Everton: The curious case of Cenk Tosun
By Jason Elbaum
It took Everton until the January transfer window to find a replacement for Romelu Lukaku, but new striker Cenk Tosun has struggled to make any sort of impact.
Belgian superstar and Everton all-time leading Premier League goal scorer Romelu Lukaku decided it was time to move on to Manchester United, and the Toffees were left with a pile of cash to go out and find a new striker. The team looked poised to complete a move in the later months of the summer, but struck out on bids for Jamie Vardy and Kasper Dolberg.
After these failed summer pursuits and a manager change, Everton finally completed the move for Turkish striker Cenk Tosun from Besiktas for a fee of £27 million. By the numbers, this was an excellent signing upon its announcement, as Tosun had already scored 12 goals in 22 games for Besiktas, including four in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League.
However, Tosun’s Everton career has gotten off to an incredibly rocky start. He made his debut in the starting lineup at Wembley against Tottenham and acted more as an enforcer than a striker, committing four fouls before being subbed off after 60 minutes. The next week he started against West Brom and didn’t register a shot before giving way to Oumar Niasse in the second half.
Tosun hasn’t started for Everton since those two matches, and was most recently used as a second-half substitute in the Toffees’ dreadful 1-0 loss at Watford. He registered his first shot on goal for Everton in that game, but it’s nowhere near the type of performances that fans expect.
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When trying to get down to the root of Tosun’s problem, Sam Allardyce has not given the fans and media much of a reason why he has struggled. After the 5-1 thrashing at Arsenal, where Tosun played just 12 minutes, Allardyce started by saying: “his service hasn’t been too bad but his hold up play hasn’t been like it was at Besiktas, so that’s why he’s not starting the games at the minute”.
When Tosun plays, he is often flanked by Gylfi Sigurdsson and Theo Walcott, so it makes sense that he would receive quality service. However, Allardyce continued the interview with the Liverpool Echo, by saying he is; “more concerned about the other players than (he is) about Cenk. (He’s) more likely to feed him slowly and give him a bit more time over the next few weeks.”
These contradicting messages from Allardyce give fans the idea that even Big Sam isn’t entirely sure what’s wrong with the Turkish fan favorite. The easiest scapegoat for Tosun’s struggles is the midfield’s inability to control the ball. Wayne Rooney and Sigurdsson are too slow to be playing together and are often outclassed by more agile and younger midfield groups.
Tosun has shown flashes of brilliance in his limited performances, as it’s clear he has the physical stature to be a force in the Premier League. It is up to his teammates to give him the chances to score and Allardyce to give him the opportunities to play.