Everton boss Sean Dyche has claimed England international Ben Godfrey is still in his plans amid reports linking him with a January transfer elsewhere.

Godfrey has been an unused substitute for Everton this season, making just one Premier League appearance, a fleeting cameo at the end of the team’s 2-2 draw at Sheffield United in September.

The 25-year-old has reportedly been linked to a January transfer, with admirers including Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United. However, Dyche stated he was pleased with Godfrey’s performances in training and felt confident in his desire to contribute.

“He’s doing terrifically well for us,” Dyche said. “He’s training very well, he’s staying sharp and ready.

“The hardest thing lately has been the games programme and trying to keep the players who are not starting in the first team, keeping them game ready, but he’s going along well, he’s super fit and he’s ready.

“I think it’s fair to say it’s tough. The two centre-halves are playing very, very well, and most people accept that.

“Sometimes as a centre-half, I was one, it’s tough. You want to play but there’s an honesty about most centre-halves and when they look at someone who is playing well you’ve got to sit tight.

“He’s a very good player but he’s looking at two centre-halves who at the moment are on very, very good form.”

One of those centre-halves, Jarrad Branthwaite, was among the players Dyche said had been dealing with a knock during training this week but the manager expects all of them, including Amadou Onana, to be in contention for Saturday’s trip to Crystal Palace.

Club captain Seamus Coleman, who has not featured since May due to a knee injury, played for the Under-21s in the 1-0 EFL Trophy win at Mansfield in midweek, and Dyche said he is progressing well.

“It’s important with these games, we want to stimulate the players to get back to full fitness, full sharpness,” he said.

“The games programme can be awkward with arranging games so it was a game we thought they could get something from, particularly Seamus of course.”

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Everton head to Selhurst Park having won five of their last eight in all competitions, building a small cushion above the bottom three and starting to look up after another difficult start to the season.

“We’ve been building on early-season performances but changing that to get results,” Dyche said.

“The details at both ends of the pitch are improving. The will, the demand has been obvious from the players to make sure that we do improve in those metrics and take our chances, and be solid at the other end.

“So it’s a good mix, certainly recently, to being early-season form into form plus results.”

Last weekend Everton took a point off Brighton despite only having 20 per cent possession in a 1-1 draw at Goodison.

That is a not a model Dyche wants to follow too often but he said flexibility is key.

“Certain games require certain ways of playing,” he said. “We hope to do better on the ball, particularly on counter-attacking when we got in good positions but on the other side, defensively it was very good…

“We’ve seen games where we’ve dominated with the ball, and we’ve spoken about that earlier in the season, but it’s pleasing for me as a manager to see different ways of affecting games.

“Over the course of a season, unless you’re a superpower and particularly over the last couple of years Manchester City, you have to flex and change and I think we’re showing signs we can do that.”