It finally feels like Everton are starting to make significant moves in the transfer window.
Up until this week, it had been quiet in terms of incomings at Goodison Park, with only James Tarkowski arriving on a free transfer from Burnley. However, reports suggest they’re close to completing a deal for his former teammate Dwight McNeil, and are also exploring an option to bring former player, Idrissa Gana Gueye, back from Paris Saint-Germain.
Frank Lampard will consider it essential that he’s able to strengthen his team ahead of the new season if they’re to avoid a repeat of the turmoils of the last campaign.
Everton spent a large portion of that season inside the division’s bottom five, and only confirmed their Premier League safety in the second to last league game of the season following a memorable 3-2 victory over Crytal Palace.
An embarrassing 4-0 pre-season defeat to Minnesota United last week highlighted the voids still within Lampard’s squad, and that’s something he wasn’t shy in pointing out in the wake of that loss.
"If we don’t want to be in that situation again, they have to better and I have to be better,” said the former Chelsea boss. “ As a club, it [the Minnesota game] reinforced the situation in terms of what we need to do with the squad, because it has to be stronger that what we saw tonight.”
While Everton embarked on their pre-season tour of the US, director of football Kevin Thelwell stayed in the UK to oversee transfer activity, and it’s likely that he’s played a big role in securing potential deals for both McNeill and Gueye.
In McNeil, Lampard will be hoping he’s bringing in a player who can add more firepower to the Everton attack. Although his contributions in terms of Premier League goals and assists last season were minimal - he managed just one assist and no goals - a lot of that came as a result of playing for a Burnley side who struggled and spent a lot of time without the ball.
This meant McNeil was often tasked with working hard out of possession and taking on more defensive responsibilities. Yet despite this he accumulated an Expected Assist (xA) total of 4.8 last season, suggesting that with better finishing from teammates, he could and probably should have finished the season with more assists to his name.
It’s not just going forward where Lampard is keen to strengthen, but he also wants to add more steel to his side when they’re out of possession. That’ll explain the Toffees’ pursuit of former star Gueye.
The Senegal international spent three successful years at Goodison Park before joining the French giants in 2019 for £30m. He’s been a key player in the heart of the PSG midfield since but now looks surplus to requirements following the arrival of new manager Christophe Galtier.
Although now 32, Gueye still has the potential to hugely improve the Everton midfield, with Lampard currently lacking players who can press, harry and break down opposition attacks anywhere near as effectively as he can.
For PSG last season, Gueye averaged 5.38 tackles + interceptions per 90. No single Everton midfielder could better that average.
In isolation that’s impressive, although it becomes that bit more imposing when you take into account that, unlike Everton, PSG dominates possession meaning he’d have been presented with far fewer defending situations than Everton’s midfielders.
For a variety of reasons, Everton were never able to successfully replace Gueye, and his profile remains a huge miss within the squad. It’s therefore little surprise that Lampard is eager to bring the popular midfielder back to Goodison Park if there’s an opportunity to do so.
