Everton have impressed under new manager Marco Silva.

The Toffees are in the top half of the Premier League table and they spent big in the summer to give their squad a much needed facelift. New signings Lucas Digne, Bernard and Richarlison have bedded in quickly and FC Barcelona loanee Andre Gomes is also now starting to find his feet with The Toffees.

But during Everton’s 3-1 win over Brighton & Hove Albion, holding midfielder Idrissa Gana Gueye once again proved he’s a key player that let’s the rest of the team tick.

The midfielder bossed the game against the Seagulls. He saw plenty of the ball, having more touches of it than any other player on the park (93 touches in total), and he recycled it with accurate neat passes (he enjoyed an 86% passing success rate from his 71 passes). The defensive central midfielder even found time to get forward and see a stinging effort come back off the woodwork.

Interestingly when you look at Gueye’s heat-map from the weekend, you’d notice that the midfield enforcer wasn’t just marshalling in front of the Toffees defence. The former Lille man also found himself out on the righthand side. That shows intelligence and discipline as the Senegalese international knew attacker Theo Walcott wouldn’t protect right back Seamus Coleman’s overlapping runs. So Idrissa would tuck in and sweep up on the numerous occasions that Irish full-back burst forward.

There’s no doubt that Gueye is extremely impressive when it comes to the defensive side of being a holding midfielder. No Premier League player has better tackling stats than Gana’s 5.5 tackles per game this term. The central midfielder also makes around 2.5 interceptions and averages 1.6 clearances.

As Silva tries to find his ideal partnership in the centre of his defence and slowly introduces Portuguese playmaker Gomes to English football, it’s vital for the Everton gaffer to have Idrissa consistently performing well in the team’s spine and protecting the backline.

Last month, Marco Silva stated that Gueye was playing in a vital position for the team:

“Gana is improving and understanding what I want. He is improving what our plan needs in each moment of the game, using his capacity and aggressiveness in the right way.”

“He is really important for us because our other midfielders do not have the same profile and we need Gana at a good level to help us in those moments, in our reaction and in our defensive and offensive transition.”

If Everton are going to climb the league table and challenge for European places then you have to believe that Idrissa Gueye needs to remain in the team and to continue to perform at the high levels that he’s been producing so far during this campaign!

Posted on November 5th, 2018 by scott
Filed under: Article