Everton assistant boss Alan Irvine heaped praise on Tyler Dibling after the win over Wolves
Tyler Dibling tackles Wolves’ Boubacar Traore (Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
Alan Irvine believes Tyler Dibling “looks like he belongs” at Everton after a difficult start to life at the club.
The 20-year-old endured a tough first season on Merseyside after joining the Blues from Southampton for an initial £35m in 2025.
But there are signs he is starting to settle at HHill Dickinson Stadium after a positive pre-season. While his minutes had been limited at the start of the campaign, he marked his return to the starting line-up with a man-of-the-match display against Wolves.
Dibling provided several good moments as Everton qualified for the last 16 of the Carabao Cup with a 1-0 win. He slipped Carlos Alcaraz into the box for the winner with 10 minutes to go and produced other glimpses of quality, including a precise through-ball to give Brennan Johnson a glorious chance to score.
OPINION
Asked for his thoughts on Dibling’s progress, Blues assistant boss Irvine said: “First of all, since he came back for pre-season, he’s looked like he belongs here. He has looked more comfortable.
“He’s a very quiet lad, Tyler, and it can sometimes take quiet lads, young lads, quite a bit of time to settle in, especially to a club like this with the expectations that are here, so that was probably difficult for him last year.
“But he’s come back right from the first day of pre-season, looking much more comfortable in the environment and being able to play for a club of this size. So that’s been good.”
Irvine, who took the post-match press conference instead of David Moyes, said he had spoken with Dibling before the game and stressed to him the importance of taking his chance on Wednesday night.
Irvine said: “He’s been training really well. He’s just been waiting for his opportunity and I said to him before the game: ‘You’ve been waiting patiently, or impatiently, you’ve now got your chance. You have been disappointed that you haven’t been in the starting XI up until now, but now you must take that opportunity’.
“You don’t get loads of opportunities. You have to grab them when you get them and make sure that the manager’s got a tough decision to make for the next game, and he’s done that, which I’m really pleased about.”
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