Everton: James Garner could become goal-scoring midfield man – Leon Osman
If Everton have been lacking one thing this season it has been somebody to break out of midfield and become another goal threat.
Alex Iowbi is as close as they have to a Frank Lampard-esque midfield maestro who thrives on arriving into the box late and scoring hatfuls of goals.
Former Toffees midfielder Leon Osman, now a BBC pundit, highlighted this problem when speaking to the Liverpool Echo and suggested that James Garner could be the man to fill that void.
“I think we are in the position where if Frank Lampard can identify just better players than we have got, I think we need to look at that,” he said.
“I said it earlier but we need somebody who plays in midfield that has an actual goal threat and gets you 10 or 12 goals a season.
“I’m not quite sure we have got that yet. Maybe young Garner will be able to bring that as he progresses into the team, maybe it is something Frank has seen already.
“But we are not a team that can stand still. We are a team that needs to keep on adding and strengthening and trying to make ourselves better.”
Who misses out?
The problem Lampard and Everton face is finding a way to get Garner into the team when the midfield trio are in such fantastic form right now.
Idrissa Gana Gueye is controlling the midfield from deep and snuffing out danger in the way only he can while Amadou Onana is the big-money summer signing and box-to-box monster who just causes problems for opposition players.
And if Lampard were to drop Iwobi to force Garner in he may well have riots on his hands because the Nigerian international has been simply sublime all season long in his revitalised midfield role.
The 21-year-old might just have to wait for one of the trio ahead of him to pick up an injury or suspension and then be the man of the match in their absence.
Anything else might not be enough to warrant him keeping his place and while there is not much broken in the middle of the field, there’s no need to fix it.