Pickford wants Europe in Silva´s first Everton season

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 £60million 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.

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“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.”