Benitez must make better use of his young players at Everton

Everton slipped to their first home defeat of the season yesterday and it might be the first time too that Rafa Benitez got the major selection calls wrong.

To be fair, the Everton manager went with a team that pretty much picked itself given his injury problems. But the one big decision he had to make was whether Anthony Gordon or Alex Iwobi should start on the left of his midfield.

Benitez decided to give Iwobi another chance instead of sticking with the youngster who had so impressed at Old Trafford in the last game before the international break.

I felt that Gordon had shown enough both in attack and defence against Manchester United to merit another start.

Obviously, the Blues boss felt otherwise and he knows a lot more about the game than me! However, I still don’t think it was the right call and Iwobi’s lacklustre efforts seemed to underline that with his horrible miss the ‘highlight’ of that performance.

It was another hugley disappointing effort from the former Arsenal man, something that we’ve seen all too often from him since his expensive signing in 2019.

I have been willing to defend Iwobi in the past and I think that maybe he actually better suits either operating on the right flank or as a substitute, which he did to good effect earlier this seaon.

Even so it’s clear that Iwobi simply can’t be relied upon to perform with any real consistency for more than a few games in a row and surely he must be one of those players the club look to get shot of asap, if anyone will be prepared to take a punt on him.

Anyway, it also seemed Gordon had given enough in his display at Old Trafford to indicate he would have been the better bet to start on Sunday. As it was he came on late and had very little time to contribute anything as the match wound down.

This underlines a wider point that the Toffees have to try and get more out of their young players than has been the case for while now, especially with such a threabare squad and so little money available to spend on strengthening it.

Few of the club’s many recent coaches have been able to find a way to effectively utilise the young players that have been at their disposal.

This is in part because there are perhaps simply not enough players with the talent to make the grade, or so it seems anyway. Although the club’s strategy as far as young players goes also seems a bit confused at times.

Decisions like sending young forward Ellis Simms to Blackpool on loan last term where he seems to have got hurt as also happened to Jarrad Brathwaite at Blackburn, don’t appear to have progressed either of them very much.

And then sending Niels Nkounkou on loan this season leaving the Toffees with no back-up to Lucas Digne almost backfired with the Frenchman getting hurt at the start of the last international break. It might still do again.

In truth though the last real top quality youngster who emerged and made a concrete mark in the first-team, was Ross Barkley who was considered one of the best young footballers in the country when he first broke through at Goodison Park.

But things didn’t work out for him under several Everton managers for whatever reason and he eventually left for Chelsea where he’s basically sunk without trace.

That was also what happened to another talented player who also came through at roughly the same time, Jack Rodwell. Once he joined Manchester City his career went into a tailspin and he eventually ended up plying his trade at Sunderland in the Championship.

Midfielder Tom Davies briefly looked as though he might be a player who could make it as well, but despite odd moments or matches, he hasn’t ever really convinced since.

Gordon is the latest to emerge and give some hints that he might have what it takes to become a Premier League player.

But, he needs a chance to prove it and with injuries a seemingly constant problem for this team that never seems to be resolved no matter who’s in charge, surely it would make sense to take a calculated risk with him.

Another young player who has impressed Benitez is striker Lewis Dobbin. Again with Salomon Rondon having another poor day at the office, perhaps Dobbin should have been given his chance too against West Ham.

There are hopeful signs that Benitez might get some funds to spend in the January transfer window. But, there’s no guaratee that will be the case or that he can find the players he wants so he might still need to give his young starlets like Gordon more of a chance.