Neville has three goals in 218 appearances in his Everton career

Everton captain Phil Neville has called for his side to be more ruthless in front of goal in a bid to climb the Premier League.

The Blues, who are 14th in the table, drew 2-2 with Sunderland on Monday.

Neville told BBC Radio Merseyside: "We need to be more ruthless in the final third. We need to start turning these draws into victories.

"It's in the final third where we're probably taking that extra touch and that's maybe a confidence thing."

He added: "The manager doesn't want to take away the football that we're playing.

"We've progressed over the years and we've got better and better, and now we're playing a style of football that is pleasing to the eye."

After Everton's seventh Premier League draw of the season on Monday, the former England international says conceding goals has become a problem.

"We keep saying we need to be ruthless and we need to be ruthless up front and we need to be ruthless at the back now," Neville continued.

"We let two goals in against Sunderland, but if we keep clean sheets we know we're going to win games.

"We've shown again we're better than the table suggests, but at the moment, the table doesn't lie."

The 33-year-old still believes the Blues can compete for a European place this season despite their lowly position.

606: DEBATE The table doesn't lie, but our domination in matches should have us higher. It's just depressing seeing it match after match Spickle

"That's the aim," said Neville. "It's shaping up to be an unbelievable league this year - there's twists and turns already.

"The team that puts together three or four good wins is going to find themselves at the top of the league. It's not going to take a run of eight or nine games.

"[If you get] three or four victories, you're up there in the top four and we've got to make sure that team is us."

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