Sean Dyche raves about 24-year-old Everton player’s progress this season

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Sean Dyche has heaped praise on Vitaliy Mykolenko’s recent form for Everton.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, the Toffees boss admitted that the defender had been ‘excellent’ against Liverpool.

Vitaliy Mykolenko arrived at Goodison Park from Dynamo Kyiv in January 2022, but endured a rather underwhelming start to life in the Premier League.

Everton were unable to find their best combination of full-backs and were left particularly weak in that position following injury to Seamus Coleman.

However, Mykolenko has taken his chances in recent weeks and has now started Everton’s last six games in all competitions.

Despite the result, the Ukrainian really impressed at Anfield, and had also conceded only four goals in the five matches prior to that.

Mykolenko looks to have now staked a claim for a regular spot in Everton‘s backline and has received plenty of praise from his manager.

Speaking ahead of the clash with West Ham this weekend, Dyche said: “”I think he’s done very well and he continues to develop, I think he’s adding to his game and I think he was excellent. We took him off tactically of course, but I think he’s done very well.

“Patto [Nathan Patterson] – he’s still a young full-back, he’s still learning. Learning from doing it every day. So i think there’s two really good players there.

“Then we’ve got the experience of Seamus [Coleman] and [Ashley] Youngy in a different way, but it’s a good group when they’re all fully fit. I think it’s a good mixture there.”

Can Mykolenko and Patterson retain their places in the Everton team?

Ashley Young is set to miss out on Sunday’s match after he was sent off against Liverpool, paving the way for Nathan Patterson to make his fifth start of the Premier League campaign.

The Scot has also had a slow start to life on Merseyside, however Everton’s recent improvement in defence has given him a chance to gradually improve his game.

Hopefully Patterson can really impress against the Hammers, as I’m sure fans would prefer to see him in form than Dyche continuing to pick his 38-year-old counterpart.