View: Anthony Gordon outshining teammates could concern Carlo Ancelotti
Anthony Gordon was entrusted with his third Everton start of the season on Saturday and he took his chance to impress with both hands.
The Toffees were far from their best and relied on extra-time to overcome Championship opponents Rotherham, but Gordon can be proud of his efforts.
He has had to remain patient for game time this season but Everton have won five out of the six games he has featured in, which is a positive sign.
Against the Millers, he didn’t take long to display his talent, either.
Early on in the match, he received a pass from James Rodriguez just inside the opposition half, immediately turning the defender before getting his shot away after breaking into the penalty area.
He didn’t stop there, and moments later skipped past his marker before executing a sublime pass for Cenk Tosun to open the scoring.
The assist required brilliant vision and the 19-year-old provided that along with a perfectly weighted pass.
That summed up what was an impressive 61 minutes from the youngster, who arguably outperformed his creative teammates Rodriguez and Alex Iwobi.
The Sofascore stat above shows how disciplined the winger was, and gives an indication into how Gordon outperformed his teammates.
Iwobi, for example, lost the ball almost twice as much as Gordon despite playing the same number of minutes.
Despite staying on for 30 minutes longer, Rodriguez could only match Gordon’s one key pass and one big chance created.
Iwobi, by contrast, failed to produce a big chance and managed just 74% pass accuracy.
That could be a source of worry for Carlo Ancelotti, as even against a lower standard opposition two of his key first-team players failed to deliver.
SofaScore ratings of 6.6 for Iwobi and Rodriguez confirm that, so the Italian boss must demand more and replace them in the starting line-up if not.
As for Gordon, he can take confidence from this match, but will likely have to do a lot more to prove he can cut it in the Premier League.
It is good to see Ancelotti placing some degree of trust in a young player, though, and we hope to see Gordon provided with another starting opportunity in the next round of the cup.
In other Everton news, Kevin Campbell believes consistency is key for Everton’s Holgate.