Ronald Koeman will continue to resist calls to blood Everton’s young guns into the first-team after insisting they are ‘not ready’ to make the step up.
Many of the Blues’ burgeoning crop are currently topping the Premier League 2 table with the under-23 side but have been limited to senior experience.
Mason Holgate and Tom Davies were both handed outings by Koeman but those opportunities are not set to be forthcoming in the weeks and months ahead.
The Everton manager cited a need to lower his squad’s average age from one of the highest in the Premier League, and the gulf between academy and top flight football.
He said: “We have some players close to the end of their career but still they are important players for the team.
“They are players with a lot of personality. We look to the squad and we look what we need.
“It is impossible to change everything or to change a lot in one summer. We need at least this winter and we need the next summer to make changes in this club.
“That is also about the older players. We have Phil (Jagielka), Gareth (Barry), (Leighton) Baines that are more than 30.
“But of course Baines is still in a good physical way, ‘Jags’ is in a good physical way and Gareth is still the player who runs the most distance in the game.
“Of course we have young players but when is it time for a young player?
“I don’t believe now because still they are not ready and the pressure is more on than it was.
“It is a reason we need to wait when we make these kind of decision.”