View: Central role for Iwobi shouldn’t be written off
Alex Iwobi was handed a rare start in a central role for Everton against Burnley on Saturday despite his mid-week comments on Instagram.
Having mostly played either as a winger or a wing-back for the Blues this season, Iwobi aimed a dig at Everton following a Nigeria call-up this week by expressing his hope that he would get the chance to play in his preferred position for the Super Eagles.
Carlo Ancelotti responded [The Guardian] by suggesting that he would welcome communication with Iwobi about where he would like to play going forward, whether that be as a number 10 or even as a number nine.
Following this Iwobi lined up behind Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin against the Clarets on Saturday, though an early system change saw him move back out wide.
Everton’s failure to beat Burnley led some fans to use Iwobi as a scapegoat, with some suggesting his performance indicated that his preferred position must be on the bench.
However, Football Recruitment Analyst and Everton fan Tom Long took to Twitter to defend the 24-year old, citing several examples of Iwobi actually performing well in a central role.
https://twitter.com/TLogic1991/status/1371064897463812099
Long makes a fair point in discussing what Iwobi brings to the table, with the former Arsenal man having been painted as the scapegoat on a number of occasions in the past.
After largely disappointing in his debut season at Goodison Park the Nigeria international has improved throughout the current campaign, having used his technical ability and trickery to good effect on a number of occasions.
Iwobi has often been the subject of ire from the Everton fan base and, much like Tom Davies and Gylfi Sigurdsson, has sometimes found himself the object of dislike from fans without justifiable reason or cause.
Having been handed a central role for Everton against Burnley, Iwobi was handed an opportunity to stamp his authority under Ancelotti, and while he wasn’t able to do that conclusively he still might have another chance to do so.
Ancelotti is expected to make changes to the playing personnel at Goodison Park in the summer but it won’t likely be wholesale change, so now is the time for Iwobi to prove that he deserves to remain on Merseyside in the long run.
In other Everton news, Manchester United could contest with the Toffees for AC Milan defender Alessio Romagnoli this summer.