Azeem Siddiqui

Mon 5 September 2022 15:10, UK

Everton had a tough beginning to their campaign where they are still one of the few clubs to not have won a single match in the Premier League.

However, the Toffees produced their best display of the current season on Saturday in the first Merseyside Derby of the 2022-23 campaign against Liverpool where the game ended in a 0-0 draw.

Even though in that fixture, Everton had a number of star players including goalkeeper Jordan Pickford who was simply outstanding on the day but one of the players who was absolutely brilliant was young midfielder Amadou Onana who was the real x-factor for the home side.

Tremendous

Onana arrived at Goodison Park with a lot of hype surrounding his potential and many questioned why the Merseyside club, who opted not to invest heavily in any player ever since Frank Lampard joined the club, decided to pay such a high fee for the 21-year-old.

However, his performance on Saturday in what was his first Merseyside Derby against a team like Liverpool was simply outstanding and it was a testament to why Lampard pushed the board and sign the player in the first place.

The Belgium international ended up making the most number of tackles (7) in the match and was the primary reason for Everton breaking a lot of attacking play of the Reds. To go with that, he also made three clearances, an interception and won three aerial duels [Whoscored].

Not only those defensive numbers but he also started a number of attacking moves of the Merseyside club, thus showing a complete midfielder performance for the team.

That outing must excite Everton fans who will now be hoping that Onana will continue improving as a player and become their own Casemiro or Fabinho in the coming months or years.

It is also time that the Toffees must build their future team around someone like Onana who is expected to stay at the club for a considerable amount of time instead of focusing on players like Anthony Gordon who is expected to leave, sooner rather than later.