Everton striker Romelu Lukaku has revealed how the squad asked manager Roberto Martinez to switch to a more direct style of play before the FA Cup tie with West Ham United on Tuesday.
Lukaku, who became Everton's record signing in the summer when he made his loan move from Chelsea permanent in a 28 million-pound deal, said the players wanted to try and play more to his strengths rather than rely on the patient build up preferred by Martinez.
The Toffees did end a run of four consecutive defeats, but still required a 91st-minute equaliser from the Belgian forward to rescue a 1-1 draw and a replay, which will be played at Upton Park on Tuesday.
Lukaku said: "The players were asking about going more direct. I asked them, and we all said to the manager: 'Can we play a bit more direct sometimes?' We have a style of play where we keep the ball a lot, but knew we needed to take more responsibility, play to my strengths more, and they did it perfectly.
"We mixed up how we played a bit more, at times we were a bit more direct. For me that makes it easier, because when I am one vs. one, running on a defender, that gives me a better chance."
Lukaku scored 16 goals in all competitions, 15 of them in the Premier League, during his loan spell last season. And while he has scored six league goals this term his level of performance has not been the same, leading to him being dropped for the recent defeats at Hull City and Newcastle United.
"After two games on the bench I knew it was time to react," he said. "I wanted to show the manager how he can count on me. I wanted to show it was just a temporary thing, and now I am ready to move on and push myself to the limit.
"I want to win silverware, I want to end up as high as we can in the league and we have five months to do that. I just want to play my best football now."
Everton finished fifth in the Premier League last season, losing eight games across the campaign. But this season Martinez's side find themselves languishing in 13th, four points above the relegation zone, having already lost nine matches.
Martinez, though, played down the suggestion that the players asked for a meeting to change the team's style.
Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, Martinez said: "I'm always talking to the players. We try to prepare from game to game. We always share a lot of information.
"It's come out in a way that makes it seem as if it was a one-off meeting, that we'd never spoken before.
"No. It was a normal approach. We need to use players in specific ways from game to game to get a better performance.
"I thought that against West Ham, Romelu had a very effective game. I thought we used him really well. His pace and his power were back to their very best and he became a real threat for us.
"But there was nothing different we did in preparing for that game."