Marco Silva says “fantastic professional” Tom Davies is improving all the time – and the player’s attributes perfectly suited his enterprising role at Huddersfield Town on Tuesday.

Manager Silva handed Davies an advanced midfield assignment in West Yorkshire and was rewarded with an all-action display from the 20-year-old.

Five of Davies’ seven league starts this term came in the opening two months of the campaign, a period when the Goodison Academy graduate became the Club’s youngest captain.

He gave way to Andre Gomes in the team following the Portuguese’s return to fitness and – save for a one-off outing against Tottenham Hotspur in December – had to wait for the meeting with Huddersfield for another starting opportunity.

“Tom is improving, I never have doubts about that,” Silva told evertontv.

“He is a fantastic professional and a fantastic boy, with quality, with many, many things to keep improving.

“But he wants to improve, he is open to learning and that is the most important thing.

“He is one of our boys and ready to help the team every time I decide to [select him].

“He did really well [earlier in the season] and… when I started to play with Andre, it was not because of Tom’s performances.

“Against Huddersfield, we changed our triangle in the middle, with Andre more positional [holding] and the two [advanced] midfielders in Gylfi Sigurdsson and Tom.

“It fits Tom’s skills playing in that position. And he did well, not just how he started the match and created the goal, but how he played in the second half with the big chance he had.

“On the pitch Tom is a boy who is giving everything to achieve what he wants and to help the team.”

Davies set the platform for a productive evening’s work at the John Smith’s Stadium with an adventurous run and cut-back to craft Everton’s goal for Richarlison on three minutes.

He was denied a fifth Premier League strike of his embryonic career when Huddersfield goalkeeper Jonas Lossl was equal to a rising blast from 25 yards shortly after the restart.

Davies covered 7.6 miles in the game, with only Gomes [7.9 miles] getting across more ground over the 90 minutes.

Davies pipped his midfield ally in terms of passing accuracy, however, the England Under-21 player’s 87.5-per-cent precision mark the highest figure recorded by any starter – and a mite above Gomes’ 87 per cent.

He also completed four interceptions and contested three tackles, with defensive diligence a priority after Lucas Digne was red carded on 66 minutes.

Silva was pleased with the resilience his side employed to protect their one-goal advantage, secured when Richarlison converted on the rebound for his 11th strike of the campaign.

“We know what Richarlison can give to us every time,” added Silva.

“In some moments, he is performing really well, doing everything well and scoring.

“In other moments, even if he does not perform well, he can score in certain moments during the match because he has this capacity, this feeling.

“He is strong... he arrives in the box and he did it again. He scored an important goal for us and for him.

“Another important thing was our clean sheet.

“The main thing in football is always the result but in some moments we have to show that type of character.

“I always want it and our players always want it but in some moments we have to show more and more and more.

"They showed that resilience and helping each other on the pitch in this way is always important.”