The impact of James Rodriguez on Everton has been phenomenal and the 29-year-old Colombian has played an instrumental role in the Blues two Premier League wins.
Even though its only been a few weeks since the former Real Madrid star joined Everton, he has already become seemingly essential to the team’s play and fundamental to any success in this current or indeed future, seasons.
His contributions have raised the attacking potential of the Toffees team hugely and players such as Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin are thriving because of it.
It is great to see how quickly and seamlessly he has settled into life at Goodison Park and so far the signing of James has proved an unqualified success. However, do the Toffees still need a plan B if the brilliant playmaker suffers an injury?
Of course there would be no way to adequately replace Rodriguez if he was hurt and spent any serious length of time out of the team.
His technical quality, ability to find space, range of passing and almost nonchalant finishing skills, as displayed against West Brom, make him a footballer of singular and special talents.
We obviously all hope that James doesn’t pick up any knocks, but given his chequered personal history and indeed Everton’s traditionally bad luck with players getting injured, it’s certainly not an impossible scenario.
The indifferent performance of the Blues team against Salford City, minus summer signings Rodriguez, Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure, reminded everyone that the drop off in quality would be considerable if they are absent.
So any progress made by the new-look team would be in serious danger, if the club had to revert back to relying on players like Tom Davies, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Theo Walcott. That’s assuming they are all still at Everton!
Although losing Allan or Doucoure would also be a major problem, the Colombian’s absence would, even this early, seem to be even more fundamental to the sides fortunes.
Hopefully, the long-term crock Jean-Philippe Gbamin might finally be back from injury soon and if so, he would be a more than adequate replacement for the two central midfielders. But there is no one in the squad who could fill in for James.
More from Prince Rupert's Tower
- Everton 0 Arsenal 1: Blues fall to third home defeat
- Further chaos in Everton takeover as other lenders not keen on 777 Partners
- Everton need repeat of Arsenal win to kick-start their season on Sunday
- More madness at Everton as Moshiri now agrees to sell club to 777 Partners
- Everton takeover talk cools after UK govt doubts and further questions
That is another reason why the Toffees should consider bringing in another attacking talent. Not just for the obvious reasons of improving squad quality, but also to provide the Blues with a creative alternative if Rodriguez is unavailable.
So rumours of a possible move for Ivan Perisic are therefore quite interesting. The veteran Croatian is being linked now with a move to Goodison Park.
Once again it’s probably just the over-active rumour mill, but he would be a player who although not the quickest, could provide something of the creative flair that James’ absence would leave.
Perisic is currently on loan at Bayern Munich from Inter Milan, but doesn’t seem to be in either club’s plans, so might well be available for a small fee. He’s an attacking option who would potentially provide excellent back-up to the Colombian.
Everton though have to prioritise bringing in a central defender and there are probably other areas of the team they will seek to strengthen first, before considering a player like Perisic.