Everton’s Seamus Coleman needs more competition at right back.
Everton’s three-game winning run came to an end with Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at Manchester United, and the performance of Seamus Coleman has been highlighted as a problem.
The Irishman has endured injury woes in recent years, but he has returned to regular action this season, with Jonjoe Kenny backing him up this term.
However, Coleman has yet to hit top form, as he hasn’t been as adventurous going forward as usual, and hasn’t exactly impressed defensively either.
Anthony Martial ripped the 30-year-old apart on Sunday, and with questions over Coleman’s ability to play regularly at top form, Everton may need to bring in another right back in 2019.
Kenny hasn’t really shown the quality needed to nail down the first-team spot yet, and if director of football Marcel Brands heads into the transfer market, Atletico Madrid’s Santiago Arias would fit the bill.
The Colombian international, 26, joined Atletico over the summer as a replacement for Sime Vrsaljko, but has found first-team football hard to come by under Diego Simeone, and has been linked with a swift exit after just two starts.
Brands was the man who signed Arias for PSV Eindhoven from Sporting in 2013, signing him and Stijn Schaars for just €1.6million before revealing he had been wanting to sign Arias for some time.
Arias is strong both defensively and going forward, and could bring the competition that Coleman desperately needs, whilst giving Everton two effective full backs alongside Lucas Digne.
Arias may well want a move in 2019, and Brands could be the perfect man to rescue him, giving Coleman the ideal, clear competition he requires to try and hit top form – and potentially a replacement if he can’t recapture that form.
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