Jim Salveson, Niall McCaughan and Marley Anderson discussed the latest Premier League news during a recent edition of the Football Social Daily podcast and the panel spent some time talking about the Toffees’ Portuguese midfielder Andre Gomes during the show.
Gomes originally joined Everton on loan from Barcelona for the 2018/19 season. The Merseyside club subsequently brought the Portugal international to Goodison Park on a permanent deal in July 2019 for £22.5m.
During this recent edition of the Football Social Daily podcast, Salveson asked Anderson if there are many players within the current Toffees squad who ‘have a future at Everton’ and Anderson took the opportunity to praise some Everton players, including Gomes, in response to that question.
Here is what Anderson had to say about the Portuguese midfielder: “Andre Gomes, the midfielder, I really like him. In all honesty, he’s probably better than Everton in terms of – he’s come from Barcelona, for example. He’s going to be wanting to be part of a team that’s sort of challenging for something. Whether that’s the top six or whatever, we’ll have to wait and see.”
Do you believe that Andre Gomes has got a big future at Everton?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts…
Anderson’s claim that Gomes is “probably better than Everton” may be debatable, considering that it might be fair to say the 26-year-old hasn’t been enjoying a particularly impressive campaign with the Toffees.
According to WhoScored, Gomes has earned an average overall rating of 6.42 from his 18 league appearances during the 2019/20 campaign, which is a higher rating than just five other Toffees players have achieved this term.
However, that underwhelming overall rating may not tell the whole story in this case and according to WhoScored, Gomes’ passing has been a relatively positive area of his game this season. The midfielder has played the fifth-highest number of passes per game (41.2), the second-highest number of long-balls per game (4.3), and he has got the sixth-highest pass completion rate (84.5%) out of any Everton player in the Premier League this season.
With that in mind, it may be understandable why, despite perhaps not being a standout player for the Toffees this term, Anderson believes that Gomes does have a future at Everton and if the Merseyside club can highlight his strengths moving forward, then he could enjoy more success at Goodison Park in the future.