Jordan Pickford has challenged Everton to seal a European spot in Marco Silva’s first season in charge.
The Toffees appointed former Watford boss Silva on May 31 after a turbulent 2017-18 campaign in which they finished eighth, after Ronald Koeman, David Unsworth and Sam Allardyce all had spells in charge of the first team.
Silva has been backed in the transfer window, with close to £60 million ($78m) being spent on Richarlison and Lucas Digne, as Everton target a return to continental football.
And Pickford believes a top-six finish should certainly be the goal for the coming campaign.
“I think it is a massive club and the club is only going in the right direction,” he said.
“We want to do better. We finished eighth last season and so we want to get better than seventh, get into the top six.
“The Premier League is a hard league and it is hard to get a win in any game, but we want to please the fans and make the fans happy and the way to do that is win games.”
Pickford is excited to return to club football following his extended break after the World Cup, in which he shone in England’s run to the semi-finals.
“It is a quick turnaround but I am still fresh and raring to go,” said the former Sunderland man. “I couldn’t go straight back into it, so I had a little break and I will go back in on Friday and get cracking and see how I feel.
“I just love playing football. I’m a football lad. I will go in on Friday and the first thing I will do is ask for some game-time on Saturday, hopefully to get the chance to play against Wolves the following week. I know myself that I will be more than ready, so I can’t wait.”
The 24-year-old enjoyed a stellar World Cup with the Three Lions, starring in the penalty shoot-out win over Colombia as Gareth Southgate’s side made it to the semi-finals in Russia.
Pickford only moved to Everton last summer after impressing at Sunderland but has been heavily linked with Chelsea in recent weeks, with the future of current Blues number one Thibaut Courtois still seemingly up in the air.
But he is already pushing to be included in the Toffees’ final pre-season game against Valencia on Saturday as he returns to action earlier than anticipated and appears ready to stay at Everton amid speculation contract negotiations will open soon.
“It is a quick turnaround but I am still fresh and raring to go,” he said. “I couldn’t go straight back into it so I had a little break and I will go back in on Friday and get cracking and see how I feel – maybe see if the gaffer will let me have a bit of game-time on Saturday.
Pickford struggled to put his finger on where things went wrong last season, with Ronald Koeman losing his job in October as the team struggled to provide results.
“I felt it was a weird one because a big change is either going to work or is not going to work straightaway and needs time,” he said.
“The form at the back-end of the season was very good and I think we were a top-six side. It takes a bit of time to bed in and get used to each other but hopefully this season it is going to be a lot better.”
Marco Silva will now decide whether Pickford will be in the squad for Saturday afternoon’s game with the Spanish side but the England No1 wants to be involved.