Everton Half Term Report

Best Player?

Honourable mentions have to go to all of our ‘fab four’ so far this season. Stones has shown a fantastic attitude on the pitch since the summer rumours and continued to excel, Deulofeu is wearing out the edge of our seats and Barkley has become a composed and classy midfield operator. However Lukaku has been the stand out player, the complete all round striker has added to his game what he lacked last year. He always had the finishing, the power and the pace but his hold up play, touch and passing have made him into an unstoppable force. He will become the first player since Gary Lineker to score over 20 leagues goals in a season for Everton.

Worst Player?

Honourable mentions go to no-one else as Tim Howard is clearly the standout worst player of the season, and last too. Martinez’ continued selection of him is baffling and has cost him points on a regular basis. Howard has been a great servant to Everton and before the World Cup in 2014 I’d have described him as a good goalkeeper. Whether it be lack of motivation or just a terminal decline in form, he is no longer good enough to be in our side.

Where Will We Finish?

We may not have won many games so far this season but neither have many others. Leicester, Manchester City and Arsenal have too many points, and I don’t think we will catch Tottenham. Everyone else however is still in our grasp and a European finish is still very possible even with our poor form. From here, 7th place would be achievable and will hopefully be a European place depending on the cups.

Signings?

My words on our worst player this season will lead you to the correct conclusion on who I think needs replacing. A new goalkeeper is a must but January would be a very difficult time to get one. Jack Butland is a young keeper who ticks all the right boxes, it may take a heavy transfer fee to get him to Goodison Park but I’d want us to pay a high price to get a brilliant keeper for the next decade. That might have to wait until the summer though, Martinez has said that we won’t be signing anyone in January and I think that’s true, certainly no high profile signings anyway. The squad is immensely talented and clearly it’s not the players that are the problem and our youth players have shown they are more than capable of stepping up if we have a few injuries.

Marks Out Of Ten So Far?

To see Everton in the bottom half of the table is extremely disheartening. There was hope for this season that it would be a repeat of Martinez’ first year in charge. Whilst the football going forward has been excellent, it has been irrelevant due to the goals we leak going the other way. I think it’s a four out of ten for this season so far, we’re a good run away from being amongst the European spots but that run doesn’t look like coming at the moment.