“It is always difficult for me to single out players. I don’t like doing it, I’ve not done it a great deal… but it was an awesome performance.



“He is a proper Everton central midfielder; you just look at him and know he’s an Everton player. He’s all-action and doesn’t just do one thing - he can go box-to-box, he can screen, he can tackle, he can pass the ball, he can get in the box and score goals… there’s no end to where this lad can go.



“He’s also a cool dude, the one who plays the music in the changing rooms. And his music taste is horrendous, so he’s not shy when it comes to things like that!”



Tom Davies has come a long way since David Unsworth offered this enthusiastic assessment of the midfielder following a man-of-the-match display on his full Everton debut back in May 2016.



It had come in a 3-0 home victory over Norwich City for which Unsworth was in caretaker charge of the Blues.



Like towards the end of that 2015/16 season when it was Roberto Martinez who departed, there had been gloomy times around Goodison Park, and that prompted Unsworth’s graduation into the dugout late last month in place of Ronald Koeman.



The clouds parted thanks to last weekend’s dramatic come-from-behind 3-2 win over Watford at Goodison Park.



A Scouser who watched on from the stands as a youngster dreaming he would one day be out on the pitch, directly influencing his club’s fortunes, Davies has felt Everton’s difficult start to the season as much as anyone. He understands.



“It hurt,” says the now 19-year-old. “You’ve grown up watching it and you know how it feels to the fans when the team is losing.



“But I don’t go out there to perform badly - I go out there trying to do my best, and it’s just that sometimes that doesn’t happen. It’s the same with the team. We always go out there with the belief that we can win and put in a good performance.



“We are working on getting the squad together. We’ve got a lot of new signings and the players that we’ve brought in are all quality players. We just need to gel and we are working on that. It’s been going well in training and we now need to put that into the games.”



For Davies, personally, 2017/18 has been somewhat stop-start.



After blossoming at the turn of the year and featuring in every game of the second half of last season - starting all but one - the teenager has had to step off the bench for six of his 11 top-flight outings since mid-August.



In part that has been down to Everton’s summer recruitment of eight new faces, of which half could be categorised as midfielders.



Yet, unsurprisingly given Unsworth’s faith in his former Under-23s cadet, three of those five starts have come under the former Everton defender, including the success over the Hornets.



“I didn’t expect my career to be all flowers and roses when I started out, and I don’t expect it to be like that for the rest of my time in football,” says Davies, demonstrating the mature nature of the tousled head that sits on those juvenile shoulders of his. “It’s just another part of my career, really, and it’s a good challenge for me to show that I can play in the team and hopefully show how good I am to the coach and fans. I’m definitely going to work on that.



“It’s also good in training to have the new players so I can learn from them. For me, this is a great development part of my career and if I can get ahead of the players that have been brought in, that can only be good for me.”



That same levelheadedness has allowed Davies to appreciate, too, that in troubled times the easier option might have been to turn to the squad’s more experienced operators.



“Of course,” he says. “Because it’s tougher to throw younger players in when it’s difficult.



“I had it a bit in the early part of last season when I felt I could have been more involved but it was a difficult time for the team and it’s hard to put people in under those circumstances. If they don’t play well, that could be the end of it and the young players can sometimes go under.



“It’s hard for people coming through to show how good they are in tight games and when the performances are low. It’s much easier to come into a team that’s doing well and perform at a high standard.



“As in any form of life, if you are confident doing something, then you are going to be doing it better. And if your confidence isn’t there then you start to doubt yourself. For me, I’ve just got to go out there believing I’m going to do well and I try to bring that to the table.



“If I work hard and do my best then that is the least I can give, and I think that’s the general idea for the team."





💥 | 2-0 down with 23 minutes to go...



Remember, remember, the 5th of November! pic.twitter.com/Q5sCJ5Vdn7 — Everton (@Everton) November 8, 2017

In terms of learning from those around him, there are few who understand the nature of Davies’ elevation better than Wayne Rooney.Davies was just four years of age when the striker, one of the eight to bolster Everton’s squad in the summer, made his own Blues bow back in 2002.Two seasons later Rooney departed to begin a trophy-laden 13-year spell at Manchester United but his fellow boyhood Blue is delighted to have the Academy graduate, who gave him some of his earliest footballing memories, back on board and available to call on.Rooney revealed recently how he has been helping Dominic Calvert-Lewin hone his attacking instincts since returning to L4 and Davies reports he is another England’s record goalscorer has taken under his wing.“I was young but I remember his goal against Arsenal [in October 2002] and stuff like that,” he explains.“Just seeing him here was quite surreal at first to be honest. But then once you got used to being around him, it felt normal.“Just having him around every day is so good for the team and for me, because I can pick up little bits from him.“If you look at his career, it’s unbelievable really. He grew up supporting the club, and when you look at all the stuff he has won, that is something I would love to do.“He’ll always have a chat with me about what’s happened, and the game, and of course that’s something else that can only be good for my development.”To conclude, we go back to that spring afternoon Davies soared against the Canaries and the trajectory life has taken since.With his rolled down socks, rumpled blonde locks and a love of Elvis Presley that’s seemingly not to Unsworth’s tastes, ‘conventional’ has never been a label you could slap on Davies.But he is happy to report his life remains normal – by teenage Premier League footballer standards at least."Yes, my life has changed massively but I don’t think the things I do have changed that much at all,” he says with a beaming, infectious smile. “I still live with my mum and dad, and I’m still around Liverpool a lot, I still have the same mates I’ve always had. Why wouldn’t I?“For me, things have changed and I’m a lot more in the spotlight. But in terms of day-to-day, it’s just the same really.“I don’t think about that side of things too much. I just try to do what I enjoy doing and get on with my football.”It’s an attitude that has certainly served Everton’s “cool dude” just fine up to now.