Following a four-game winning run, Everton are now on a four-match losing streak and are dangerously sitting just one point above the relegation zone, having initially done so well to climb out of the bottom three in the Premier League after receiving a ten-point deduction for breaching FFP regulations back in November.
However, the biggest worry for Sean Dyche will be his side’s lack of potency up top. Only five teams have scored fewer goals than the Toffees this season and the manager is reportedly keen to rectify this issue during the winter transfer window.
According to a report from Ignazio Genuardi last week, Everton are keen to sign Marseille attacker Iliman Ndiaye before the January window slams shut and will battle it out with Crystal Palace and his former club Sheffield United for the forward’s signature.
Having helped the Blades to promotion back to the Premier League last season, earning the club’s Player of the Year award, Ndiaye moved to France for £20m during the summer transfer window. However, his time at the Stade Velodrome hasn’t gone as well as he’d have hoped, having scored just one goal and recording three assists in 23 appearances in all competitions for the French giants.
Nevertheless, now a return to England could be on the cards and Everton should do everything in their power to push to the front of the queue.
Perhaps the biggest indictment on Everton’s season so far has been that midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure is the club’s top goalscorer this term, having scored six goals in 20 appearances. One could even argue that the Malian has been the Toffees’ best player this season. Doucoure has missed all of Everton’s previous four outings and the side have managed to score merely three goals, losing each one in the process.
Meanwhile, Dominic Calvert-Lewin is second in the team’s goalscoring charts with four goals, while £26m summer signing Beto lags behind by one. The latter has arguably been the biggest disappointment this season. Calvert-Lewin has spent large parts of Dyche’s reign sidelined with recurring injuries and the Portuguese striker was brought in to lead the line in his absence. However, three goals in 19 appearances paint a different picture.
The 25-year-old seems to have all the characteristics of a perfect Dyche centre-forward, notably his 6 foot 4 frame, but it hasn’t quite clicked at Goodison Park for him. On the other hand, Ndiaye is just under 6 foot, yet looks like a much better fit for Everton given his ability to not only score goals but to link the play up front as well.
In Ndiaye’s final season in English football, his stats are levels above Beto’s from the current campaign – albeit while having been operating in the second tier.
