Everton early-season injury problems a concern
The new Premier League season is only just underway and Everton already have a number of injury concerns, while fans have hardly seen anything of the club’s deadline day signings.
So should Everton supporters be concerned at the number of injuries and this lack of game time for so many of the Blues high-profile summer signings?
There were very brief cameo’s from Kurt Zouma and Bernard in last weekend’s game at Bournemouth, but so far there has been no sign yet of Yerry Mina or Andre Gomes. And Lucas Digne played against Rotherham on Wednesday in the Carabo Cup although he’s not played in the Premier League.
The Toffees’ problems with red cards and the subsequent suspensions is compounding the injury issue.
At the moment Everton have nearly a full team of players out either injured or suspended. At centre-back the Toffees are down to just two recognised senior defenders in Mason Holgate and Zouma.
And despite only basically having two fit centre-halves the Blues have let another central defender Matthew Pennington leave on loan.
So it is important that when those players are available they can come in and perform quickly. This is particularly important for Mina given the Blues continuing problems conceding goals.
Mina’s injury is taking a while to clear up and has ruled him out until at least after the international break. With Michael Keane out for around a month and Phil Jagielka coming back from suspension, the big Colombian star is needed as soon as possible.
As for Gomes, it was known he was carrying an injury when the Blues signed him from Barcelona. Midfield options are also becoming a little threadbare too with Idrissa Gueye picking up a knock, Morgan Schneiderlin coming back from injury and James McCarthy and Beni Baningime both still out for a while.
As with his former Barcelona team-mate Mina, lets hope Gomes injury does not get any more complicated and he’s also available after the break.
Turning to the Everton attack and here again there are some concerns mainly due to injury doubts. Richarlison is of course suspended and there are also now uncertainties about the availability of Ademola Lookman.
Lookman has been the subject of almost endless transfer speculation this summer since he returned to Goodison Park after his loan spell in Germany.
RB Lepzig ,where Lookman played, were desperate to secure him long-term and have made a series of bids for him.
Marco Silva has made it clear he wants Lookman to stay and fight for his place. Given all the uncertainty about his further, it will be important for Lookman to focus on getting into the Everton first team and performing well.
That will not only give him a chance of regular football at Goodison but will also frankly raise his value if he does eventually move elsewhere.
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It seems that Bernard is again unavailable for today’s match against Huddersfield Town. That means that Everton have yet another selection issue to solve this afternoon as Bernard would probably have been the first choice to play in Richarlison’s position on the left of the Blues attack.
Lookman, if he’s fit, might come into the team with perhaps Theo Walcott playing on the left unless Dominic Calvert-Lewin playing there. And although he’s started so well, Walcott is another who is a concern because of his injury history too.
All in all then the Blues have a lot of injury issues to resolve and have to hope that there are no more players sent off today either! This will give everyone currently on the physio’s table the chance to get fit and ready for the team to push on later this month.