View: Iwobi faces race against time to prove worth at Everton
Since signing for Everton from Arsenal in the summer of 2019, Alex Iwobi has failed to nail down a regular starting spot at Goodison Park.
The Nigeria international has regularly played for the Blues under Carlo Ancelotti, but he hasn’t been able to establish himself as one of the first few names on the team-sheet.
With a big summer ahead for Everton, Iwobi could now find himself in a race against time to prove his long-term worth to Ancelotti.
In his first full season in charge at Goodison Park, Ancelotti has experimented frequently with different tactics, formations and playing personnel.
It is abundantly clear that until the Italian has more opportunities to bring in his own players and further shape his squad to his own specifications, he is tinkering with his current squad to find out what does work and what doesn’t.
Iwobi then is an awkward piece of the puzzle, as time and time again it has been proved that we don’t yet know where the 24-year old fits.
Having played out wide, through the middle and as a marauding wing-back, Iwobi has been tried in a number of roles, impressing occasionally but never enough to establish himself.
Iwobi is far from a lost cause, but going forward into the new season with European football potentially on the horizon, Ancelotti needs to have a better picture of exactly where Iwobi’s future at Everton lies.
The former Gunner benefits from being someone young and full of potential but Everton need to know where best to utilise that potential, and Iwobi needs to help the club by showing them exactly what he can do.
Iwobi faces a race against time because if he cannot make it evidently clear where he should play and why he should feature, Ancelotti could decide to cut his losses and look elsewhere.
In other Everton news, Ancelotti is considering selling Lucas Digne in order to fund a move for Tottenham defender Sergio Reguilon.