Everton have appointed Frank Lampard as their new manager, and he wasted no time using his only opportunity of the transfer window on Deadline Day to bring in two players to work with him in his efforts to save the side’s season.
Donny van de Beek and Dele Alli joined the Toffees in the final hours of the January transfer window, becoming the fourth and fifth signings of the month, suggesting that the ex-Chelsea boss has plans to overhaul the midfield and attacking threat of the team which has currently failed to make a significant impact, scoring 11 fewer goals than the side has conceded in the Premier League this season.
With that being said, the first player that Lampard can ruthlessly axe from his team is Alex Iwobi, who has been with the club since 2019, scoring just six goals in 80 appearances from his forward position.
That’s one more goal than he has had managers, with Lampard remarkably becoming the fifth permanent manager that the 25-year-old has worked under in his time at Goodison Park.
The left-winger was branded “embarrassing” by Everton journalist, David Prentice, back in 2020 and things haven’t improved for the Nigeria international, with his most recent indiscretion at AFCON where he was brought on to save his nation from crashing out of the competition in the last 16 knock out clash against Tunisia.
Iwobi was sent off within five minutes of coming off the bench after a red card decision went against him when he made a tackle with his studs up on his marker who went straight to the floor. That eventually led to Nigeria crashing out of the competition.
If the Premier League midfielder turned manager deploys his most favoured formation of 4-2-3-1, it would push Iwobi out of the team completely as Richarlison would presumably go out onto the left side of the three to accommodate the new addition Alli, who could play in one of his favourite positions behind Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and as a result, would see Iwobi unlikely to start for the Toffees in the future.
Lampard has always been a big fan of the £22.5m-rated former Spurs star claiming he is “ahead of the game” in a complimentary analysis of the player back in 2017, so there is no doubt that he will want to integrate the attacking midfielder in his starting line up as soon as he can to get the very best out of him to pull Everton away from a relegation battle.
Combine that with the fact that Darren Anderton once called him a “freak of a talent” and it’s evident there is plenty more that Dele could offer than the former Arsenal forward.
Everton will return to action this weekend at Goodison Park in the FA Cup, where the 43-year-old Toffees manager will lead out his first squad selection in front of the home fans and it will be interesting to see what direction he goes in to secure progression in the domestic competition for the side.
In other news: Lampard already enduring major dilemma at Finch Farm