Why Yerry Mina will be crucial for Everton once he returns from injury
Everton’s free-flowing and attacking football under new manager Marco Silva has been a treat to watch this season. While Everton are still unbeaten under Silva, they should be disappointed for not boasting of a perfect record. The Toffees managed to find the back of the net twice in their games so far but they were unable to hold on to their goals to bag three points.
Much of that has been down to sloppy defending on certain occasions. While Everton haven’t been outrightly poor at the back, their defence has been guilty of switching off at crucial moments.
In the first game against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Everton let their lead slip twice. The full-backs didn’t quite close down the empty spaces quickly enough and allowed Ruben Neves to pick out Raul Jimenez for the equalizer. In the third game against Bournemouth, Leighton Baines committed a needless foul on Callum Wilson to hand the opposition a penalty.
However, their defensive woes are not entirely down to the full-backs. In the game against Southampton, the centre-backs failed to deal with a corner and allowed Danny Ings to pull a goal back.
The backline has lacked discipline at times as seen from Phil Jagielka’s bizarre incident which had him sent off in the first game. Baines’ loss of composure gifted Bournemouth a penalty as well. To put things into perspective, three out of the five goals that Everton have conceded in the Premier League this season came from crosses played into the box. This goes to show that the Toffees lack someone with aerial presence in the penalty area.
With all due respect to Michael Keane and Mason Holgate, Everton have missed the commanding presence of Yerry Mina at the back.
Everton signed Yerry Mina from Barcelona for a fee of £30million after the centre-back put up some impressive showings at the World Cup for Colombia. However, his much-awaited debut has been delayed due to an injury. As per The Telegraph, Everton must wait another 3-4 weeks before the Colombian can take the field.
Meanwhile, as put down by Daily Mirror, Keane has suffered a small fracture to his skull bone after a clash of heads in the game against Bournemouth and the English international is expected to be out of action for a similar amount of time.
With Keane out injured, Everton must hope for new signing Mina to regain fitness sooner than expected. Standing at 6ft 5 inches, the tall and burly Colombian is capable of bringing some much-needed physicality to their defence. He is exceptionally quick for his stature and comfortable with the ball at his feet. With Mina in the back four, Everton should be able to deal better with crosses and aerial balls. He is arguably the missing link in Everton’s defence and his presence could help them achieve a better defensive record.
It is fruitless to score goals and then concede in the dying stages of the game. Once Mina returns from injury, Everton should be more confident. As crucial as he is for the Merseysiders, Mina’s presence could prove to be the difference between a top-five and top-ten finish.
