OPINION
Everton fell to an almost embarrassing 6-2 defeat on Sunday at the hands of Tottenham, a result which made some of their weaknesses glaringly obvious.
One of those weaknesses was midfielder Tom Davies, who played alongside Andre Gomes in this thumping.
However, Everton’s midfield were completely overrun by their Spurs counterparts, and this is simply not good enough for a team who are more than capable of challenging for the top eight in the Premier League.
The Toffees have demonstrated more than enough times this season that they do have the quality to push them further up the table, but on this occasion, they certainly fell short.
One player who is to blame is Davies – and Marco Silva must bite the bullet by ruthlessly axing the 20-year-old permanently after his latest horror show – rather than dropping him to the bench as he did against Burnley on Boxing Day.
The 4-2-3-1 formation Silva deployed against Spurs left Gomes and Davies with a lot of work to do, and neither of them did any where near enough to stop Tottenham completely outplaying them.
However, this was the last straw for the youngster, and he simply cannot be allowed to continue if he cannot raise his game for such important matches.
Everton knew exactly what they were coming up against when Spurs came to visit, so it remains to be seen why Davies was not better prepared.
This display from the £25,000-a-week [Spotrac] player is the latest in a string of underwhelming performances, and there are only so many chances he can be given this season.
The Toffees desperately need to get their season back on track after a series of draws and losses to their name, and one way they can do that is by binning Davies permanently as soon as possible.
It may seem harsh to wield the axe on a player who is so young and full of potential, but it is time for Silva to brush loyalties aside and do what is best for the team.