Everton manager David Moyes has admitted players from the club's academy will have to "get involved" after he was left with just 18 outfield senior options following the closure of the summer transfer window.
Everton sold four first-team squad members on deadline day - Iliman Ndiaye, Beto, Tim Iroegbunam and Nathan Patterson - and while Jack Grealish re-signed and Ainsley Maitland-Niles joined, Moyes is painfully short of options at left-back and striker in particular.
Moyes on academy prospects
At his press conference to preview Sunday's visit of Manchester United to Hill Dickinson Stadium (2pm kick-off), the Blues boss was asked which players from the club's Under-21s team could be ready to make the step up.
"We've got some academy players who will obviously get involved," he said. "Are they ready to make the step up? I'm not sure about that. We will see how that goes.
"Some of them might be pushed in and as I said earlier, when that happens, (it's a case of) can you take it (your chance) and can you adapt?
"Sometimes the players who are ready to step up, they might be in positions that you already have a couple of players in. A lot of the time we need the young ones to fill a position we've not got."
Striker shortage and Graham's role
The dramatic collapse of Folarin Balogun's move from Monaco on Tuesday means that Everton now have just one fit and available senior striker in Thierno Barry, who has started this season in good form with four goals in three games.
Supporters have been wondering whether the lack of forward options could lead to senior minutes for Braiden Graham, who has been prolific for the club's Under-21s and U18s sides.
The 18-year-old, watched by first-team coach Leighton Baines and technical director Nick Cox, scored a brilliant free-kick as the U21s lost 2-1 to their AC Milan counterparts in the Premier League International Cup on Wednesday.
The Northern Ireland youth international, who was called up to his country's senior squad for the first time in the summer, is well liked by Moyes, who involved the teenager during the senior squad's pre-season preparations.
But the manager believes Graham is not an out-and-out striker and feels it would be unfair to ask him to be a source of goals in the Premier League just yet.
Moyes said: "I don't think he's a striker, first of all. He's probably someone who would play off the sides for us.
"We like Braiden, he's trained with us quite a lot and he was in pre-season with us.
"He's certainly moving in the right direction. It would be a difficult ask for any young player to come in and be a source for goals (in the Premier League)."
