Feels like an age since Premier League football was on our TV’s, and as much as the World Cup was fantastic, you really cannot beat the ‘proper’ football. As an Everton fan, I really enjoyed a break from Allardyce and his boring style of football, one that was deeply unpopular at Goodison Park last season. Thankfully, the board sacked Allardyce and replaced him with an attacking manager in Marco Silva, who was sacked from Watford mid-way through last season due to a string of poor performances, leaving them vulnerable to the drop. Hopefully this doesn’t happen to Everton, and they don’t have a repeat of last season, sacking Koeman by October!
Everton’s start to the season is definitely not the hardest, so I’d imagine a few of their players may feature in your teams for the start of the campaign.
STAR MAN – Cenk Tosun (£7.0m)
One of the very few positive points about Allardyce’s tenure as Everton Manager was his signings, one of which was Cenk Tosun. This may turn out to be a bargain for Everton, as he more-or-less averaged a goal in every two matches at his time at Besiktas, and although starting off slowly at Everton, he finished the season with 5 goals from 12 starts. I’d imagine he’ll have a much more prominent role in Marco Silva’s reign, as he sees him as a huge figure in the Everton spine. As this is written before the transfer window has closed, it’s hard to say whether he’ll be a certain starter week in week out, what with Niasse, Calvert-Lewin, Lookman and Sandro all trying to get starting places ahead of him. The former and the latter have been linked with moves away from the club, but nothing concrete has came from these rumours, so Silva does have a tough decision to make on whether or not to start Tosun. However, he certainly started the pre-season off brightly, scoring four goals and assisting once in 45 minutes. Everton have 6 matches to play in the pre-season and these games will give an indication of Silva’s plans, but I’m confident that Tosun will be leading the Everton attack for next season.
The system that Silva is implementing will certainly benefit Tosun too. A 4-3-3 structure allows Tosun to be the lone striker, with two pacey wingers operating either side of him. He’s proven to Everton fans that he is a clinical finisher, and with the proper service from Sigurdsson and Walcott (and potentially a new winger in Bordeaux’ Malcom), he could prove to be a valuable player early in the season, especially considering the fixtures that Everton have in their first few matches. Tosun’s ownership may fluctuate depending on how well he does in the next few pre-season matches, but he’s currently owned by 12% of FPL managers, making him one of the most popular forwards in the game thus far, which makes sense, due to his relatively low price of only £7.0m. He’ll definitely be a crucial player in Marco Silva’s system, hence why I’ve listed him as the star man for Everton, and definitely the ‘go-to’ man if you’re considering a player from Everton.
HIDDEN GEM – Theo Walcott (£6.5m)
I was torn between Walcott and Dowell for the ‘Hidden Gem’ option, but in the end, I gave it to Walcott purely because I’m not entirely sure whether Dowell will be a consistent starter for Marco Silva. However, I’m more than confident that Walcott will be, especially in the 4-3-3 formation that Silva is thinking of implementing for next season. Walcott may play on the left or the right, but it’s no secret that Everton are in the market for another winger, so his position on the wing depends on whether Everton can secure another winger or not. He operated on both the left and the right last season, proving to Silva that he’s just as comfortable playing on either side, which is definitely a bonus for FPL managers thinking of buying Walcott. He scored and assisted 6 times in the times he played on the right, whereas he scored one and assisted two in three games while operating on the left, which is a decent record for someone who struggled to find a starting place for Arsenal. He’s currently only owned by 2% of FPL managers, which is surprising as he made a big impact for Everton last season. He done well under a boring, defensive minded manager in Sam Allardyce, so who knows how well he can do under an attacking manager like Marco Silva!
At the minute, he’s injured and has been rested to let him recover from a small hamstring problem that he gained while in training, so I can’t comment on how he’s done in pre-season unfortunately. However, what I can comment on, is that his position is not under threat, as Sandro (striker) has been operating there, and failed to make an impact. In fact, Sandro is the only outfield player yet to score for Everton, and when he’s been subbed off, the right back Cuco Martina has replaced him, just proving that Walcott has been missed in these few games that Everton have played. He is priced at £6.5m, 0.5m cheaper than Tosun, which is beneficial at the start of the season as everyone is priced at .0m or .5m. He’s definitely one to consider due to his low price and ownership, and especially because of the fixtures that Everton have at the start of the season.
Also, keep an eye on Gylfi Sigurdsson. He won’t be playing as high as he was last season. He’ll drop into his preferred central position, and under an attacking manager in Silva, this may allow Sigurdsson to create more chances, leading to hopefully more assists. He’s on set pieces too, and Michael Keane recently came out and said that this was one of the things Silva has been working hard on. With rumours of 6”4 Yerry Mina signing for Everton, who scored 3 goals for Colombia, this may allow Sigurdsson to blossom under Silva. So while Walcott is still a hidden gem, don’t forget about how influential Sigurdsson can be from set pieces.
BARGAIN – Jordan Pickford (£5.0m)
In fairness, both Tosun and Walcott could be considered ‘bargains’, and there isn’t anyone in the Everton side that is overly-expensive, but Pickford is definitely the stand out bargain in this Everton side. He made an unbelievable save in the match against Colombia for England, made himself look the hero in the penalty shootout in the same match, and again in the match against Sweden before bowing out to Croatia, but there was nothing he could do to stop those goals. Pickford will return later to the Everton squad due to his performance in the World Cup, and may miss the first match against Wolves, but after that, there’s no doubt that Everton have favourable fixtures, and he’ll be extremely likely to gain some points from clean sheets and saves. He is priced at only £5.0m, which is brilliant for a goalkeeper who secured 145 points last season – recording 10 clean sheets – a very good record considering how poorly Everton started the season under Ronald Koeman. He made 121 saves last season too, which is the third most made by a goalkeeper in the Premier League. Everton’s defenders are priced at 5.5m, and like I said before, the .5m will make a huge difference on your team for this season, hence why Pickford is definitely a bargain for this Everton side.
PREDICTED LINE UP
I’ve mentioned a few times about the 4-3-3 formation, but Silva has been known to go for a 4-2-3-1 formation, commonly used for Watford in the opening start to the season. However, Everton in their opening few games have started with the former of these formations. Like I said, it’s difficult to say who’ll start due to Everton’s transfer activity (they haven’t signed anyone), but they have been constantly linked with new players such as Mina, Digne and Malcom. So, at the minute, the formation and starting line-up that is likely to start against Wolves, based on pre-season, is:
Pickford
Coleman – Keane – Holgate – Baines
Gueye – Schneiderlin – Sigurdsson
Walcott – Tosun – Richarlison
Written by Bonus FPL (@BonusFPL)
