Michael Ball insists that Everton should have signed a new centre-back in the summer transfer window.
The club and director of football Marcel Brands were heavily hamstrung by Financial Fair Play regulations, meaning that they were largely incapable of making big-money bids for new players.
In the end, the Toffees spent a little under £2m, buying Demarai Gray from Bayer Leverkusen and also signing Salomon Rondon, Asmir Begovic, Andy Lonergan and Andros Townsend on free transfers.
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Both Gray and Townsend played key roles on Monday night, each scoring as Everton beat Burnley 3-1 at Goodison Park.
Indeed, the Toffees have enjoyed a stellar start to the season and are unbeaten, winning three and drawing one of their opening four games.
Still, Ball is disappointed that the club did not make a move to bring a centre-back into the club, as he feels such a signing would have improved both the squad and the level of the defenders already under contract.
He said: “I thought bringing in a top centre-half would’ve stopped those individual errors. It would have helped Michael Keane’s game, and Ben Godfrey’s game for the future so, yeah, disappointing not to see another centre-half come into the football club.”