Everton boss Marco Silva has suggested that he would prefer to keep Sandro Ramirez at Goodison Park.

Ramirez has been heavily linked with a loan switch to Real Sociedad, but the forward started for the Toffees against Rotherham United in the EFL Cup on Wednesday night.

Silva has acknowledged that Ramirez is keen for regular first-team football, but says that he had been left impressed by the player's performance in the 3-1 win on Merseyside.

The Portuguese is quoted by the Liverpool Echo as saying: "You will have to wait. I have to repeat again, even if I know something will happen with him in the next hours, Sandro is a player I would like to stay in our squad because he is a player I believe in.

"Like he showed to me again tonight, he is a very good player, even not in the position he likes to play more. Tonight he plays on the side and is a fantastic professional.

"Sometimes the players want to play more, they want to play in a certain position but it is not easy to keep all of them and there will be a big competition between all of them, it is not easy to play in our starting XI for all the players, not just Sandro, and he wants to play."

Ramirez has netted just one goal in 16 appearances for Everton.