Even Sam Allardyce notices Everton winger’s contributions

With the terrible news of Gylfi Sigurdsson’s possible knee ligament damage, Everton is going to need Yannick Bolasie more than ever. Fortunately for us, the winger is rounding into form at exactly the right time.

In fact, he’s playing so well that even Big Sam could be bothered to notice. Speaking with Everton’s official website:

“What I liked, is that when he produced the final ball that caused the first goal, his game got even better from then on.

“He got more confidence straightaway. He started running at them more, causing them more and more problems.

“It will be nice to see the old Yannick back on a consistent basis because I think he gives us good balance down the left-hand side.

“Theo Walcott down one side and Yannick down the other gives the team a real good balance. And, of course, the only left footer we have in the camp, Leighton Baines [is back].”

Bolasie was extremely involved against Brighton, generating four shots, two dribbles, two tackles, and six crosses on forty-four touches.

As is usual with Bolasie, the involvement was not necessarily efficient. Of those six crosses, only one was accurate, none of the four shots were on target, but the fact that he demands so much defensive attention has value in and of itself.

With the far more efficient Theo Walcott on the opposite wing, Everton has a reasonable attacking duo that can pair with our finally healthy fullbacks in wide areas. I really wish we still had Gylfi pulling the strings centrally but as things currently stand we are just going to have to hope that our outside players feeding Cenk Tosun does the trick.

The return of Leighton Baines was also a big factor for the Blues’ forward-thinking on Saturday as the veteran left back took advantage of Bolasie occupying Brighton’s right back.

EvertonFC.com

Of course, all of this is put in doubt by the mindless incompetence of Sam Allardyce. Don’t let the score line fool you, outside of the own-goal and penalty, Everton’s attack only generated less than one expected goal on Saturday. Things are most likely going to continue to be bad offensively until Big Sam is gone.