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What is an Everton type player?

It's a question that has been discussed over countless meal-times, pints and match-days by long-suffering supporters since the arrival of Farhad Moshiri.

When former boss David Moyes was asked the exact same question towards the end of last year, he replied: "You've got to be hungry.

"You've got to be someone with a desire and an energy but I think you've also got to have that style about you where you can play.

"You're under pressure here at Goodison. The crowd are demanding but I think they also want to see that you're committed. Over the years we had really committed teams."

Hunger. Desire. Energy. Style. Commitment.

CLICK HERE for your Everton player ratings in the defeat against Watford via Chris Beesley

Five traits that Everton have been lacking for a long, long time.

Five traits that are seriously missing from Marco Silva's Everton reign.

This is not to say the players brought to the club in the summer are not worthy of ticking the check-boxes listed by Moyes.

On a whole, they are. The whole squad is.

But it's not happening enough.

At the very least, Moyes teams would harry, press and be up for the fight. Characters like Thomas Gravesen, Tim Cahill and Phil Neville - who all had their own various limitations - knew how to inspire their team-mates around them and the Goodison crowd.

The current squad has no real stand-out leaders.

More worryingly, they have no-one who looks genuinely proud to wear the Royal Blue shirt.

Jonjoe Kenny, Tom Davies and Dominic Calvert-Lewin come closest to showing some sort of fight but are being badly let down by their senior colleagues.

There is, of course, a temptation to look back on the Moyes reign with rose-tinted spectacles.

Evertonians who witnessed the full scope of the Scot's reign will know it was, at times, bitterly frustrating with the former Preston North End manager failing to deliver on the big occasions.

The Chelsea FA Cup Final, Wigan in 2013 and the harrowing Merseyside Derby defeat to Liverpool at Wembley made a portion of fans doubt Moyes' ability to break the glass ceiling.

The sad reality is that successors Martinez, Koeman, Allardyce and Silva could barely see the light streaming through the window-pane that now feels depressingly out-of-reach.

Everton have lost 10 of their last 16 games. They have taken 11 points from a possible 42 in the Premier League.

That's relegation form.

Henry Onyekuru spoke on his Everton future yesterday - CLICK HERE for the latest on the Nigerian

Sadly, games are coming and going for Silva with a dangerous lack of hunger, desire, energy, style and commitment on display.

The manager doesn't seem to know how to stop the rot, either.

But it's not time for reactionism, or calls for a Moyes return. Silva, though, must accept his job is now under intense pressure following the defeat to Watford this weekend.

It's up to him to galvanise his players into offering a reaction.

The 17-day break between fixtures could not have come at a worse time for the manager, players, staff or fans.

Over in the Everton boardroom, only Farhad Moshiri will know his own thoughts during an almost three-week layoff.

But what was once a blip on the field has now edged deeper towards a crisis. The five characteristics earmarked by Moyes cannot be argued - the boss spent over a decade at Goodison Park and knows exactly what the fans expect of their team.

Sadly, they're not seeing it.

They haven't for a long time.

This will be a long 17 days for Everton's current manager.