Marco Silva Praises Substitutes After Late Goals Help Everton Beat Crystal Palace 2-0
Everton manager Marco Silva praised the impact of his side's substitutes after two late goals helped the Toffees beat Crystal Palace on Sunday.
With the score at 0-0, Silva's final throw of the dice was to introduce Ademola Lookman and Dominic Calvin-Lewin. The two combined in the 87th minute as Lookman's cross was headed in by Calvert-Lewin.
The game was sealed by another substitute, as Cenk Tosun came off the bench to complete the scoring.
Speaking about the impact of his substitutions, Silva was nonchalant, saying as quoted by the Liverpool Echo: "It is football. Sometimes you change and everything goes well, like happened this afternoon. Other times you try and it’s not the same.
“We tried, we changed the formation when we brought on Dominic and they did well. It is important for us and for me as a coach that when three players come on, they change the team.”
Despite being chosen as Everton's captain for his last three Premier League appearances, Tom Davies was a surprise exclusion from the starting 11 as summer signing Andre Gomes took his place.
Speaking about Gomes' debut, the Everton manager said: “He did well, like we expected. He is working really hard and well. He is a player who can give us different things in that zone."
Explaining his decision to drop Davies, Silva stated: "I am happy with Tom Davies and his performances as well.
"I knew and I expected a tough game this afternoon and we needed Andre to control the ball and give different solutions for us in some moments. He is a little bit of a different profile from Tom.”
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Everton's 2-0 victory over Palace means the Toffees have now won three Premier League fixtures in a row, putting their slow start behind them. Silva's team have now leapfrogged Wolves and sit in eighth place.
Next up for the Merseyside team is Manchester United at Old Trafford. While Silva will have been pleased with the result against Palace, he will accept that his side must up their performance if they are to stand a chance of beating the resurgent Red Devils.
