Everton player ratings vs Burnley: Ben Godfrey shines! Gylfi Sigurdsson needs to go!
Alex Iwobi continues to impress.
Alex Iwobi – 8
Iwobi bounced back after a poor performance against Leeds last week and has shown that he may have finally found the consistency which has hindered him throughout his career. The Nigerian has found form as a right-wing back but has shown everyone that he can hold down a more natural right-back position when Ancelotti switched the Toffees into a 4-3-3.
It’s clear that Ancelotti and the rest of the squad have a lot of faith in Iwobi which is why he had the most touches out of any Everton player with 102 touches and he also rewarded his Toffees teammates with 2 key passes and 1 big chance created, showing that he has been trusted with a similar role that Lucas Digne had but on the opposite side of the pitch.
Iwobi also completed 50% of his dribbles and completed 83% of his passes, one problem is his 20% cross completion rate, but that is something that will improve over time and Iwobi should’ve probably had a few more accurate crosses due to a few Everton players not latching onto crosses which could’ve lead to goalscoring opportunities.
He also showed some defensive ability, grabbing 3 tackles and an interception, and Iwobi isn’t exactly a naturally talented defender, but it’s his hard work which helps him win Everton the ball back and I don’t think anybody will be able to dislodge Iwobi until Seamus Coleman returns from injury.
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Abdoulaye Doucouré – 6.5
Doucoure had quite a confusing game and was probably one of the harder players to rate in my opinion, there were moments where he looked like the Toffees best midfielder and then moments where he couldn’t play a simple forward pass. This has been the problem with his Everton career so far, but I still believe he had some impressive moments which bumped up his rating a little.
Doucoure actually made more ball recoveries than any other player in the first 45 minutes with 8, which shows the Frenchman’s willingness to hustle for the ball to try move Everton forwards. He completed 86% of his passes and played 2 key passes, but some of the passes he missed almost brought Burnley back into the game when the Toffees started taking control and there were some moments of really sloppy football which stopped Doucoure from having similar performance to his game against Fulham.
Allan – 7
After a miserable start to the game, where the Brazilian’s poorly placed pass fell to Brady’s foot which lead to Burnley taking an early lead, but after that, he had a solid performance and was really able to show his talents when Ancelotti switched the formation.
Besides the pass to Brady, Allan was very solid with his passing completing 90%, with all 3 of his long passes being accurate along with 2 key passes, showing that Allan can be a focal point of the midfield, he just needs to iron out the sloppy passes, in a very similar way to Mina, Allan can struggle with lapses in concentration and hopefully, Ancelotti works on that with the Brazilian.
Allan also did his typical great work defensively, with 2 tackles, 2 clearances, 1 interception and a blocked shot, this shows that Allan does his best work when he can pick the ball up deep and drive the ball up the field while having 2 midfielders beside him which can help him limit his passing mistakes.
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Andre Gomes – 6
Gomes came on to replace Fabian Delph and fitted into the roaming playmaker role of the midfield three, the only problem with Gomes was he clearly struggled at points due to his lack of playing time, repeating a common issue with the midfield and that’s sloppy passes due to a lack of concentration.
Gomes had flashes of his true talent, completing 5 accurate long balls along with 1 key pass and an 81% passing accuracy, but besides that Gomes wasn’t fantastic, and didn’t do enough, in my opinion, to get the same rating as someone like Doucoure, because the passes he did complete didn’t lead to much and he was quite error-prone.
Gylfi Sigurdsson – 3
Sigurdsson did absolutely nothing off the bench, he didn’t seem to care about trying to help the team to win and the one time he did so something, he ruined by shooting the ball right at Nick Pope. It’s getting to a point now with Sigurdsson where every time he plays Everton perform worse and if this continues Ancelotti and Brands really need to look at selling the Icelandic attacking midfielder and giving someone like Anthony Gordon the chances he’s being given.