Everton desperately need struggling Alex Iwobi to step up v Leeds United
Everton face a pivotal crunch clash with Leeds United on Saturday and Sean Dyche will be relying on Alex Iwobi to improve his torrid form.
The Toffees will be looking to climb out of the bottom three this afternoon when they take on Leeds United at Goodison Park with the club sitting in 18th place on 18 points from 22 games.
It’s been yet another season of disappointment and frustration for the club fans, one which saw Dyche replacing the sacked Frank Lampard [30 January] after a dreadful run of results.
The former Burnley boss was triumphant in his first game in charge beating Arsenal at Goodison Park but were immediately brought back to earth, comfortably beaten 2-0 by fierce rivals Liverpool at Anfield.
With the club failing to add to their squad during the winter break, having lost one of their key performers in Anthony Gordon, Dyche is having to work with the little attacking depth he has at his disposal.
After a promising start to the season under Lampard, the Toffees saw a dramatic drop in form and performance levels but more importantly, a drop in goalscoring – currently one of the league’s worst in finding the back of the net. One major factor has been Iwobi’s own struggles since the World Cup break.
The Nigerian international was a consistent part of Frank Lampard’s set-up earlier on in the campaign, and he started the season off in sparkling form, enjoying a new role in midfield as well as contributing a goal and five assists between August and October.
However, since then the 26-year-old’s form has taken a dramatic decline, failing to recapture some of those tremendous performance levels before the World Cup registering no goals or assists in the last 10 or so games.
Dyche will be asking for a clean slate during his Everton stewardship and that certainly starts against Leeds on Saturday, and if they are to record a much-needed victory then they desperately need Iwobi to recapture some of the form that made him one of the league’s best midfielders five months ago.