumping on it it's about being like it's a mistake everyone makes mistakes I absolutely love the core of this since we brought him in on Saturday he got caught about four times from being sloppy so it is about looking past it and I think to have the evidence to be successful whatever that form falls in you have to have people like Tom Davis who are good at the job and you know what they can do he's only 22 seems like he's been around for ages he's a baby for me I think he was my player in the month for January on my ratings he was my player in the month and it was deserved because I just got on a python forum he scored very highly I think for January he was outstanding sorry not January February sorry February I think he's been doing something but that's that's been through January and February he's grown and that's what happens that young players will take time and have their ups and downs but I just think you know what you said before that's his position now that's his position and he has to just keep growing and learning more that position and studying and knowing what he has to do more often now and what he does now I mean he said himself the manager told him simplify your game stop taking four touches when two will do people said that before and rightly so criticised him it takes too many touches I think a woby does the same I don't know clearly I think a woby is one and he sent me a clip yesterday where's he gone like a three minute thing on him for Arsenal he was unbelievable he wasn't taking hardly any touches knocking it going now it's like I've got to get it and that's confidence that when Tom Davis it's no coincidence now he's had the run of games and he's like starting to play well because he needs the games but we'll just have a look at this next thing if that'll put it up for us and this is this is how evidence generally line up now that's like our shape obviously and he is very much the anchor in that midfield triangle and lately he's had obviously on to Gomez there he's had Adelaide Acora he's got Hames right and left and we've got and Dominic Alville living there so when you're looking at that side you're saying right we know where he is we've got no Allen in there he's key in that role we're not looking and going oh should we try Guilfee in that role now or Fabian Dell for you know somebody else put him in there and then the next one that we've got this is what how an evidence to do now is play from these positions and this is what really ideally we should be able to do which is having anchor in your two midfielders should be able to push on unlike yours saying we've got to put Allen in there cos I think that's the midfield three we want so it's our programme I hope we put him in and it allows them to to then go and hunt Decorae we know wants to join in he wants to get in the box that's what we need from Allen wants to go and hunt right around and if you've got Tom sitting Tom Davies sitting there it also allows your full backs to fly on now I've got James in there because Mason Holgate stops at the halfway line cos he's not a ladyfender and that's what that should free up because again like you just said before it creates the triangle we've got three men back Allen should be able to jog in there as well so it should allow the other way and in an ideal world when this is the opportunity now just take it back one sorry this is the you've talked about a slightly different formation here with Evan which we think it could enable us to play which hammers a bit more centre and almost a diamond midfield so to speak it's like a flat three with four three one two with two players up front because we saw the charlesons really come to life hasn't he in that and that's where he wants to play he wants to play through the middle said it loads of times if we get a right back well if we do do that now just put that last one on for us so if we do do that then this is what we can look forward to say that 23 is Max Arans who's been linked heavily with Evan this week bombing into that shaded area on the right hand side and you've got Luca D and me now bombing into that shaded area on the left he stays in his rectangle there Alan can join in the corey look what hammers is giving in that role he can go right to Max Arans or Coleman if he can get up there left to Luca D and then ahead of that he's got Dominic Arthur Lewin on the charleson to slide in now if everybody's marked it opens up for hammers Rodriguez to have a going self and I know what you're saying if we get that flying right back it opens up the whole pit for us and then back now have you looked at teams who've broke on us this season scored those like goals when we've been trying to you know get a goal back it's often been three against two for the attacking side we've lost the ball and we've committed too many men I'm thinking a new castle which they broke and I think it's three against one almost and I'm thinking of Manchester United who scored a goal in injury time am your chasing again but in that scenario especially if one of your centre backs has been goffry so that's a formation that potentially could work for everything which allows them to tinker up a little bit but Tom Davis is pivotal in that of easing the team because we do have to have that anchor and if that's we haven't got another player I don't think we'll play like that and what it does show you for the people who may not fully be on board what we're saying is that maybe that's the position that you go if a world class player comes up in that position but he's definitely shown a different because I don't think Alan is the type of player who wants to take the ball off the back four and then starts he wants to go hunting and he likes to play with the ball Alan he wants to be he's a destroyer he goes around and breaks it up but he's also quite creative he likes to go forward so you're right just for everybody who is watching who might be gone but I still want this and I still want that get that, if we could get a better striker than Dom and the Calvert Loom and there's not many around but if you could get that then you'd get him in and Dom would have to battle his way in if you could get a better player than the Charleston you know if a bap I come available once I come to Everton and you were like oh the Charleston no but that's what it means so it's not a case of saying we don't need anyone we've got Tom Davis and that it's if we can get better brilliant but this lad is going more than capable of playing Premier League football for everyone it shows how it can all fit together and he's done really well fair play to Tom Davis fair play to Carlo Ancelotti and the coaching staff so it's all good there you go let us know what you think in the comments section below you've been pleasantly surprised by Tom Davis this season you're behind him backing him as an Everton and we want him to do well shouldn't be the only reason why he plays and I understand that but he's done really well you know we have to trust Carlo Ancelotti as well a fellow who's been there she's done it all but this kid can play and I think even if he's not in our first eleven he's definitely an important part of our squad as well so and you know what they say haters gonna hate, skaters gonna skate no better way to finish see you later