The Blues are back in business for another rollercoaster of emotions more commonly known as the English Premier League. Personally, I’m far from ready and still recovering from last season, wounds still present and all that, but the more level headed of you may be looking forward to the coming season with anxious anticipation.
In more recent news, we all had a very fun end to the transfer window for the first time in a while as we brought in Yerry Mina (finally), André Gomes and Bernard, to go along with Lucas Digne and Richarlison who were signing earlier on. This means in total, we signed a two-man Brazilian contingent – one a full international, one sure to be a full international soon, and 3 Barcelona stars.
That’s still Everton, by the way, and typing it out like that is seriously odd, when Spherical Samuel was convincing us all that Steve ‘Wondermaker’ Walsh would be bringing in Phil Jones and Jack Wilshere.
But now we have Marco and Marcel and everything is looking significantly brighter than it was a few months back at the very least.
GK - Jordan Pickford
I’ve missed this pointless slide very dearly.
RB - Séamus Coleman
Coleman takes his place in a shaken and stirred backline, not just in terms of personnel but also in the system in which they’ll operate, as we’ve seen Silva’s tendency to adopt a high line so prominently even this early into his premiership.
CB - Yerry Mina
Look, it’s all hypotheticals to this point as to what we’re going to see from Mina, but whatever happens, he’s our best centre-back.
The ideal partnership will be Mina/Mason Holgate, but until Holgate returns from injury, we will have to make do with Michael Keane.
That scares me.
CB - Michael Keane
This scares me.
LB - Lucas Digne
As much as Leighton Baines is still beloved by Goodison, and rightly so, it’s time to call it a day, lest he enters the Tim Howard troubling twilight era. Lucas Digne seems to be the heir apparent and I’m looking forward to seeing how he handles the mantle of replacing Everton’s best left back in the modern era, if not all time.
CM - Tom Davies
Morgan Schneiderlin looked for a while like he’d re-found some form early in pre-season, but swiftly returned to a midfielder who looks lost on a rectangular field. Tom Davies starts as a stop-gap until either Bernard or André Gomes are deemed fit enough to play.
CM - Idrissa Gana Gueye
Gueye, hopefully, in a new system will be revived to the player he was when he initially joined the Blues, as a midfield hustler who does not need to cover for Morgan Schneiderlin anymore. A deep-lying Gylfi Sigurdsson or André Gomes could do wonders for his freedom in the game.
AM - Gylfi Sigurdsson
The same goes for Gylfi Sigurdsson, who needs to be the player we all expect him to be, the focal point of Everton. In a Sam Allardyce system, that was obviously an impossible task, but in a team that promotes attacking football and free-flowing creativity, a tandem of Richarlison-Walcott-Sigurdsson could be something exciting.
And that’s not even including our Brazilian international.
RW - Theo Walcott
Walcott was a player last season who provided the attacking spark in a team that was cursed going forward. His partnership with Tosun was the only saving grace of the second half of the season and we need that to continue into this campaign.
LW - Richarlison
A very, very exciting addition to our attack means that Everton’s midfield could soon consist of Brazil, ex-Barcelona and Arsenal men. Even that seems to be doing a disservice to our £35million-definitely-not-£50million man in Richarlison, who, in his limited time so far, has been every bit as exhilarating as we needed him to be.
ST - Cenk Tosun
Finally, we get to the main man up top, Cenk.
It’s going to be a big season for the big man, and I truly believe he can do something remarkable this campaign with his supporting cast around him, and he certainly has the potential to most definitely fill a Lukaku-shaped void at the spearhead of Marco Silva’s Everton.