Everton massively upgraded their midfield this summer, remodeling the majority of the midfield department with new faces. Amadou Onana, Idrissa Gueye and James Garner joined the club this summer. Frank Lampard has preferred to deploy the trio of Gueye, Onana and Alex Iwobi in the central midfield, and in most scenarios, the triplet has performed up to the mark.
Everton suffered two back to back defeats to Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, dropping to 14th in the table after a strong unbeaten streak of six games. Everton have scored just eight goals this term, the fourth lowest in the league, only more than Wolves, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa.
With the attack faltering to a certain extent and goals not coming easily, the attacking department would seek support from the midfield. Energetic midfielders like Iwobi and Onana can contribute more to the attack and are capable of scoring goals.
In the press conference leading up to the Newcastle United game, Lampard was questioned about Onana, regarding his influence in the dressing room and the leadership qualities that the Belgian possesses given that he is only 21 years old.
Everton boss Frank Lampard makes Amadou Onana claim
"From my early conversations with him, it was clear that he had a big personality and a very driven young man. I have played alongside with those type of players before. When I was at Chelsea, Kevin De Bruyne was 20-21, Lukaku was in a similar age and then you look at what those two have done in their careers, I hope and feel that Amadou will have a version of that.We think he can learn to direct all that personality and talent that he has and that’s my job to work closely with him. What we have seen on the pitch so far, hopefully it’s just the start, we got a huge amount of belief in him and I’ll try to help him in how he takes that forward. (via club’s Official YouTube Channel)"
Lampard was one of the finest goal scoring midfielders during his playing days. Everton are certainly struggling with goals at the moment. In the press conference, Lampard was questioned whether he is trying to instill the mentality to go forward and score among the midfielders.
"I think there are team issues with that one. Midfield has to be the structure of the team, we have to be secure at all times. When you look at players you want to say they’ve got the capacity. If I’m honest, it takes hours and hours on the training ground. From my point, I worked hard to score goals. I repeated, repeated and repeated from 10 years old to when I finished to score goals. It’s my job to pass that on."
With strong claims about Onana, it seems that the Belgian is heavily trusted by Lampard and could become a cornerstone of the team. There is obvious potential, which is why the Toffees paid €36 million for him. One way for Onana to further win Lampard’s confidence might be to start scoring goals from midfield.
Will Amadou Onana score against Newcastle United?