There’s no time like the present for Gylfi Sigurdsson to start repaying his hefty transfer fee.
The most expensive signing in Everton’s history is finally beginning to show glimpses of the player who will forever hold a place in Swansea supporters’ hearts but, after a lengthy settling in process, it’s high time that the Icelandic playmaker turns his performances in recent weeks into a regular occurrence.
Sigurdsson scored a screamer on his full debut for the Toffees back in August but his new side’s fans were made to wait over three months to see the 28-year-old find the net again.
He’s got on the scoresheet twice in the past fortnight but new manager Sam Allardyce will want to see that more regularly and beating Liverpool’s goalkeeper Simon Mignolet in Sunday’s Merseyside derby would go some way to endearing himself to the Everton hardcore.
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Only Christian Eriksen and Kevin De Bruyne registered more assists last season than the Iceland international but his delivery has been underwhelming this term by his previous standards.
But it can change!
On this week’s episode of the Defending in Numbers podcast, David Preece, the former Aberdeen goalkeeper turned football pundit, has a theory on how to get Sigurdsson firing on all cylinders again.
“The one thing that I couldn’t understand about Gylfi Sigurdsson is, when they paid all that money for him, why not play him in the exact same position and try to replicate as closely as possible the link he had with Fernando Llorente?” Preece said.
“They’re using him for his set pieces, OK. But they’re playing him out wide.
“Use him in the role that he was playing in for Swansea to get the best out of him. Use him in the role that got him the £50 million move in the first place.
“Obviously there’s that history around the Romelu Lukaku move and that Everton didn’t get a replacement. That was key to making Sigurdsson work, getting someone that he can link up with and use as a focal point.
“Dominic Calvert-Lewin has done great for a young kid. He’s probably got a lot more of a workload put on him than he expected to have put on him but perhaps it [allowing Sigurdsson to play in his favoured position] would accelerate Calvert-Lewin’s development as well.
“I just couldn’t understand it. You pay £50 million for a player and don’t use him to his best capabilities.”
