Supporters of Everton have slated Michael Keane following his exclusion from Gareth Southgate’s latest England squad.
On Thursday, the latest England squad was announced for clashes with Montenegro and Kosovo, which saw the Toffees’ 26-year-old defender left out (via BBC).
Following the defender’s omission from the squad, the England gaffer explained that Keane had had some ‘difficult games’ and not being in the squad was ‘a chance for him to work on his game’ (via Paul Joyce).
The Goodison Park faithful were then on hand to read between the lines and call out what they thought Southgate was getting at.
In other words, he turns like an articulated lorry and has the reaction speed of an out of date cabbage so I dropped him
— Graeme (@graemeh1984) November 7, 2019
“He’s much worse at football than I thought, we’ll just use a cone at training instead”
— SW (@TheDadBods) November 7, 2019
Not good enough for Everton never mind England
— Mike Thompson (@toffeecrunch25) November 7, 2019
The £27-million rated defender has featured on 12 occasions for Marco Silva’s side in all competitions this term, helping his side to four clean sheets in the process (via Transfermarkt).
However, across those eight games without a clean sheet, the Everton backline have shipped a whopping 19 goals (as per Transfermarkt).
With many speculating that the 26-year-old was not good enough for the England set-up, others believed he was not at the standard the Toffees required either.
He can definitely do with working on his game it will take longer then the international break
— Craig (@CragOnTour) November 7, 2019
He will never play for England again
— Sean Dunning (@seandunning1983) November 7, 2019
He’s been binned because he has been so bad this season… third choice now behind Mina and holgate
— Neil Martin (@Neilo_m) November 7, 2019
He’s not wrong, Keane has been terrible since the first International Break. But he also included Joe Gomez
— KS (@kevstewart90) November 7, 2019
What do we think?
With the Toffees struggling in the Premier League this term (as per Daily Star), there are very few of the senior team that are having strong seasons in the blue half of Merseyside.
However, with a 6.75/10 as an average rating for the 26-year-old so far this campaign (per Whoscored), Keane has been fairly reliable if uninspiring. But, it’s clear that defensive improvements are needed if the Toffees are to put themselves on the right path, with Silva needing to find the right solution.