OPINION
This season has been another frustrating one in Everton blue for exciting winger Ademola Lookman, and manager Marco Silva is clearly as frustrated as the supporters with the youngster’s slow progress.
The 21-year-old’s talent has been obvious for some time, but he simply hasn’t been able to harness it sufficiently on Merseyside. Silva knows this, and he has told the Englishman what he needs to do to improve.
“He has to be the same Lookman everyday,” he told the Liverpool Echo. “He has to be the same Lookman that has that desire. We know what his quality is and you know I believe in his quality since the first day I saw him so it has to be [the] same Lookman everyday with the same desire everyday.
“He needs to understand what the coach wants coming from him, and any winger in our model, because, after that, the quality he has. He is a young football player but, being honest with you, I expect Ademola to be on a different level already this season.
“I keep believing, 100%, in his quality as a football player, there are no doubts about that, but what I want to see coming from him is the same desire coming from him, each day, to achieve that, to reach that level he wants and the level I believe he can play at,” he finished.
Those are fairly damning words for the Toffees boss, suggesting that the winger perhaps doesn’t quite contribute enough on the training pitch as his manager would like.
Silva says it right there: he expected Lookman to be doing better this campaign. We all did, really, particularly given how badly his fellow Everton winger Theo Walcott has done this time round.
The England international’s poor form should have been something the former Charlton Athletic man was able to take advantage of, but he never quite did.
Now, he needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror and reflect on what Silva is demanding of him here. Training ground intensity will yield match-day improvement, and that is what Lookman’s manager wants from him. If he can do that then the youngster may finally be able to kick his Toffees career into high gear.