Speaking on the All Together Now podcast, Greg O’Keeffe has claimed that Rafa Benitez may not be convinced by Yerry Mina.
In a chaotic summer for Everton fans which saw their manager leave and join Real Madrid and now their new boss is a former Liverpool manager, they also only managed to spend £1.8 million but did bring in five new players.
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One position they didn’t reinforce at all was in defence and despite reports over the summer claiming that Benitez didn’t see Mina fitting into his side and would be happy for the former Barcelona defender to leave the club, nothing coming to fruition which has seen the centre back feature in three games for the Toffees in the league so far.
Despite featuring regularly thus far, O’Keeffe is unsure about Benitez’s thoughts on Mina.
(12:33) “Perhaps he’s not 100% sold on say Yerry Mina, or he thinks they need you know, I think, to be honest, he would ideally want another centre back to go with whether it’s Michael Keane or Ben Godfrey.
“He knows that he has to sometimes tailor his tactics for a few little flaws in the squad if you like and that’s not to slag off Mina and I think he knows if you get crosses into the box there’s goals in this team.”
TIF Thoughts on Mina…
Last season Mina started 23 games in the Premier League which was less than other centre backs such as Mason Holgate, Michael Keane and Ben Godfrey which highlights that even Carlo Ancelotti was swaying towards playing others ahead of Mina.
The centre back arrived for £27 million off the back of playing for Colombia at the 2018 World Cup, which saw him score a last-minute equaliser against England in the Round of 16 but he has not been able to nail down a regular spot at the heart of the defence and at still just 26-years old there may be some good sell on value for the Toffees.