Gylfi Sigurdsson’s set-piece prowess was legendary at Swansea City – but he may struggle to have the same influence at Everton.
You might have heard that Everton failed to replace Romelu Lukaku this summer.
And it rather summed up the last few weeks for The Toffees when their one-time number ten fired home the third in Sunday’s 4-0 thumping at Old Trafford – rubbing salt into the wounds after Wayne Rooney, who moved in the opposite direction, spurned two presentable chances.
Yet, while the out-of-sorts Rooney did little to suggest that United acted a little prematurely letting him return to Merseyside this summer, Everton’s fourth defeat on the bounce was also characterised by another anonymous display by club-record signing Gylfi Sigurdsson.
Everton were forced to wait for weeks to complete the signing of the Swansea City talisman, reportedly costing an obscene £45 million, as reported by The Guardian. However, barring a stunning long range goal in the Europa League qualifiers against Hajduk Split, Sigurdsson is yet to show Everton supporters what all the fuss is about. Though that is not all his own fault.
Set-piece Siggy
After all, Sigurdsson was signed as a set-piece specialist and a player who produced the second most assists in the top flight last season behind Kevin De Bruyne. His ability to pick out Swansea targetmen Fernando Llorente with pin-point precision from a dead-ball situation certainly swelled those statistics.
However, without Lukaku to aim for, Sigurdsson’s set piece threat has been somewhat blunted during his first few weeks at Goodison Park. A couple of decent deliveries in recent games against Chelsea and Atalanta came to nothing with Everton lacking a real physical presence in the opposition penalty area.
If Everton wanted to smash their transfer record to bring in a free-kick master, they could at least have given the marksman a target to aim for.
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