On the afternoon Romelu Lukaku equalled Duncan Ferguson’s Premier League goal record for Everton, Ronald Koeman insisted the striker can offer more to his team.

Lukaku’s strike, which sealed a comfortable 2-0 victory over Sunderland, was his 60th for the club. While Ferguson took 239 games to reach that figure, it has taken Lukaku just 129 games.

In reaching the target Lukaku also became the Premier League’s joint top scorer this season with Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez. There were few platitudes from Koeman, though. Instead, he issued new targets.

“There is still a long way to go," he said. "One of his big qualities is scoring goals. He’s strong, he’s fast. But I also think he can improve: giving options to the midfield players and threat to the defenders. We press from the front. His actions mean we might not have to pass the ball back to the goalkeeper and we can push up as a team.”

Everton’s win means they are just three points off equalling their points total for each of the last two seasons and so, there is a palpable sign of progress under Koeman.

Sunderland, however, are where they usually are at this stage of a campaign under David Moyes, the former Everton manager, who returned to Goodison Park for only the second time and left disappointed by his team’s performance.

“I wanted to come here and frustrate the crowd but we were really poor in the first half,” Moyes said. “We didn’t play well when we got the ball. I was glad we only went in 1-0 down at half-time because the boy [Thomas Davies] hits the post. When we were 1-0 down we were always in the game. It was never going to be an easy game.”

Sunderland have twelve games to go to preserve their Premier League status. Moyes’s claim they will hit some form at the right time was hardly convincing.