Everton: Stats show why David Moyes has to end Merlin Rohl experiment vs Sunderland
Everton manager David Moyes should drop Merlin Rohl from his starting eleven for their upcoming clash against Sunderland after shoehorning him into the side on the right wing.
Rohl has had to bide his time to get into the Everton team since an £18million move from Freiburg last summer.
The German midfielder has made just four starts in the Premier League so far, but two of those have come in successive games against Man City and Crystal Palace this month.
Moyes has struggled to get Rohl into the side in his preferred central midfield role, so has instead seen fit to hand him consecutive starting berths on the right flank.
Everton’s next match sees them host out-of-form Sunderland on Sunday, and Moyes’ experiment has to end based on Rohl’s statistics and those of his likely opponent, Reinildo.
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VISIT THE EVERTON MATCH HUBMerlin Rohl was ineffective vs Palace and will get no change out of Reinildo
Rohl was brought into the side for the Toffees’ 3-3 draw with Man City, but struggled to make much of an impact going forward and failed to help protect Jake O’Brien from Jeremy Doku.
He remained in the starting eleven for Everton’s trip to Selhurst Park last weekend, and while fans were onboard with the decision, Rohl barely had any say on proceedings once more.
| Minutes played | 80′ |
| Touches (in opposition box) | 38 (4) |
| Shots | 0 |
| Passes into final third | 1 |
| Successful dribbles | 0/1 |
| Ground duels won | 2/9 |
| Aerial duels won | 0/3 |
| Fouls committed | 4 |
Simply put, the 23-year-old is a holding midfielder who has been told to put a shift in on the right wing, and so the outcome of his performances has been as expected in an attacking sense.
He failed to register a shot on goal against Palace, while again barely making an impact in the final third, with the feeling that he was mainly in the side to focus on nullifying Tyrick Mitchell and Ismaila Sarr more than anything else.
Everton supporters do not want to see their team sit back this weekend, with a real chance to end their poor recent form against fellow strugglers Sunderland.
Black Cats left-back Reinildo is expected to start on Merseyside, and he ranks highly among PL players in his position for duels won, interceptions, clearances and blocks per 90 minutes.
Rohl has already struggled against an attack-minded Palace side, so the chances are that he will have a tough time if he is pitted against the Mozambique international on Saturday.
Moyes has to end the experiment of playing the German star on the right wing, and instead give the nod to a recognised forward like Dwight McNeil or Tyrique George.
What has Moyes said about Rohl’s positional change?
Sources have exclusively revealed to Football Insider that Moyes is prioritising adding attacking quality to his squad this summer.
That will surely mean that Rohl’s long-term future at Everton is in the middle of the park, with Moyes recently explaining his thought process on the switch in an interview with the Liverpool Echo.
He said: “We are generally still trying to find the best (position for him). We’ve had some thoughts on how we work and we brought him with an idea because we knew about his physicality and what he could do.
“He is a good player as well and he can score. But he just found that we couldn’t really get him in the side at the start. We started quite well, he was not really able to find a place and he had a few injuries.
“He’s now certainly got used to it. So it takes a lot and I think that I’m hoping that we can find a way of getting him more football and getting him a chance, next season especially. He’ll need to be the one who does that but he’s a really good boy to work with.”
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