David Moyes has warned Everton's big-money signing Tyler Dibling that he must offer significantly more next season following a challenging first year on Merseyside for the 20-year-old.
Dibling joined from Southampton for £42 million last summer after a protracted transfer saga, but the highly-rated star has managed just one minute of playing time since January and only four league starts all season.
With Jack Grealish ruled out for the season in January, Moyes and his coaching staff had hoped Dibling would step up, but that has not materialised yet, and the manager has now publicly challenged him to improve.
'He'll have to do better I think,' said Moyes ahead of the Toffees' home clash against Manchester City on Monday night. 'He'll have to do better in his work and in his training. We brought in Tyrique (George, from Chelsea) who is of a similar age and as competition as well to make sure we were covered.'
'I think Tyrique has done well in the moments he's had in games and shown some bits that we like, so we want Tyler to step up, we really do.'
Dibling had a spell at Chelsea in 2022 but returned to Southampton after struggling with homesickness. As a young player, moving to Merseyside could be cited as a reason for him taking longer than hoped to settle.
'He's important to us. He's a player who we put a lot of faith and money into to bring him here so we are looking for a lot more,' Moyes added. 'That's why we are not panicking about it, because of his age. We want him to step up, we are hoping that he'll improve and next year will be a big year for him to see if he can do that.'
Another player suffering from confidence issues is striker Thierno Barry, who had a hot streak over the festive period but has scored just one goal in his last 11 league outings.
'I am saying a general thing here and it is that football supporters are not having much patience with many things. You might not get two or three years to become that player,' Moyes noted. 'There is a bigger emphasis on, "We need things now, we are looking for that to happen quickly". It is not just here at Everton. I think all clubs are the same.'
'He is young as well, first year in the country, at the moment we have four games to go and if he scores a couple of goals you might say it has not been the worst return for a young centre forward.'
'There are a lot of clubs who have paid a lot of money for centre forwards and you wouldn't say that has been worth it. We took a chance on a young, up-and-coming striker, we tried to get him in quickly and early to see how he was going. He has not done bad. I actually think he is improving as he is going along. First season in the Premier League, it is not that easy.'
Meanwhile, Everton midfielder Harrison Armstrong is in talks over signing a new deal at the club to reward him for a fine breakout campaign, during which he was recalled from a loan at Preston in January.
