Ronald Koeman, the Dutch manager who was appointed as The Toffees’ manager in June, has made changes to Everton. Starting from player transfers and even tactics and mentalities.
In this year’s summer transfer window, the 53-year-old Dutchman has made influential and important decisions to ‘recreate’ the ideal Everton squad. Bringing in Yannick Bolasie, Ashley Williams, Idrissa Gana Gueye, and Maarten Stekelenburg was pretty impressive. While West Ham loanee, Enner Valencia hasn’t really made any mark.
But, when Everton fans heard that their favorite, young ball-playing defender, John Stones asked to leave Everton for Manchester City, they were deeply disappointed. A rare talent, a diamond has to be let go, but for a hefty fee too.
Talking about average age of Everton’s squad. According to Transfermarkt, the average age of Everton’s squad is 27,2 years old. Everton’s defence is pretty old in that case. With players like Maarten Stekelenburg (34), Seamus Coleman (28), Phil Jagielka (34), Leighton Baines (31), and an average age of 32 years old, no wonder why it is so hard to deal with fast-paced, agile, and stronger attackers.
Some other players such as Mason Holgate (20), Ramiro Funes Mori (25), Brendan Galloway (20), and Luke Garbutt (23) bring the average age down. To be honest, I, as an Everton fan, am hoping that in 2-3 years, these young defenders would start for Everton and form a strong, unbreakable defense.
Moving on to the midfielders.
Age is not really a problem in The Toffees’ midfield, but it still matters. What matters most is productivity. Everton’s golden boy Ross Barkley is one of the most productive midfielders for Everton in the last few seasons. A midfield lineup of Kevin Mirallas, Ross Barkley, Gerard Deulofeu/Yannick Bolasie, Idrissa Gueye/Muhamed Besic, Gareth Barry/James McCarthy is already pretty good, but not great. Ross Barkley and co may have been pretty productive, but not enough.
From what I’ve seen from them in Premier League, they lacked not just productivity, but also creativity, flexibility, and the ability to improvise. Everton’s young blood; Tom Davies, Kieran Dowell and Liam Walsh are Everton’s best young midfielders right now. Helping the U23 Everton team to go top of the English U23 League. Everton used to have Ryan Ledson, a highly rated young talent, but they let him out of their grips by allowing him to join Oxford. Everton is currently pursuing Soualiho Meite from LOSC Lille. A young french defensive midfield talent. A strong, fast, and accurate player. Just what Everton need. I would strongly recommend and support the signing of Soualiho Meite from Lille, although we still have to face competition from other big teams.
Talking about strikers.
Romelu Lukaku. Yes, that’s the name that instantly came to your head. The 23-year-old goal machine has been racking up goals every season for Everton. Bought from Chelsea for a club-record fee of 35,36 Mill. €, Romelu Lukaku never stopped impressing fans, managers, scouts, other people and players around him with his performances. But the question is how long will he stay at Everton? Rom has been a hot property for some time now and with clubs like Bayern Munchen and Chelsea trying to make a big money move for him, nobody could guarantee whether Lukaku is willing to stay loyal to the team or not. Arouna Kone? Will he be good enough to fill the void left by Lukaku if he left (I hope he doesn’t)? I don’t think so. Kone is good but still doesn’t have enough quality and class to replace a player as influential as Romelu Lukaku. Dominic Calvert-Lewin? He is still very young but already shows class. He just came to Everton last summer from Sheffield United, but he already shown a lot of promise. He shone for the Everton U23 side, and also for the England National U23 team. He could grow to be as great as Lukaku, or much better. What he needs is game time, training, motivation.
I’m also hoping that in the coming transfer window, Everton would sign young strikers for the first team. If I were to recommend young strikers, I would recommend these: Luka Jovic, Leon Bailey, Ivan Saponjic, and Donis Avdijaj.
