Everton youngster impresses against Sheffield United as he adapts to 'completely different' role

The 21-year-old is on a season-long loan from Everton. The Toffees also loaned him out last campaign to National League North Chester, where he kept 21 clean sheets in all competitions and won the club’s Young Player of the Year award.

He’s now made the step up to the National League and has been trying to get to grips with his new sweeper keeper role, where he is asked to almost stand on the edge of his own box and mop up any balls over the top, as well as play a big part in starting attacks by passing or throwing the ball out quickly.

He told the DT: “It is completely different to last year. Speaking to Bucky (Dave O’Hare), the keeper coach, he said be uncomfortable, don’t be comfortable being comfortable. I am learning day-by-day, listening to what the gaffer and Bucky want, being that pivot role at the back, trying to move it from side-to-side. It has been a short time to get used to it but I feel like I have adapted quite well to it.”

The youngster joined Chesterfield in time for their pre-season training camp in Portugal and he is grateful to everyone for making him feel settled.

“The lads have welcomed me like I have been here for two or three years,” he explained. “It was great to get to know them all on that trip. Everyone around the club is great, behind the scenes the staff are great, it feels like a great, ambitious club. This club has got real ambition to go back into the Football League and I want to be a part of that.

“The quality here is unbelievable. The players are unbelievable. And you can see that in the way that we play. We have just given Sheffield United, a Premier League side who are four divisions above us, a good go.”

Tyrer said that Everton’s loan manager, James Vaughan, and goalkeeping coach Alan Kelly, will be keeping an eye on how he is doing and are always sending him video clips on how he can improve.

But they’ll struggle to find much he could have done better against Sheffield United on Saturday, with the stopper making a string of top saves from Will Osula and Ollie McBurnie in the 2-0 defeat.

He added: “I always like to make big saves, match-winning saves, even though they may not have won the match for us today but they helped keep the scoreline low. Credit to our defenders, I thought they played well today. But yes I am pleased with my own performance.

“It was a good workout for the lads. The first-half was very tight, it could have gone either way. It was like a basketball game in terms of it being end-to-end, we had chances, they had chances. We held on for 60 minutes but the quality of their two strikers who came on at half-time showed.”