David Unsworth praised Callum Connolly’s form in front of goal following Everton Under-21s’ 1-1 draw at Reading.
The young Blues fought back from a goal down at the Royals on Wednesday, with 18-year-old Connolly finding the net for the fifth time in four games.
That return is all the more impressive given he is either deployed at full-back or holding midfield – and boss Unsworth admits his adaptability and form means he can’t leave the Liverpool-born Academy graduate out of his side.
“He’s such a great player that his versatility means he’s the first man on the teamsheet,” he told evertonfc.com.
“He’s a real threat from open play with his surging runs, from whichever position he plays, and from set pieces. He’s chipping in with a few goals at the minute. He’s so brave and wants to get on the end of things.
“He’s an eight or nine out of 10 every week and gets among the goals. It doesn’t matter if he’s right-back, left-back or centre midfield, he’s starting to influence games from whatever position and that’s the sign of a really good player.”
Unsworth was also satisfied with the draw at Reading, especially given the quick turnaround of games his young cohorts find themselves in the middle of.
“It was a very good result and a good performance,” he added. “The lads were flagging towards the end after expelling all their energy on Sunday at Liverpool, but our recovery was fantastic. For them to go again on Wednesday afternoon, to travel away to a really good team who are third in the league, really powerful and older than us, I was delighted with how we went about the game.
“Reading are a big strong physical team, they try to play with good pace and you can see how successful they’ve been in the league following their promotion last year. So we knew the areas we would be tested, but we stood up to that with the same team as Sunday.
“We could have won it at the death as well - Conor McAleny had a shot deflect just past the bar. It was probably a fair result but we dug in there for the last 20 minutes, defending for their lives on their last legs and the desire and manner of how they go about their work made it a really good point.”
Next up for the Under-21s is a game against Tottenham Hotspur at Southport on Monday evening, but several members of the side could be lining up for the Under-18s at Goodison on Friday night.
“Because of our really young squad in the Under-21s, five or six of the lads will feature in the Youth Cup on Friday,” explained Unsworth. “We’re really shutting them down between games at the moment - it’s four games in eight days for some of them but they’re young lads and recover properly.
“As staff, we know they can go again and we’ll get them ready again for Tottenham on Monday night.
“The games are coming thick and fast at the minute and that’s the way we like it. We’d rather play more games than not enough and the Youth Cup tie against a good Aston Villa side at Goodison will be a nice experience for them.”
