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James Rowe

What Should Everton Do With Gylfi Sigurdsson?


Gylfi Sigurdsson was one of Ronald Koeman's top signings at £45 million back in 2017 and he has been a pretty solid signing thus far. He was one of the club's top players for the past couple of seasons and was an integral part of the offense. That being said, this season, it has not been kind to Sigurdsson.


In 26 league matches for the Toffees, Sigurdsson has scored one goal and tallied one assist, which is not very productive. While the numbers may not totally suggest what he means on the pitch, if one looks at what he did in 2018-19, they'd see that his form has dropped considerably. Whether it was because Marco Silva moved away from Sigurdsson's preferred formation when the season began is debatable, the numbers back up his drop in production. However, now with Carlo Ancelotti taking the reins, is there even still a place for Sigurdsson?


Sigurdsson isn't a bad player despite his struggles in 2019-20 and could be a very productive player for the Blues if he was more in form, but there's so many questions here. Does he fit into Ancelotti's system? Can the team sell him for a considerable profit? Can he return to form and force his way into providing consistent production? Does he want out?


Ancelotti is likely to employ a 4-4-2 system which really does not benefit Sigurdsson as it does not allow a traditional 10 jersey to play like one and it makes Sigurdsson play at a deeper central role in the midfield. He is more useful when pushed forward, the complete opposite. Sigurdsson is a proficient player with the ball, but Ancelotti's system makes his passes at quick and sharp in distribution and Sigurdsson makes the fewest passes amongst his midfielder colleagues. That would suggest he does not fit the system.


Now, part of the problem is that Sigurdsson might not be performing well because of the injury to Andre Gomes and also with the lack of a defensive midfielder since Idrissa Gueye left and his replacement, Jean-Philippe Gbamin, has not been healthy enough to play. Problem now that Gomes is back, or just in general, is that Ancelotti's system plays into Gomes' strengths. An article from The Athletic said this about Gomes and Sigurdsson:


"Defensively, Sigurdsson seems to be pretty active, but he doesn’t shine brighter than others in his position. He ranks third among Everton central midfielders for possession-adjusted tackles (8.1 per 1,000 opposition touches) behind Schneiderlin (8.7) and Gomes (10.2), and is third for possession-adjusted interceptions, too.


It is clear, however, that Gomes’s return from injury muddies the waters for Sigurdsson and presents Ancelotti with a dilemma. Despite his relative defensive solidity, Sigurdsson is in the side for the work he does on the ball — a role that Gomes also performs well.


The expectation is that Gomes forms one half of Ancelotti’s main pairing moving forward, so finding a partner to complement him is the priority.


Somewhat surprisingly for his stature, Gomes possesses one of the lowest true-tackle win rates on record for a central midfielder (which adjusts how often a player makes a tackle by including the number of times he commits a foul or gets dribbled past) and fares little better in other defensive indices.


Gomes was dribbled past six times against Chelsea — three more than any other player on the pitch — and four times against Manchester United — the joint-most in blue, with Sigurdsson. It is a statistic that shows the pair’s incompatibility as a central midfield partnership.


In that sense, finding someone more adept at the defensive side of the game to complement Gomes seems the best plan going forward."


That doesn't seem to be a good sign for Sigurdsson. However, it might just be a season of struggles that can be turned around. He might have to adapt to Ancelotti's system. It also might be a mental problem as he could be lacking confidence or exhibiting frustration.


Then there is the money situation. His contract is a steep price as he is roughly worth £100,000 per week and it would be hard to find a suitor to take on a contract like that especially at his age. There are clearly enough Premier League teams that would love to have his services, but the cost makes everything difficult. He also has two years left in the contract, so is it worth keeping him to see if he returns to form? Then there is the case of the transfer fee, at that point it might be worth it as obviously it brings in some money. The question then would be what is he worth and who would take him?


Ancelotti, though, seems to have a lot of faith in him as he has started Sigurdsson in all, but two matches since taking the reins. Ancelotti has clearly been trying to find ways to include him in the lineup to possibly define his role in the future and that's a good sign for Sigurdsson. As stated in the same article from The Athletic: "Ancelotti’s system needs quick, sharp distribution through the thirds to his attackers and Sigurdsson has a reputation as an adept player of the ball." Sigurdsson also provides solid play on defense, something worth having in Ancelotti's system. Otherwise, there's going to have to be some adjustment to conform to Sigurdsson's preferred role as possibly to help get out all of his potential by playing him close to the goal. Silva did that and his actions resulted in a healthy payout of dividends.


So the question about what to do with him isn't the easiest to answer. There's good reasons to keep him and there are others to move on. It would seem difficult just to move on from Sigurdsson after one bad season and not try to work his abilities into a new system. However, there are other factors to not ignore like his age as he is 30, but also money as he is expensive and if he doesn't fit into the system, the club would have to sell him. This will be a big dilemma for Everton, but the answer will be found once the 2020-21 season begins.


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