Everton have still have issues with their forward line.

Marco Silva will want to improve his options for the centre forward role. Richarlison looks decent in the middle but he’s not known as being a prolific striker.

Now it’s not been a bad scoring season for The Toffees so far, they’ve scored thirty-one goals in twenty-one Premier League games. Only the league’s top six sides have scored more. The problem is that Everton are still dropping points and a main striker could help by scoring regularly and holding the ball up in the final third.

The truth of the matter is that Everton failed to replace Romelu Lukaku, who they had sold last summer to Manchester United in a £75m deal.

Maybe Silva can take inspiration from how the Toffees signed Lukaku in 2013.

They signed the Belgian forward on loan after Chelsea had spent big on him but he couldn’t break into their first team. He made an impact at Goodison and he signed on in a permanent move in the summer of 2014.

He’d leave after scoring 87 goals in 166 appearances.

Looking at the current Chelsea squad and they’ve currently got another frustrated young Belgian in their ranks that has struggled to break into the starting line-up and has now endured a tough loan spell at Valencia.

Michy Batshuayi arrived at The Blues after being a prolific goalscorer in Ligue 1 in France for Olympique Marseille. With the Premier League side, he’s been used mostly as a substitute and he’s still managed to score but maybe not as regularly as he’d want.

He then left London in January 2018, as he joined Borussia Dortmund on a six month loan spell. He impressed in the Bundesliga and ended the campaign with seven strikes in ten league games in Germany.

He followed that up by going to the World Cup with Belgium, playing second fiddle to Lukaku. He managed to grab a goal in the group game against Tunisia as he helped his nation to a third place finish.

His future at Stamford Bridge isn’t assured and La Liga cracks Valencia have just announced (via BBC) that the striker’s loan is being terminated early:

“His situation is very clear. I expect he will leave in the coming hours or days,” 

“We hope that, for his sake, this can be resolved as soon as possible. He is leaving and it’s now a matter of negotiation.”

Chelsea still have strikers like Oliver Giroud and Alvaro Morata in their ranks and The Telegraph has linked them with a move for Juventus hitman Gonzalo Higuian, who is currently on loan at AC Milan.

Recent Sky Sports reports have linked The Toffees with permanent swoop for Michy.

It would certainly make sense to bring another Belgian goalscorer up to Merseyside.

Everton gave Lukaku an opportunity and he more than proved himself up there. Silva could hope for similar things with Batshuayi. He could use a move (even a short term one) to Goodison as a springboard to prove himself ready to start week in and week out in the English top flight.

If he grabs the goals for Everton, then Chelsea could bring him back to the Bridge (if they were to insert a buy-back clause) knowing he can do it regularly in the Premier League.

For Everton, they could finally find a Lukaku replacement.

Michy is a deadly finisher, his eye for goal is a real joy. He’s good with the ball at his feet and running at defenders. The attacker has electric pace to get in behind defences. Plus he possesses strong upper-body strength and that helps him win physical battles with opposition defenders.

A move that sees them getting a striker with a great scoring pedigree could be too good a move not to pursue during this transfer window.

Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri haven’t really given Michy Batshuayi  a chance but maybe he can finally prove himself in the Premier League somewhere else!

Posted on January 11th, 2019 by scott
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