Manager explains why reported £34m Everton target isn’t playing much

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Carlo Ancelotti reportedly wants to reunite with Napoli’s Serie A benchwarmer Hirving Lozano in the Premier League with Everton.

Napoli manager Gennaro Gattuso has thrown the future of Everton target Hirving Lozano into further doubt, admitting to Tuttomercatoweb that the Mexico international does not have the right ‘characteristics’ to suit his tactical plans.

A man who arrived at the Stadio San Paolo for £34 million during the final few months of the Carlo Ancelotti era could be on his way to England in the near future to reunite with a three-time Champions League winning coach.

TMW reports that Ancelotti is hoping to convince his current employers to rescue Lozano from his Neapolitan nightmare at the end of the season.

And it’s fair to say Gattuso, who replaced the 60-year-old in the Partenopei dugout two months ago, doesn’t share his fellow Italian’s admiration for a man who took the Eredivisie by storm with PSV Eindhoven.

Lozano has played just 50 minutes of football in Serie A since the turn of the year with each of his four appearances coming from the bench. Now, Gattuso has shed a light on why one of the biggest signings made by any Italian club last year has rapidly fallen out of favour.

“At the moment he is not finding space (to play) because I am looking for other characteristics,” said the former AC Milan manager.

Lozano is an explosive old-school inside forward in the mould of a young Cristiano Ronaldo. Gattuso, however, wants his wingers to play quick, one or two-touch football in and around the penalty area rather than carry the ball long distances and run at defenders.

That is why players like Jose Callejon and Elif Elmas have taken Lozano’s place in the starting XI.

A reunion with Ancelotti, however, would see the 2018 World Cup star reunite with a coach who loves enigmatic, individualist talents like him. Just ask Richarlison, Bernard and Theo Walcott; three players who have been revitalised under the Italian at Everton.

Lozano netted 21 and 19 goals in his two seasons at PSV, his direct dribbling and ability to find the net from even the most outrageous of angles catapulting him into the mainstream. With Dominic Calvert-Lewin occupying centre-halves and opening up spaces out wide, Everton looks like the perfect destination for a player who just looks like the wrong fit under the wrong coach at Napoli.