Striker Salomon Rondon has become the latest Everton player to succumb to injury as the club’s threadbare squad is stretched further.
Everton welcome Arsenal to Goodison Park on Monday evening in massive need of a break as they search for a way to end this dreadful sequence of defeats, which now stretches to six losses in seven games.
Well, the injury problems continue so there’s no sign of any change in fortunes on that front. Although players like Abdoulaye Doucoure and Andre Gomes have recovered fitness, several others the team desperately needs, Yerry Mina and Dominic Calvert-Lewin in particular, are still out for the forseeable future.
And as soon as one player comes back it seems another one goes down. Now, it’s Rondon who has picked up a hamstring problem and might well miss the Arsenal game.
This news would not have been considered a massive blow by most Blues’ fans given his lacklustre performances since he joined on transfer deadline day.
However, he had his best game for the Toffees’ on Wednesday night in the derby as he worked hard, battled and held the ball up doing what he could to try and provide a focal point for Everton’s rare attacking forays.
It wasn’t brilliant stuff, but it was a lot better than we’ve seen in previous matches and provided some grounds for limited optimism that he might be beginning to find the level needed to contribute again in the Premier League.
Rondon was obviously brought in to provide emergency cover for Calvert-Lewin and neither he or manager Rafa Benitez would have expected him to play anywhere near as many minutes as he has already this season.
Now, he’s joined the England international on the treatment table and potentially leaves Benitez with further headaches as he tries to put together a team to beat Arsenal, a game in which the Blues’ really need a positive result.
While he can play Richarlison up front, the Brazilian isn’t good at holding the ball up and prefers to play off the centre-forward. This approach can work if you’re basically just looking to counter-attack in a very fluid and flexible way with Richarlison effectively a false number nine.
One other potential alternative is Cenk Tosun. He could perhaps play at centre-forward to offer that target-man, but his lack of match fitness and non-existant contribution when he came on in the derby, makes that a remote possiblity.
It’s also likely Everton will want to keep him in cotton wool so he stays healthy and can be moved on in January.
The other option would be to give Ellis Simms a chance to see if he can cut it in the Premier League after scoring goals regularly in the youth system.
That would be a big call and one I doubt Benitez would ever take, but Simms is a powerfully built centre-forward who has been given a new three-year contract so obviously someone at the club thinks he has what it takes.
One thing that is certain is that Calvert-Lewin’s return to fitness cannot come soon enough for the manager, team, or supporters.