Phil Neville backs Jermaine Beckford to come good

Everton captain Phil Neville has backed out of favour striker Jermaine Beckford to have a long and successful career in the club.

The 26-year-old joined Everton over the summer when his contract in Leeds United expired and he became a free agent. However, he has struggled to play to the standard expected in Premier League football.

“The one thing I would say is that he’s putting himself into that position to miss [goalscoring chances].
Out of all the strikers we’ve got, he’s the one who is consistently getting chances. That tells me that he’s brave, he has an eye for goal and he’s hungry to score,” Neville said on the Sky Sports website.

Neville has also rightly pointed out that strikers get more attention during spells of bad form because their main job is to score goals. He argues that defenders and midfielders
who go on bad runs are less focused on.

“At the moment it’s not quite going for him, but it works that way for strikers.
They go on runs where they don’t score, but it’s pleasing that he keeps making the runs,” added Neville.

Neville has suggested that Beckford is around one per cent away from hitting a run of form that will have Everton fans chanting his name for years to come. It’s important to
remember he is only 26 and has a number of years left during his playing career.

“He’s a Premier League striker. If he wasn’t creating the chances, or making
the runs maybe you’d question that, but for me a striker is 99 per cent there if he’s doing that.
The extra one per cent is maybe confidence and that will come when he starts scoring. Eventually he’ll click and punish someone by banging in three or four,” said Neville.

Betting advice

A lot of people suggest that Beckford has been found out at Premier League level. However, Neville is right when he says the striker is getting himself into the right positions
to score goals. Bet on Beckford to score in any game he starts in.