Reports today claim that Everton might be preparing to make a move for Manchester United right-back Diogo Dalot, who has struggled to win a place this season in the United squad.
Everton have two senior right-backs, Seamus Coleman and Djibril Sidibe on their books, with another, Jonjo Kenny on loan at Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga.
However, according to a story in the Liverpool Echo, the club are still not convinced of their options and are open to alternatives. With Coleman over 30, Sidibe unreliable defensively and Kenny in Germany, they may decide to look elsewhere.
I’m not sure that signing another right-back should be a major priority for the Toffees, at least in this transfer window, as the focus must be on midfield.
But it has been a bit of problem position recently, (mind you what area of the team hasn’t been!), and in the modern game full-backs play a pivitol role in many successful teams.
It also seems obvious that Sidibe doesn’t convince Carlo Ancelotti that he is the right answer there, although the club have extended his original loan to cover the remainder of the season.
It’s also the case that although Kenny has had a decent season on loan in Germany, doubts remain over whether he has what it takes to succeed in the Premier League.
Ideally what the Blues need is a right-sided version of Lucas Digne. Although the Frenchman isn’t perhaps the best defensively, he’s solid enough and he is definitely Everton’s most consistently creative player.
Sidibe, Digne’s fellow countryman, offers a similar level of attacking ability but is even less reliable in defence, often getting caught out of position. Again, he is very much the modern full-back, with attacking instincts, who loves to get forward and overlap on the flank.
There is a possible solution to this conundrum and one I’ve mentioned many times before.. and that’s to revert to playing a 4-3-3!
Yes I know I keep harping on about this, but as well as offering more flexibility, this formation would allow Ancelotti to get away with full-backs who are more attack-minded, provided he had the right players in the middle.
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Setting up this way would also mean that if Everton made Sidibe’s extended loan permanent, which would appear the easiest thing to do, then they wouldn’t need to go back into the transfer market for a right-back and can focus on that midfield.
As to Dalot, he’s a young Portuguese player who can operate both at full-back and further forward as well. With the success of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Dalot hasn’t had much of a look in at Old Trafford so there’s not a lot to go on when assessing him in terms of games and appearances.
He is another very attacking player, and one who appears to lack concentration, something that would make him unreliable defensively. That also doesn’t seem to make signing Dalot much of an improvement on Sidibe, who’s been regularly guilty of such lapses this season.
I doubt there’s a great deal to this as with so many of these rumours, however, it’s possible the Everton top brass are looking at other full-backs as they scour the market for affordable options.