After the latest preseason defeat to Roma on Saturday, Everton manager David Moyes was stark and honest in his assessment of the situation, with just over a week to go before the new Premier League season kicks off at Leeds United.
Clearly, he still needs further reinforcements after a summer that so far has been pretty underwhelming in terms of new signings.
The Toffees' latest addition, midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, was probably Everton's best player in the match against Roma, which was the first competitive game played at the club's new Hill-Dickinson Stadium. But others still looked off the pace.
While Moyes is understandably likely to be prioritising further attacking talent given his side's struggle to create and score goals, one area of the team that still certainly also needs strengthening is right-back.
At the moment, he only has one fit specialist right-back in 36-year-old Seamus Coleman, as Nathan Patterson has yet again picked up an injury.
This leaves Moyes with only one other option if Coleman does not start against Leeds, to continue playing Jake O'Brien as a makeshift right-back as he did during the latter half of last season.
I think he could consider reverting to a back three; however, it seems that Moyes will want to play a flat back four, as it is his favoured formation.
This summer, a whole host of defensive players have been linked with the Blues, and the club appeared close to signing a new right-back as Fulham's Kenny Tete was apparently close to joining, only to decide in the end to stay at Craven Cottage.
Now, a new name has been mentioned, Norwich City's Kellen Fisher. According to reports, the young defender is being tracked by Everton, who are ready to make a move for the England Under-20 international.
Fisher can operate at right-back, left-back, and also central defence, giving the Toffees some much-needed flexibility.
Once again, as with so many of these rumours, we cannot be certain how much truth there is to this story, but it is clear Everton need a right full-back, and with the preseason injury to Vitalii Mykolenko, cover on the left-hand side might be needed, too.