Can Marco Silva make something out of Tom Davies?

Tom Davies is not a good Premier League player.

Just gonna give that a minute to breath.

We all love how hard Tom plays, we all love his energy and the fact that he’s a homegrown product who brought almost instant heroics once he broke into the first team. Unfortunately, since that time he’s had more than enough game time to show that his game just does not bring a lot of consistent value added to the pitch.

Tom’s possession loss numbers are startling, between unsuccessful touches and simply being dispossessed he lost the ball 5.5 times per 90 minutes last season. For context, Morgan Schneiderlin, the best player that Everton fans love to hate, averages 1.6 per 90. Idrissa Gueye is at 2.4.

Tom only completes half his dribbles (Gana completes about ²⁄₃ of his) and 78% of his passes (Gana is around 85%). Davies also commits more fouls than Gana with fewer successful defensive actions.

He’s also still only 20 years old, so there is plenty of time for him to develop into a useful player, but it will take a lot of work and a much better manager than he’s had to this point in his Everton career. On early returns, he may just have that manager in Marco Silva. In Davies’ own words:

The way the manager plays suits me and the way he wants me to play is how I like to play and see the game, It’s high tempo. He wants me to press, get forward, be a box-to-box midfielder. That’s how I want to play, really, so it’s good to have that sort of freedom and role in the team. It’s something I’m looking forward to this year, developing into the player I want to be.

Davies’ high energy style certainly fits him being a pressing box-to-box midfielder but he needs to develop the skills to fill the role. He played very well against Southampton, which makes me feel encouraged that he will finally come good under Marco Silva. It’s amazing what having a good manager can do for the abilities of his players.