The Liverpool Echo’s head of sport David Prentice has recently discussed Everton’s young, French full-back Niels Nkounkou.
During the summer, the Toffees secured the arrival of the 20-year-old left-back for a £243,000 fee from Ligue 1 side Olympique de Marseille (per Transfermarkt).
Since his arrival at Goodison Park, Nkounkou has made four appearances in all competitions for Carlo Ancelotti’s senior team, in which he has bagged one assist.
However, one issue which may see Nkounkou introduced more often is an injury to Everton’s other senior left-back, Lucas Digne (per BBC).
During a recent episode of the Liverpool Echo’s Royal Blue: The Everton FC Podcast, Prentice discussed Nkounkou and the fact that more playing time is not guaranteed for him.
He said: “I mean, Lucas Digne and Seamus Coleman are specialists in that [full-back] role; you take them out of the equation and we haven’t got like-for-like [replacements].
“Nkounkou probably could become that player in time, but he’s a baby, he’s hardly played any kind of senior football yet.
“So, it would be a big ask to ask him to come in and do the kind of thing that Lucas Digne does, so we are looking for other options.”
TIF Thoughts on what David Prentice said about Niels Nkounkou…
As can be seen in what the journalist had to say, he believes that the French defender is not ready for regular first-team action with the Toffees as of yet.
Would you like to see Niels Nkounkou given a run of games in Everton's first team?
Yes, he seems good enough
No, he's not ready yet
Having made no senior appearances for Marseille while with the Ligue 1 club and with only four for Everton, it is clear to see why Prentice believes the youngster is inexperienced.
Of those four appearances for the Goodison Park club, one was in the Premier League and that was during the 2-1 defeat against Steve Bruce’s Newcastle United.
In the 69 minutes which he played, Nkounkou made a whopping four tackles and four clearances, which is the joint-highest number of tackles and third-most clearances per league game on average in the Toffees’ squad (per WhoScored).
So, it would certainly seem, in a defensive sense at least, that Nkounkou could be capable of providing a solid option on the left-hand side of the defence.