Premier League Preview 2019-20: Everton
Everton Football Club
Credit: Everton FC
2018-2019 Premier League Finish: 8th place
2019-20 Premier League Prediction: 8th place
Transfers In:
Andre Gomes MF - Barcelona £22,000,000
Fabian Delph MF - Manchester City, Undisclosed
Jonas Lossl GK - Huddersfield Town, Free Agent
Transfers Out:
Nikola Vlasic MF - CSKA Moscow £14,000,000
Ademola Lookman FW - RB Leipzig, Undisclosed
Phil Jagielka DF - Sheffield United, Free Agent
Ashley Williams DF - Free Agent
The 2019-20 season will be the 66th consecutive season for Everton in English top flight football. The Toffees are an established Premier League club to say the least, but they have also struggled to take the club to the next level or out of mid-table obscurity. Everton are no stranger to Europe either, granted they’ve only qualified for Europa League once in the past 5 seasons and haven’t qualified for Champions League since 2005. In my mind, Everton are always that club to seem to be the last one in or the first one out. And that has a lot of truth to it as Everton have finished 7th or 8th, 6 times out of the last 10 seasons. So if I haven’t painted the picture for you yet, Everton are the ultimate team at teetering on the edge of being a top level club. Everton will be entering their 2nd season under head coach Marco Silva so it will be interesting to see if he can improve on last year. Worst case scenario for Everton is probably right outside the top 10 like 11th or 12th. Best case scenario is a 6th place finish as I can’t imagine them bumping somebody from the top 5. But I’m going with another 8th place finish and just outside the last Europa League spot.
Strength:
Gylfi Sigurdsson
Credit: Yahoo Sports
I’m going to go with the midfield here for Everton. To start they have Gylfi Sigurdsson who I believe is one of the best attacking midfielders in the league. Sigurdsson scored 13 goals last season which was tied with Richarlison for most goals in the Everton squad. 13 goals is also at the top of the list as far as goals scored from midfielders altogether in the Premier League last season. Sigurdsson is the perfect CAM(central attacking midfieder) who I would love to have in that role at Chelsea. Outside of Sigurdsson, Everton midfield also includes Andre Gomes, who was with Everton last season on loan and has now officially transferred from Barca, Bernard, Idrissa Gueye, James McCarthy, Tom Davies and Morgan Schneiderlin. Everton has some very talented midfielders and great depth as well. Also, potentially added to this list is Fabian Delph. Delph has been a midfielder most of his career, but did get deployed at wing-back at Man City. I suspect he’ll be in the midfield and he’s just another great addition, with a lot of experience to this Everton team.
Weakness:
Who is going to be alongside Michael Keane in defense?
Credit: Independent
It’s pretty hard to find a weakness in this squad, as they are pretty solid and at least average at pretty much all spots on the field. If I did have to pick one, it would be in defense. Everton finally decided to part ways with their 36 yr old captain, Phil Jagielka, and while his appearances had dwindled over the past few years, it’s still a big loss to lose a captain with that much experience. The other loss that Everton had was Kurt Zouma returning to Chelsea after being on loan at Everton this past season. Zouma appeared in 32 matches for Everton last season and was a big part of Everton’s CB duo with Michael Keane. With Seamus Coleman and Lucas Digne likely in the full back positions, that will mean that CB spot will need to be filled. At this point, the two main options are Yerry Mina, who appeared in 13 games last season or Cuco Martina, who returns from being on loan. Again, the defense isn’t bad, but the CB pairing is crucial so they better hope Mina or Martina can fill Zouma’s role alongside Keane.
Top Goalscorer Predictions:
Richalison: 15 goals
Gylfi Sigurdsson: 10 goals
Theo Walcott: 8 goals
Home Kit: Not the worst, not the best. Kind of looks like a training kit with that weird design on top.
Credit: FootyHeadlines
Away Kit: I actually think this one is pretty good. Not many teams go with a salmon/peach colored jersey. I think the blue goes great with it, so I’m a fan. What is it with Everton and having pinkish away kits all the time?
