Diniyar Bilyaletdinov has no regrets over joining Everton despite being dropped to the reserves in recent weeks. The Russian midfielder made an encouraging start to his Everton career after joining from Lokomotiv Moscow last summer.

But the left-sided player was taken off at half-time last month with the Toffees 2-0 down on the way to an FA Cup exit against Birmingham and was overlooked for the next three games.

The 25 year old denied he asked to be substituted against Birmingham.

"It is absolutely untrue," he told the Liverpool Echo. "We had a very bad first half and in the second looked better though failed to equalise. It just happened that this improvement was after I was replaced.

"That is probably the main explanation of my move to the reserves. Then we won the next two matches and you do not change a winning team.

"I am not against being in the reserves at the moment. At training I am working hard according to the coach's words, so I hope things will straighten out in a while."