Everton veteran calls for patience with inconsistent teammate

One of the precious few bright spots and interesting stories of this Everton season has been the returns from injury of Leighton Baines and Yannick Bolasie. The Blues’ long-time left back has rather seamlessly reintegrated into the side, but the Congolese winger has struggled off and on.

Bolasie does have a goal in the last few weeks, but has also looked a step off the pace physically and poor in his service and first touch. Baines, for his part, is encouraging all parties to show a measure of patience with Bolasie as he continues his recovery on the fly.

Yannick is another player who has been disrupted with his injures and such a long layoff.

When you have that type of injury it is always going to take you a bit of time to get back up and running and get your legs back under you.

He has started to do that and is someone I know, that if I give him the ball, I just have to support him from behind. He is good to play with. He is always a threat for us and keeps the opposition full-backs busy.

Yes [Bolasie’s confidence is rising]. He has had a few good performances, set up a few goals and scored as well.

That will give him confidence and he has started to show that on the pitch with the positivity in his play. That is the type of player he is. He is someone you have to allow to go and express himself. If you tried to stifle him it would take so much away from his game, so you just have to let him go and play.

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For better or worse, Yannick Bolasie is extremely likely to remain with the club through at least next season. Everton invested in him to the tune of a fairly fat transfer fee, and it’s unlikely there are other clubs willing to take on the wages of a nearly 29 year old luxury winger coming off a serious knee injury.

When he’s at his best, Yala is a joy to watch and can terrorize opposing defenders. Let’s hope he gets back to that point very soon.