Simms loan raises more questions about Everton plans

Everton are letting Ellis Simms go out on loan for the rest of the season to League One Blackpool. A spell of first-team football might well do Simms some good and aid his development, but it does further deplete the club’s striking resources.

This lack of depth in attack has been a constant source of potential difficulty for the Blues and was made more pressing when Moise Kean was allowed to go on loan to PSG just before the summer transfer window closed. That left Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Cenk Tosun as the only senior strikers at Goodison Park.

Calvert-Lewin started this season in electric form and was scoring for fun, which led to him securing him an England call-up late last year. But there was always the possibility he might get hurt, especially given his all-action style and the fact he was playing nearly every minute of the Toffees’ matches.

Tosun isn’t in his England team-mates class and has had very limited opportunities again this campaign. There were rumours of him leaving in the summer and again before this month and the Turkish international’s future does seem to be away from Goodison Park.

When the January window opened there were immediately new stories about potential Everton signings. However, at the club’s recent General Meeting Marcel Brands ruled out new additions in this month’s transfer window and so there then seemed little prospect that the Toffees would bring anyone in now.

But there is still the possibility that Tosun could move on if a decent offer comes in for him although Calvert-Lewin’s injury probably makes that less likely. Where that to happen, the Blues will be left with very few forwards up front for the remaining half of the season.

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Simms was the only remaining orthodox centre-forward option in the squad, albeit an untried one at Premier League level. Now he has been allowed to leave, the club are looking very thin up front.

It seems to me that without adding another forward, Everton are taking a lot of risks and leaving themselves well short of viable options to cope with absences to Calvert-Lewin in particular.

The England man is vital to how the team plays but almost inevitably, he has now picked up an injury having participated in nearly every game this season.

If Tosun doesn’t convince he can step up (and it’s clear he can’t) Richarlison moving inside is the only other option. But he has struggled for form recently ever since returning from his three-match absence for that red card picked up in the derby back in October.

He’s also not really an out-and-out centre-forward and seems better suited to playing off an orthodox front man like Calvert-Lewin. So while he could at his best certainly replace the pace, power and goal threat of the team’s number nine, he doesn’t have that back-to-goal style or much experience playing as a front-running centre-forward.

Also if the Brazilian was to get hurt or pick up another suspension – certainly not impossible – then where does that leave the team, particularly if Tosun has also left?

Carlo Ancelotti has experimented with a line-up that had no recognised striker when the Blues beat Wolves in their most recent Premier League game. However, that doesn’t seem to me a viable long-term strategy considering there are still twenty one matches left this season.

Everton have a great chance to secure European football and even break into the top four this season and it would be extremely frustrating to fail to do so because of a lack of striking options.

I really think with the injury and form issues affecting Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison respectively, the Toffees need to consider a loan deal for another forward before this window shuts.