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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
James Quinlan

What happened in Everton 'training games' as Andre Gomes and two youngsters shine

Everton's pre-season training camp continued on Wednesday as Sean Dyche put his side through their paces in a series of 'small-sided games'.

The Blues travelled to the Alps on Monday to start their preparations of the upcoming Premier League campaign, with their first fixture due to take place against second-tier Swiss club Stade Nyonnais on Friday.

A 28-man group made up of first team and under-21s players made the trip to the camp, not including the recovering Seamus Coleman, plus Mason Holgate, wantaway Jean-Philippe Gbamin and Vitalii Mykolenko.

The players that were in attendance though were filmed by the club in their third day of activities. They intensified their fitness regime in a whole-squad session, before later being split into three mini teams to get back into the rhythm of playing. Here are the highlights of today's session:

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Andre Gomes involved

Portuguese midfielder Andre Gomes was heavily involved in both the fitness and match aspects of Everton's video, having just returned from a season long loan at Ligue 1 side LOSC Lille.

He was first partnered with Ben Godfrey and Michael Keane for warm-up exercises before making up part of the yellow bibs team.

In their first match against the white bibs, he could be seen controlling build-up play alongside Alex Iwobi as the duo provided pass after pass to their attackers to pepper Joao Virginia's goal.

Academy duo staking a claim

Two young Blues played a starring role as they hope to impress their manager ahead of his first full season at Goodison Park.

The first was Lewis Dobbin, who was also part of Gomes and Iwobi's yellow bib team, provided an outlet to the two midfielders and even displayed his dribbling skills to beat opposition defenders. He then was able to get three shots off torwards Virginia, though unfortunately saw all saved.

Then it was the turn of Tom Cannon. Working as part of the non-bibs team, he immediately opened the scoring against Billy Crellin in the white bibs.

Both Cannon and Dobbin spent last season out on loan in the EFL last season, the latter at Derby County and the former at Preston North End.

Sean Dyche watches on

Anything that Dyche said during the training session must have been kept under wraps, as the boss was seen watching his players been put through their paces and urged on by his coaching staff, as opposed to solely directing this particular session himself.

He could be seen deep in discussion with one of his assistants, Ian Woan, who took responsibility for most of the drills alongside Steve Stone.

Ice baths for all

After a tough third session the whole squad took turns in dipping into ice baths at the side of the field.

The location of Everton's training camp in on the shores of Lake Geneva is currently experiencing high summer temperatures of around 25 to 30 degrees in the daytime, meaning they are well and truly being pushed to their limits.

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