Will Keane retain his place in Everton defence?

After two Premier League matches played have there been any signs of improvement in the form of Everton defenders?

Before the season began one of the most pressing concerns Everton had to address was the state of the team’s backline.

The Toffees had conceded a load of goals last season and turned in some dreadful defensive performances.

It was clear that new manager Marco Silva had to make improving the Blues defence a priority in the summer transfer market.

Although the club’s first signing was forward Richarlison, Silva was looking carefully at finding the right defensive reinforcements.

Left-back Lucas Digne’s was added but securing central defender Yerry Mina from the same club, Barcelona, was a much more uncertain process. At one point it looked like Everton would lose out on their man as Manchester United were rumoured to be interested in signing him.

But in the end after a tension-filled and breathless deadline day, the Blues got the Colombian defender in through the door just in time. The Blues also got Kurt Zouma on loan from Chelsea as well.

However they’ve not been able to play yet for Everton and so the team have had to reply on the players who looked so vulnerable so often last season. That meant that the centre back pairing that finished that campaign, Phil Jagielka and Michael Keane started again in the Blues opener at Wolves.

They had done well enough in the early part of the game aside from the odd moment of hesitation and uncertainty.

But after Everton had taken a deserved lead through debutant Richarlison, Jagielka made that lunging tackle on the edge of the Blues box and was sent off just before halftime. So on came Mason Holgate to join Keane for the remainder of that match.

Although Everton did eventually let in two goals as Wolves fought back twice for a draw, Keane and Holgate had done reasonably well. So with both Mina, as well as on-loan Chelsea player Kurt Zouma and of course Jagielka unavailable, they kept their places for the visit of Southampton last Saturday.

The Blues won this game of course but in truth could and should have won more comfortably than the eventual 2-1 scoreline suggests.

And it was frustrating to see Everton concede a sloppy goal again, when they were largely in control of the game. But despite this Keane in particular has got better over the course of these two matches. Overall he was strong and decisive in the Southampton game and defended well.

His performances suggest he is returning to something like the sort of form and confidence that had him rated so highly, led to his England call-up and persuaded Everton to fork out £30 million for him.

He, Holgate and Richarlison, (perhaps surprisingly), are the leading players in the air for Everton, averaging almost 5 aerial duels won per game. This suggests that playing high balls into the Everton defence will not be a very profitable route to goal.

One other interesting stat is that Keane has not made any tackles in his two appearances but he has averaged more than 5 clearances per game. And although at first that seems strange for a centre-back, in fact it shows Keane is good at anticipating danger and moving quickly to clear it.

This is an era of football where the rules around tacking is becoming more uncertain and it is often difficult to avoid conceding fouls and even getting sent off for tackles that might in the past have been considered reasonable.

Jagielka’s sending off at Wolves perhaps exemplifies how a clumsy challenge that might at best have been a yellow card in the past is now just as likely to be a straight red.

Being able to anticipate and clear the ball before needing to go in for a tackle is actually quite an important ability. Keane also lacks pace, which means he has to be good at anticipating these situations as he can’t easily recover. Mina and also Holgate have plenty of pace though, which will help him.

Another area of a defenders’ game that is increasingly important is his distribution. Keane’s isn’t too bad, he is averaging over 80% success rate in his passing, which is reasonable.

The ability to pass the ball accurately out of defence is more important for Silva and it’s one of the reasons why I think he was so keen to get Mina. The 23-year-old is renowned for his ability in the air but he’s also very comfortable in possession of the ball.

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There has certainly been a trend in the game towards central defenders who are not only comfortable having the ball at their feet but who are also able and willing to pass forward with confidence and accuracy.

Manchester City with players like John Stones and Liverpool who have Virgil van Dijk are teams who represent this trend. These clubs sit first and second in the embryonic Premier League table.

So overall and despite some continued reservations, Keane has probably been solid enough defensively to merit keeping his place.

It’s likely that Holgate will be the one to drop out if Mina or Zouma is able to start for Everton. Could this be at the weekend when the Blues travel to Bournemouth for their next Premier League fixture..?