Everton should build team around £45m Sigurdsson, not Rooney

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Why Everton should be building the team around Gylfi Sigurdsson and not Wayne Rooney, despite the varying form of the duo.

Oumar Niasse of Everton celebrates scoring his side’s second goal during the Premier League match against AFC Bournemouth at Goodison Park.

The feeling of relief was almost palpable around Goodison Park at the weekend as a double from Oumar Niasse turned the game against Bournemouth around and sealed a 2-1 win in the Premier League.

It ended a three-game losing streak in the top tier of English football, but it did not all go the Toffees’ way with things not really clicking until the 55th minute when Niasse and Tom Davies replaced Wayne Rooney and Davy Klaassen.

Wayne Rooney of Everton talks with manager Ronald Koeman after substituted during the Premier League match against AFC Bournemouth.

The Senegal international’s brace obviously stole the headlines, but Ronald Koeman’s men looked a lot more fluid not only with the 27-year-old as the focal point in attack but with Gylfi Sigurdsson afforded more freedom in his preferred number ten role.

Sigurdsson has been something of a disappointment since a club record £45m (BBC) summer switch from Swansea City, with a spectacular 45-yard goal against Hajduk Split in the Europa League qualifiers the only contribution of note so far.

However, part of that could be to do with the fact the Iceland international is having to share his position with Rooney and Klaassen and critics argue they are essentially cancelling each other out.

Gylfi Sigurdsson of Everton and Harry Winks of Tottenham Hotspur contest a corner.

While the latter has received as much, if not more, criticism as Sigurdsson, the former has been praised since the 31-year-old’s return to his boyhood club after 13 years with Manchester United.

Rooney had scored the Merseysiders’ only two league goals up until Niasse’s brace against the Cherries and has generally impressed the fans with his famed work ethic while the rest of the side struggled.

Unfortunately the former Red Devils captain is not a club record signing and therefore the team should not be built around him, but Sigurdsson – an attacking midfielder whose creativity is arguably being stifled by the presence of the forward in any case.