International break again impacts Everton hard

The latest international break is coming to an end this week and once again Everton have been hit hard by the consequences of these breaks.

First of all of course left-back Lucas Digne returned to Everton from the France squad early with a suspected hamstring injury that looks as though it could be quite serious.

And in addition the Toffees Colombia centre-back Yerry Mina will be returning to Merseyside in a hurry after his country’s last game against Ecuador although hopefully he won’t get hurst and will be rested enough to play against West Ham United on Sunday. And he will have to because of Digne’s injury and it’s ramifications.

These international fixtures have been a major headache for the Blues, especially, as well as other Premier League clubs over the past year or so, and this one is no exception.

Part of the problem is the impact of Covid over the last eighteen months on football fixtures and the concentrated number of fixtures that have resulted.

As usual Everton’s bad luck with injuries has been underscored again by the fixture congestion and international breaks and that was critical in undermining the great start the team had made to last season.

After seven games the team were in a solid position and looked set for a potentially strong campaign but then came the international break and a series of injuries and the Blues never recovered eventually finishing tenth.

So far this rapid decline in form hasn’t happened during this season, but it’s always a real possibility and Digne’s injury is a perfect example of what can happen as as result of these internaitonal games.

The fact the Frenchman will be absent for the return at Goodison Park against the Hammers and possibly for further matches, again underlines a lack of depth in key positions.

Of course, the Toffees don’t help themselves with some of the decisions they make such as allowing Niels Nkounkou to leave on loan in the summer.

I didn’t understand this decision at the time as it’s left Everton without any specialist alternative at left-back. Now of course, to predictably to compound the error, the only senior left-back in the squad has got hurt.

It will mean that Ben Godfrey will have to move across from right-back where he has been playing because of the injury to Seamus Coleman and will probably mean Mason Holgate coming in to replace Godfrey unless Coleman is fit again!

This is the same defence that Carlo Ancelotti ended up with just under a year ago as he struggled to find a resolution for injuries to both his full-backs and some poor defending overall.

It worked well for a while and Godfrey was excellent at left-back, but it’s not exactly ideal and it means Evertonians have still hardly seen last summer’s siging from Norwich in his main position of centre-back since he joined.

I speculated that Rafa Benitez might end up going back to that defence at some point and so it seems likely now that he will have to do so now.

All this shines a further light on the club’s perceived lack of strategy and inconsistent recruitment policy in recent years and reinforces the need to try and address some of these issues if they can in the January transfer window.