Everton’s Phil Jagielka: Lack of strikers could cost us fourth-place finish

Phil Jagielka believes Everton’s lack of fit strikers could cost the Toffees a fourth-placed finish this season.

The Merseyside outfit suffered a 1-0 loss to top-four rivals Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane on Sunday despite controlling large parts of the game.

We were perhaps missing that fox in the box or target man to get us the goal

Phil Jagielka

Roberto Martinez is currently without Romelu Lukaku who picked up an ankle injury during a 4-0 derby defeat by Liverpool last month.

January loan signing Lacina Traore is still not full fit, and Jagielka admitted that the Toffees are in desperate need of a “fox in the box”.

“We’re struggling a little bit at the moment,” Jagielka told the ECHO.

“Lacina is not quite right yet and it’s difficult because although we played some good stuff, we were perhaps missing that fox in the box or target man to get us the goal.

“It’s frustrating and at the least, we should probably have kept a clean sheet and come away with 0-0 but we didn’t.

“It’s going to be a little bit harder for us now. There are other teams in the mix for fourth.

“If we’d beaten Spurs, we’d have pushed on a little bit, but there’s still 13 games left and a lot of points to play for.

“A lot of teams are trying to get as many points as they can for one reason or another and we’ve got a lot of hard games too. We’ve got a tough one coming up against Palace.”