Everton centre-back Phil Jagielka has urged his side to form a defensive structure in order for their attacking players to flourish this season.

The Toffees, 9.00 to finish in the top four, enjoyed a strong start to the campaign but they have failed to any of their last three matches.

A EFL Cup defeat to Norwich City was followed up by a defeat to Bournemouth and a draw with Crystal Palace.

Despite their slump in form, Ronald Koeman’s men still sit fifth in the Premier League table but Jagielka believes they can push on.

The club captain believes the goalkeeper, defence and two holding midfielders need to solidify their backline in order to give the likes of Romelu Lukaku plenty of freedom.

“If you look at it as a back six or seven and include the keeper with Gaz and Gana,” he told the Liverpool Echo.

“And then look at the players ahead of them, our destructive players, if they turn up on the day they are nearly impossible to keep a hold of.

That is the role we’ve got now, we need to make sure we give them the platform and when they do come up with the magic it wins us the game.

“We are working as hard as we can and we get them working as hard as they can, but if not we need to be the ones to give them a good platform and base and consistency and continuity are massive when it comes to a defence and keeping clean sheets.”