Everton won’t have spent long licking their wounds after being dumped out of the FA Cup by Bugbear opponents Bournemouth, for the Merseyside derby is merely one day away.
David Moyes has bigger fish to fry. Ending an overlong wait for a trophy will have been shelved somewhere in the Scottish manager’s agenda, but the coming months of the current campaign must be used to safely avoid relegation from the Premier League and build a foundation for coming years of success.
With three wins from three in the top flight, Moyes is flying, making tweaks to shift away from the monotony of Sean Dyche’s struggles.
Despite the attacking struggles at Goodison Park, Everton have found a saviour in Iliman Ndiaye.
Iliman Ndiaye could be Everton's saviour
Ndiaye, 24, has bagged three goals from three recent Premier League matches, taking an already exciting start to life on Merseyside and stating that he can be a talisman under new management.
As per FBref, the Senegal winger also ranks among the top 8% of positional peers in the Premier League this year for successful take-ons per 90 and the top 19% for pass completion, perfectly illustrating his layered threat.
A successful take-on is recorded when a player beats their opponent by directly carrying the ball past them while retaining possession.
Dyche’s Everton tenure came crashing down in the end but his £15m signing of Marseille’s talent has served as a shining light for a team that may now begin to change their narrative in the Premier League.
More firepower will be needed over the coming transfer windows, however. Believe it or not, Everton actually had a better version of Ndiaye in their ranks but failed to unlock his full potential. He’s now a superstar.
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Your star player or biggest flop has left the club but what are they doing in the present day? This article is part of Football FanCast's Where Are They Now series.
Everton must regret selling Ndiaye upgrade
Causality is a very real thing in football, and the truth is that Ademola Lookman would not be the same player that he is now had he never left Everton.
But the club’s conditions precluded him from doing so and had Moyes been at the helm instead, in a different world, Everton may have got so much more out of Atalanta’s trophy-winning sensation.
It was Everton who gave Lookman his first big break, paying £11m to Charlton Athletic to claim the then 19-year-old’s signature in January 2017.
Lookman, then lacking the potency and sharpness that he has crafted in recent years, managed to net just four goals for the Toffees, playing 48 times.
Still, a promising loan spell with RB Leipzig later prompted the German side to fork out £22.5m for the dynamic winger, who had failed to win over former manager Marco Silva. In hindsight, it was the wrong move, for Lookman now boasts elite status.
Atalanta
105
46
25
Charlton
49
12
3
Everton
48
4
2
Leicester
42
8
5
Fulham
35
4
4
RB Leipzig
24
5
4
Remember, last summer Atalanta were understood to be open to cashing in on their Ballon d’Or nominee and had priced the Nigeria international at €70m (roughly £58m), which stands as a whopping £35m increase from the fee that Everton accepted to jettison him off to the Bundesliga.
He could have banked Everton quite the pretty penny or indeed plied his trade in Moyes’ team as their star man. Ndiaye is fantastic, full of life and energy, but he’s not on the 27-year-old’s level yet.
Indeed, while Lookman’s career highlight is rightly the hat-trick that won Atalanta the Europa League last season, he’s also been immensely consistent in front of goal, scoring 31 goals and supplying 17 assists across all competitions over the past two years, a whopping 31 more goal involvements than Ndiaye over the same time frame. Specifically, broadcaster Maximiliano Bretos hailed Lookman for his “monster year” of 2023/24.
Moreover, he’s not only a marksman. FBref record that he ranks among the top 1% of positional peers across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for shot-creating actions and progressive carries and the top 2% for tackles per 90.
The full package, the winger attracted interest from the likes of Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain last year and is undoubtedly one of the finest former Everton stars currently kicking balls about today.
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