Sean Dyche has played down the prospect of using Amadou Onana as an emergency centre-forward to solve Everton’s striker crisis.
The Blues’ two main frontmen Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Neal Maupay have just one goal apiece all season and the former remains a major injury doubt for Monday’s Merseyside derby against Liverpool with a hamstring problem and, speaking in his pre-match press conference on Friday, Dyche described his number nine’s chances of playing as being “touch and go at best”.
The ECHO understands that director of football Kevin Thelwell’s intention was to bring in two attacking reinforcements during January but after missing out on the likes of Arnaut Danjuma, after Tottenham Hotspur hijacked their deal, and Kamaldeen Sulemana, who chose to join survival rivals Southampton on deadline day, Everton were the only club involved in the Premier League relegation battle not to have strengthened their squad in the winter window and actually came out of the month weaker after Anthony Gordon’s £45m sale to Newcastle United.
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With Tom Cannon having been loaned out to Preston North End, Dyche’s only other recognised option up front is Ellis Simms, who has never completed 90 minutes in the Premier League and was recalled last month from his own loan spell in the Championship at Sunderland having netted seven times in 17 outings for the Wearside outfit.
Under David Moyes, Onana’s fellow Belgian international midfielder Marouane Fellaini was often deployed further up the field for nuisance value because he also possessed a large and powerful frame. But while the pair do share certain physical characteristics in this respect, Dyche is wary about repeating the trick with the £33.5m summer signing from Lille.
He said: “I think Ama is a different type of player (to Fellaini), they are both very good players but for different reasons of course. Fellaini for his effect, Onana for his youthful power and exuberance and he can play that’s for sure.
“We’re trying to encourage him to travel further forward from deeper, it’s part of the game and we have expressed that to him and said to him, ‘look, with your physical capabilities which will get stronger I’m sure of that through working with us’.
“I think of that drive into the box we saw when we got him forward on a few more occasions against Arsenal. He’s big, he can head the ball and can deliver into the box with his runs so we’ve spoken to him about that but I don’t think it’s a case of putting him up there like a target man.
“That wouldn’t be for me I don’t think but you never know. We haven’t got an abundance of players up there but at the minute but I like the idea of him coming out of midfield and progressing through the pitch and passing from midfield and following the ball into the box.”
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