Mina impresses on full Everton debut
One of the most pleasing things for Everton to come out of the 0-0 draw with Chelsea on Sunday was the excellent full debut performance of Yerry Mina.
Blues fans have had to wait a long time for the big Colombian to make his first Everton start after he suffered a succession of injury delays since he signed from Barcelona.
But he is now fully fit and with Kurt Zouma unable to play against his parent club on Sunday, Mina got his chance at last.
Not surprisingly given his time out injured and the desire to impress his new team mates, he looked a little jittery at the start of the game. And he lunged into a strong challenge only a few minutes into the match.
But after getting a yellow card for that tackle he settled down and played with composure and consistency for the rest of the game.
He played a key part in a solid Everton effort to keep Chelsea out especially in the closing minutes of the match as the home side pressed for a winner.
Having Mina fit and ready to compete for a place in the centre of defence is of course great news for Everton.
The Blues had their defensive problems earlier on this season but have recently found a settled back two at centre-half in Michael Keane and Zouma.
These two had given Everton a really solid, reliable base in recent Premier League games.
And it’s debateable whether Mina would have got into the team if the Toffees had not been playing Chelsea and Zouma had been available for selection.
Obviously though its ideal to have real competition for places throughout the team and especially at such a crucial position as centre-back.
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The Blues have for too long not had enough quality and depth in their squads and this has compromised the team’s ability to build on any relative success.
It’s something that Marcel Brands and Marco Silva are keen to address and they are making good progress.
They have brought in better quality players such as Lucas Digne and Richarlison and are trying to build a squad capable of perhaps competing for a Champions League place.
The point that the Toffees secured at Stamford Bridge represented another important step forward in making that ambition a little more possible.