da dobrowin： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…
da spicy bet： Tom Davies has slowly been rebuilding his reputation in recent weeks, but a tepid display against Leicester City was not in tune with the growing feeling of optimism surrounding his development.
What’s the word?
In the absence of Jean-Philippe Gbamin, Andre Gomes and Fabian Delph, Tom Davies finds himself as one of a small handful of players Marco Silva has to chose from in central midfield.
The mini injury crisis has allowed him to start six consecutive Premier League fixtures, and the standard of his performances have been perpetually rising in recent weeks.
But against Leicester, playing within a new-look 5-3-2 system, he struggled to make a marked impression on the game and found Youri Tielemans, Wilfred Ndidi and James Maddison difficult to tame, particularly in the latter stages of the game.
The Athletic journalist Greg O’Keeffe, however, has suggested that there was a plausible explanation for the standard of his performance.
“In fairness I thought he showed a lot of fight and passion in the first half. Poor passing as the game wore on and yes, that was bad at the end. He had been carrying a knee injury himself this week.”
Davies a victim of Everton’s injury woes
There was a moment in the first half that served to encapsulate the pattern of the 21-year-old’s career so far: a purposeful run through the centre of midfield suggested that he was on the cusp of a moment of cutting-edge quality, but a meek attempted through ball was comfortably intercepted on the edge of the penalty area, leaving Richarlison pondering why he even bothered making the run in the first place.
Naturally, it must be considered that Davies is not David Silva, nor is he blessed with the type of creative genius that Sigurdsson has become renowned for.
But O’Keeffe’s revelation about Davies’ knee injury last week suggests that there is at the very least a partial explanation for his display, which saw him register just 73.2% passing accuracy while he failed to play a single key pass, per Whoscored.
From a defensive perspective, Sigurdsson completed more tackles and made more clearances despite the fact he typically operates in a more advanced position than his midfield partner on the day.
Morgan Schneiderlin took a place on the bench but he was also listed as a major doubt in the build-up to the game, suggesting that Silva was left with little choice but to trust in players who weren’t 100% on Sunday.
Everton’s 5ft 11 academy product didn’t show any major sign of carrying a knock during proceedings, but he was far from his best against a fluid, well-organised Leicester machine.
With the Toffees essentially stripped back to the bare bones, Silva was left with no choice other than to trust in Davies despite his struggle for fitness in the build up to the game.
If it wasn’t already obvious that Everton were in something of an injury crisis in central midfield in the build up to the trip to Leicester, O’Keeffe’s revelation has confirmed it.