As the New Year is upon us and everyone has shaken off the hangover suffered after the New Year celebrations, one group of people who hopefully had a more low key night that most of us was the Blues first-teamers. As well as greeting 2016, it also greeted the halfway point of the season, and Everton have disappointed for much of the campaign so far.
But with the FA Cup to start in a few weeks time and a League Cup semi-final coming up, all is not lost for the Blues and their quest to end 21 years without a trophy. But that is for the future to decide, in this piece I will be reviewing the first half of the season and which players will go into 2016 all guns blazing and which will be staggering into 2016 as cold the Christmas Turkey leftovers.
1. Joel Robles – Joel has had been scarce but solid this season and has helped the Blues to a League Cup semi-final. With only four starts to his name, a strong majority of the Goodison faithful would like Robles to be moved from ‘Cup Keeper’ status to the regular number one role after what I can only call terrible performances from current number one Tim Howard and by looking at the kind of games the American has been having I can’t argue against Joel being given the number one spot.
3. Leighton Baines- The start of the season was a struggle for Baines as injury kept him out for a significant portion of the season, but with two appearances off the bench and four starts he is starting to regain his fitness and able to now start an interesting battle between him and Brendan Galloway with regards to who is going to be the first choice left-back. My money is on Baines.
4. Darron Gibson – Gibson’s season has followed the same path as Baines with an injury at the start of the season kept him on the treatment table, but when he regained fitness he played the full 120 minutes and scored what was to be the winning penalty in the cup win over Norwich. That was his only start for the Blues, along with four cameos off the bench. With the busy period of league, FA Cup and League Cup games coming up ,Gibson could be given more opportunities.
5. John Stones – Even though we are only half way through the season, this already has been a big season for John who was at the centre of a well publicised transfer war with Chelsea, I won’t go into much detail about it but needless to say Stones played outstandingly during that period. Recently Stones has been off the pace but as long as he can build on his solid 21 starts this season will be a very good one for the youngster.
6. Phil Jagielka – A good solid half season for Jagielka but one where he could have played a lot better. This is what I would had said about him when he got his injury but past performances have suggested that we have missed Jagielka’s presence in the back four, with Jags coming back in a matter of weeks it will be nice to see a bit of competition for the centre-back spot, something which hasn’t been heard of for seasons.
7. Aiden McGeady – Less to be said about McGeady’s season the better, up to now only one start and with a January exit looming we can all safely say Aiden and ourselves won’t be looking back at his time at Goodison fondly.
8. Bryan Oviedo – It’s a classic Oviedo season, picks up some form and gets injured. It has happened the last 3 seasons and I don’t know how long until he will be told he is no longer needed, for the all the Twitter and Instagram posts that will brighten your day and the general niceness of the fella, he just gets injured too much and we just can’t continue to tolerate. I am sure he will be given some games in this half the season in hope he will find some form.
9. Arouna Kone – What can be said for Arouna Kone’s season? One minute absolutely shocking, the next actually quite decent, scoring a hat-trick and assisting for fun, then straight back down to earth with what only I can call horror shows. Even with his current poor form I can still see Kone playing a part this season, I can see the “Ivorian Camel Rider” adding to his current tally of 5 goals.
10. Romelu Lukaku – Stupendous, amazing, unstoppable, majestic. No i’m not describing Superman I’m describing Romelu Lukaku’s season up to now, scoring 18 goals in 23 starts is a stat not most strikers in Europe can boast. After breaking records held by players such as Bob Latchford you know Lukaku is on to something good, as long as the service is given to him I can easily see Lukaku scoring over 30 goals.
11. Kevin Mirallas – Kevin has had a frustrating half season, he has started four matches and has appeared as a substitute nine times, scoring twice. All in all Mirallas’ season has told the story of his time at Goodison, one minute up for it and next minute nowhere to be seen and with this I think January signal the end of Kev.
12. Aaron Lennon – After making his loan spell from Spurs permanent in the summer Lennon’s season has been a quiet one, making four starts and six substitute appearances. Lennon has been more used to the bench than the pitch but like other players who haven’t had too many games this season there are going to be chances coming up that Lennon will need to grasp.
14. Steven Naismith – With the highs of scoring a hat-trick against Chelsea to a real possibility of the Scotsman leaving for Norwich this season has been a topsy-turvy one for Naismith, but with him wanting to play week in week out you can’t blame him for leaving. For the money Norwich are willing to offer you can’t really say no to it and for someone who I think myself who would be an impact in a game when he comes off the bench, we have a pretty good deal on our hands.
15. Tom Cleverley – Since joining for a free transfer I have nothing but praise for Cleverley, injury at the start of the season jolted Chis impressive early form but when he came back his form carried on with a succession of impressive performances. More of the same, Tom.
16. James McCarthy – This season up to now hasn’t been the best of ones for McCarthy, with injury and better form being shown from Barry and Cleverley this season has had it’s trial and tribulations for the Irishman, it hasn’t stopped him from showing what he’s made of though. Everton do miss him when he’s not around.
17. Muhamed Besic – Like Baines and Gibson, Besic’s season has been scuppered by an injured picked up early in the Chelsea game, he has recently made a comeback and was largely impressive. Besic is yet to prove himself for me, though.
18. Gareth Barry – Arguably The Toffees best midfielder of the season up to now, after a very challenging last season Barry has impressed, he plays consistently well and how doesn’t get the praise he deserves is a scandal in my eyes and we will have a task on our hands in finding his replacement when he retires.
19. Gerard Deulofeu – Most Evertonians were ecstatic when Geri re-signed for the Blues in the summer and Deulofeu hasn’t made us regret it, he has become one of our most dangerous players and has even been nicknamed “The Supplier” by Romelu Lukaku. With 4 goals and an amount of assists I can’t even count he has been one of the coups of the season.
20. Ross Barkley- As well has Deulofeu and Lukaku being Everton’s most talked about players Ross Barkley isn’t too far behind them. Scoring seven goals and assisting six, Barkley has been at his best in an Everton jersey this season and I can only see it carrying on.
21. Leon Osman – With a total of 6 appearances and 1 goal this could well be Leon Osman’s swansong season, with talk that he has been offered a player coach role at Hibernian with ex-Blue teammate Alan Stubbs. Even if he doesn’t leave this window, Osman could well opt to retire at the end of the season.
23. Seamus Coleman – After a season to forget for Coleman last season, this campaign has been an improvement and there have been signs of the swashbuckling form of 2 seasons ago. A lot of this has been made possible by Deulofeu who has given him more freedom, which wasn’t the case last season.
24. Tim Howard – Well, well, well. What can I say about Tim Howard to sum up his season up to now in the space of a few sentences, here it goes. Great against Tottenham, not so great against the rest of the teams he’s played against which is always a concern, but he’s the US Government’s Secretary of Defence so at least some people think he’s good at his job.
25. Ramiro Funes Mori – After joining The Blues on the last day of the transfer window Mori has had a decent start to his Everton career, getting an early chance to show us what he was made of filling the gap made by the injury of Jagielka. Even with a few shaky games Mori is slowly but surely adapting to English football and got on the scoresheet after scoring from a corner. Yes, a corner.
27. Teas Browning – Injury has unfortunately ended Browning’s season but for all the negatives of being out for the season, he made a total of 6 appearances this campaign and produced in some solid performances.
32. Brendan Galloway – Galloway’s season has been universally positive after taking advantage of Baines’ injury and making the left-back spot his own, even though Galloway is a natural centre-back it hasn’t stopped him from pulling off performances that make him look like a natural left-back. He already has had a season to remember and will certainly feature more in the second half of the season.
