Everton: Jermaine Beckford slams ‘unacceptable’ on-field situation after what he’s seen
Jermaine Beckford has slammed the lack of goals scored by Everton as “unacceptable” and says the off-field situation is not an excuse.
Attacking midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure leads the scoring charts for the Toffees this season with six goals in 18 Premier League matches.
After that comes Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Jack Harrison on three apiece, while Dwight McNeil and Vitalii Mykolenko both have two goals.
Speaking on Sky Sports News [7 February, 10:35am], Beckford said: “The problem is there’s not enough players behind the forwards.
“For me the forwards also need to do more – that’s the whole point of being a centre-forward, scoring goals to win games.
“At the moment those players haven’t done enough in that department. Doucoure is the top scorer after 22 or 23 games, with six goals.
“After that it’s three goals, which is unacceptable for a team the size of Everton. The expectations are far higher than just avoiding relegation.
“There’s a lot of situations happening off the pitch, but once you cross the white line, you know your job.
“But in terms of them getting relegated, I’m not worried about that and Sean Dyche is the right guy to lead Everton to safety.
“They do have enough to get out of the situation. If they can sort the goal side of things out, I don’t see Everton having an issue.”
Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s poor goalscoring record
As the go-to man up top, a lot of the blame does unfortunately fall on the shoulders of Calvert-Lewin, who is averaging a goal every six games.
It goes without saying that Everton would kill for a forward who can score every other game, but this is the hand Dyche has been dealt.
Away from Calvert-Lewin, others also have to do far more. McNeil, for all his qualities, has just two goals in 20 matches this season.
Plenty was expected of Beto, meanwhile, but he has one goal in 18 games. Fellow summer buy Youssef Chermiti has no goals in eight games.
The Toffees have kept their fair share of clean sheets of late, while they were twice on target in the draw against Tottenham last time out.
However, if goals are not scored more freely then climbing out of and away from the relegation zone is going to be extremely difficult.
In other Everton news, Ben Jacobs has shared an update on Arsenal’s interest in a first-team regular.
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