Where will Godfrey play at Everton
Ben Godfrey signed for Everton on deadline day yesterday. The young former Norwich City player has been brought in nominally to play central defence.
The question is though, where might Godfrey actually play for Everton as he has operated in a number of positions for previous clubs and so offers a great deal of versatility.
Both of the Toffees starting centre-backs were excellent in the Blues last Premier League match at home to Brighton as Everton won 4-2 to finish the first part of the season before the international break, top of the table.
Yerry Mina in particular had one of, if not his best ever, match for the Toffees. He was superb all game and didn’t put a foot wrong. To top off a man-of-the-match performance he also scored Everton’s second goal.
Micheal Keane was very good too and although he had a quieter, less spectacular game, he was strong and reliable throughout.
Both Mina and Keane have similar qualities. At the best they are both powerful, physically imposing centre-backs, strong in the air and good at all the basics of defending. Both are also sound enough on the ball, but not the most expansive passers.
Godfrey’s strengths should on paper at least, compliment these two well. The young England Under-21 international is a very quick, athletic player with the kind of recovery speed that Everton definitely need more of in defence.
He’s also a really good player in possession and an excellent, constructive user of the ball. Godfrey is always looking for the forward pass and so will fit very well into Ancelotti’s preferred way of playing out from the back.
He started out in his career operating in central midfield before moving to central defence. He has also played full-back regularly in the past where he was very effective, especially getting forward.
All this means that he offers his new boss a considerable amount of new options. That will be especially helpful at the moment as the Toffees deal with a short-term defensive injury crisis.
With Mason Holgate and Jarrad Branthwaite still out until at least the end of this month, the obvious outcome is for Godfrey to go into the squad as back-up for Mina and Keane.
Alternatively, he might actually come into the team in place of one or other of those two for Everton’s next match.
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The Blues are playing Liverpool on October 17th and Godfrey’s additional pace will be useful against the Reds front two of Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.
It would also mean Everton don’t have to revert to playing as deeply as they did in this fixture back in June when the 2019-20 season resumed.
Since the introduction of his new signings, Ancelotti has been able to re-shape his team’s play and the Blues now keep the ball much better, enabling them to control the pace, tempo and possession in most of their matches.
Perhaps Ancelotti sees Godfrey as a player who can give him the option to play a higher line knowing that he has additional pace to do so.
Or Ancelotti might see him playing in midfield in place of Allan until the Brazilian star is back from his injury problem. The 22-year-old could come in and sit in that position and offer additional protection in front of the back four.