Frank Lampard gives away transfer plan with Everton…

Frank Lampard gives away transfer plan with Everton pre-season decision

The minutes picked up by Everton's players could give a strong hint into the positions Frank Lampard will still want to target in the remaining weeks of the transfer window.

The Blues played out two wins and as many defeats in their four matches across the summer in preparation for the opening match of the 2022/23 campaign against Chelsea next weekend. Losses against Arsenal and Minnesota United in the United States were followed by victories against Blackpool and Dynamo Kyiv back in the UK.

Following the last of those matches, the Everton manager made clear that there were still areas in the side that he believes need to be strengthened. And, in his programme notes, likely written before the arrivals of Ruben Vinagre and Dwight McNeil, he made clear that hard work was being completed behind-the-scenes to make sure new additions were brought to the squad.

Twitter account @ed_analysis on Saturday morning shared a graph detailing the minutes that each of the Blues squad played in pre-season that were available to them. Some players were only available for particular games across the summer, while a fair amount were available for each of the four matches.

Jordan Pickford played the most amount of minutes available to him, completing 90 minutes twice and being substituted at half time on two occasions to be replaced by Billy Crellin. Anthony Gordon comes second in the list with a three-way split for third with James Tarkowski, Nathan Patterson and Vitalii Mykolenko all playing 70% of the available minutes to them.

But, the real question seemingly lies around the central midfield. Apart from Abdoulaye Doucoure up on 67%, there isn't a standout option that was a consistent part of the manager's plans this summer.

Alex Iwobi partnered the Mali international against Dynamo Kyiv in that deeper role, but in the other pre-season games he was playing further forwards and so his minutes can hardly be related to that role. Tom Davies did play 60% of the available minutes, but he was missing for the match on Friday evening as a precaution and so his numbers are potentially skewed slightly.

Allan was injured for some of the pre-season games and only played 20% of the minutes available to him when he returned, while Andre Gomes has found himself not involved across the summer at all. Jean-Philippe Gbamin did pick up a significant amount of game-time on 50%, but he was another who missed the Kyiv match on Friday evening.

He was pictured in an airport by an Everton supporter on social media on Saturday morning, but it's understood this was not related to a transfer. The majority of the squad were given a couple of days off after their final pre-season match.

Other than that, it has been youngsters stepping up to the plate to try and show their worth, but none played a truly significant amount of time to suggest they might be starting games under Lampard in the near future.

The manager has been chopping and changing his side throughout the summer as you might expect, but perhaps none more so than in central midfield. Against Dynamo Kyiv in particular you could pinpoint the majority of Everton's starters against Chelsea next weekend, but a lot of questions still remain over central midfield.

Rumours of a move for former Blue Idrissa Gueye are continuing to swirl and perhaps that might be the answer for now. Perhaps there's another player on the agenda as well.

But, it would seem at the very least that midfield is a priority for Everton right now. If you didn't know it already, then having a look at those pre-season minutes probably gives the biggest indication yet.

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