Tosun Clicking To Gear, Everton Boss Silva Hails

LIVERPOOL, England- Marco Silva says “fantastic” Cenk Tosun’s expertly-taken goal in Saturday’s friendly clash with Valencia will infuse the striker with confidence going into the new Premier League campaign.

Turkey international Tosun is poised to embark on his first full season with Everton after joining from Besiktas in January.

The variety of Tosun’s five top-flight strikes in 12 starts last term served as sure evidence of his predatory instincts. He scored twice with his head, adding two more with his right foot and one off his left boot.

The 27-year-old functioned effectively at the tip of an Everton front four against Valencia, his sharp touch and awareness helping him link intelligently with the enterprising trio of Richarlison, Theo Walcott and Gylfi Sigurdsson.

Tosun’s smart movement created space for his teammates and consistently saw him pick up dangerous positions around the Spaniards' penalty area – not least when he zipped to the right of the box to receive a pass from Walcott and snap a first-time shot across goalkeeper Neto into the far corner.

“In the box he is a fantastic football player,” manager Silva told evertontv.

“The capacity he has to score with his right and left foot [is important]. He improved on the other things in his game and did well. He understood better what I want and is improving his game.

“For a striker, when he scores everything is different and it helps his confidence grow."

Silva had Tosun’s fellow new-year arrival Theo Walcott at his disposal for the first time at the weekend.

The attacker played his first football of pre-season after Everton opted for a safety-first approach to helping him overcome a minor ankle problem.

Walcott’s direct running caused the visitors untold problems, while his close control and turn of pace left a clutch of opponents trailing as he wriggled out of a spot to tee-up Tosun’s effort.

He left the pitch to a tremendous ovation on the hour mark with the scores level at 2-2, Everton’s second goal having come via the head of Michael Keane after the centre-half reacted quickest to get on the end of a whipped Sigurdsson corner.

“When you have good ball strikers and strong players in the box, set pieces are important,” said Silva.

“It is easy to understand today in football, the detail in every moment makes the difference.

“In the World Cup more than 50 per cent of the goals started with set pieces. And it is really important. In the Premier League, what makes the difference many times is the set piece – and we need to be strong offensively and defensively from them.

“Theo is a very important player for us. I gave him 60 minutes because he needs to start to get his fitness. In some moments I will need to give him more time but it was better to give him 60 to be ready for next week.”

Tea-time kickoff

Silva, who had his first taste of managing the Blues at Goodison against six-times Spanish champions Valencia, is preparing his side for next Saturday’s tea-time kick-off at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

To that end he viewed the encounter with a strong Valencia outfit – whose fourth-place in La Liga last term secured their passage into this season’s Champions League group stages – as a valuable exercise.

Silva believes aspects of Everton's display pointed towards his players taking on board the new manager's ideas following five weeks of concentrated work.

He was delighted, too, with the fabulous reception he was afforded by Evertonians before kick-off.

“It was a pleasure for me to be at the stadium and feel this welcome for myself and my staff,” added Silva. “I am here to work really hard to improve the Club and make our fans proud.

“Valencia were a strong side, a good team with a lot of quality in its ball possession and defensive organisation.

“It was a tough test for us and I took some positives from it… we reacted well [to conceding an early goal] and kept our game open with the ball and reacted well when we lost it.

"We need to improve our defensive organisation in some moments – we are working on that and, for sure, in future we will improve.

“Our players are working hard and trying to do everything to understand a different methodology and philosophy and ideas.”

-Report sourced from www.evertonfc.com