After a great opening day win over Tottenham yesterday afternoon, comes some unwelcome news as Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti gives an update on the injury to Mason Holgate.
The defender, who was hurt in the last pre-season friendly Everton played against Preston North End, was thought to be out for about six weeks.
Now the Blues boss has said he thinks the centre-back might be sidelined for 8-12 weeks, a potentially much longer period than first expected. That’s not good news.
The Toffees two centre-backs Yerry Mina and Micheal Keane played well yesterday and were comfortable enough handling Spurs attack. But as I said in my match review, I’m not sure they will be as effective against attacks with greater movement and subtlety.
Mina and Keane are powerful and dominant in the air and although both are comfortable enough in possession, neither is the quickest and pace at the back is paramount.
Part of the reason for their success against Spurs on Sunday, was that Everton had a great deal of the ball, much more than usual in a game away from home.
And this is a major contrast from some of their games last season under Ancelotti’s direction. The Blues would often be set up to defend deeply, stay in shape and concede possession to their opponents in exchange for denying space behind them.
Generally it worked quite well and made the Toffees a more difficult team to beat, which was the key objective as the Italian sought to stabilize his team.
But yesterday Everton controlled the ball for large periods of the game and had almost as much possession in the end as the home side.
That was possible of course because of the revamped midfield the Blues could now field and the brilliance of James Rodriguez, so confident and assured in possession.
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Their dominance enabled the team to protect the back four, as obviously the less ball your opponents have, the less opportunity they have to pressure your defence.
Hopefully. this will be the case in the majority of Everton’s matches this season. But we can’t be certain of that and so Holgate’s return as soon as possible is important.
In the meantime this further lengthy absence will perhaps speed up the club’s efforts to bring in another similar type of centre-back before the transfer window shuts.
The Toffees have been heavily linked with a move for Chelsea’s young defender Fikayo Tomori. He would seem a good replacement for Holgate, but that proposed deal seems to have gone cold.
Now as we report today, bringing in another centre-back might still be an option, even though Everton do have young defenders Jarrad Branthwaite and Lewis Gibson available in the squad.
If the club can get another centre-back in very cheaply who can provide that pace alongside Mina and Keane, then that’s not a bad idea.