Who has to step up for Everton as season run-in looms

So, we come to the defence in front of him. This has been a serious problem all season long.

Even when the Toffees’ were playing reasonably well early on in the season, had their best centre-back Yerry Mina in the side and were winning matches, there were constant issues with defenders making individual errors, which sometimes directly cost goals.

Micheal Keane in particular has been guilty of a series of these errors throughout the campaign. Keane always looks as though he’s about to make a mistake and his confidence seems shot making him a huge liability much of the time.

His current central defensive partner Mason Holgate is also an erratic error-prone defender who gives fans and his goalkeeper little confidence.

The injured Mina is getting back to training, which is really good news and his return to the side might prove crucial to improving the concentration and consistency of Everton’s defence and helping eliminate soft goals.

It might also be critical in keeping this team up because if they can’t collectively find a way to defend with more resolution then it really is hard to see this side staying up.

It doesn’t help of course that the team is without a top quality pair of full-backs either side of these two centre-backs.

Seamus Coleman is a shadow of the player we saw four or five years ago. The Irishman is 32 and has overcome a series of major injuries. That combination of circumstances has inevitably blunted his effectivness.

Under new manager Frank Lampard he has played most of the matches and while he’s had some decent games, too often he has been unable to provide the necessarily dynamic all-round contribution.

He’s still a solid defender but lacks the pace and energy to provide the attacking width needed from modern full-backs.

On the other side of the defence there has been no consistent starter ever since Lucas Digne was sold to Aston Villa just after the Janaury transfer window opened.

That hugely controversial decision by Rafa Benitez left brand new signing Vitalii Mykolenko as the team’s only obvious option.

Mykolenko is young, inexperienced and understandably as a new signing was still finding his feet before the invasion of his country further complicated things.

Ben Godfrey has played there again recently as he did last season under Carlo Ancelotti but it’s a far from ideal situation.

Given all these problems the manager often seems inclined to play a back three to try and shore up his defence.

Perhaps he should give Mina and Jarrad Branthwaite a chance in a back three with Godfrey or Coleman either side of him, Mykolenko at left wing-back and Nathan Patterson – who has surely shown enough to merit a chance – on the other flank?

It can’t be any worse than the current constantly porus and flaky defence we’ve seen so often especially away from home.

And it might be necessary given that the midfield problems are in some ways even starker.