Michael Ball has been left furious after some anonymous performances from Salomon Rondon at Everton.
The Venezuela international has started the last five games for Everton inn lieu of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who is suffering a spell away from the game due to injury.
However, the 32-year-old has yet to score and has inhibited Everton’s ability up front as a result.
Rondon is a Benitez trademark signing, linking up with Benitez for a third time in his career after spells together at Newcastle United and Dalian Professional.
Resultingly, whilst the PL-experienced hitman has underperformed, Ball is adamant that his lacklustre performances are symptomatic of a wider malaise up front for the striker.
“I’ve given Salomon Rondon the benefit of the doubt because he’s been playing catch-up fitness wise and has been playing in a lesser league but he’s got to do something”, Ball wrote in his Liverpool Echo column.
“You’ve got to make your mark in the game.
“We’ve had lots of different types of strikers at Everton, some would run the channels and make it difficult while others like Duncan Ferguson and Paul Rideout wouldn’t, but they would dominate the centre-half and bring others into play so you can keep possession.
“Rondon is not giving us that outlet at all.
“I didn’t see our striker create one chance. He didn’t do anything.
“That’s a massive issue when your main number 9 is not having any opportunities on goal, there’s a problem there.”
Read Everton Verdict
It simply hasn’t been good enough from Rondon in terms of his performances, and Everton have ventured from the prolific Calvert-Lewin to looking blunt in their attacks with Rondon up top.
Everton received an injury boost last weekend with Richarlison making his return from a knee problem, scoring in Everton’s 5-2 thrashing against Watford in a minor consolation, and the attacker could replace Rondon as a makeshift striker in the short-term.
