Leon Osman felt sympathy for Ben Godfrey during Everton’s 2-0 defeat to Southampton on Sunday, telling the BBC Football Daily podcast that Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side exploited his struggles in a new position.
It’s fair to say the Toffees did plan to use the former Norwich City captain in a completely unfamiliar position when they paid £25 million for his services on the final day of the transfer window.
But Carlo Ancelotti had little choice but to force a square peg into a round hole at St Mary’s with Seamus Coleman and Jonjoe Kenny, the only first-team right-backs in his squad, both unavailable through injury.
Godfrey looked all at sea on the South Coast, struggling to deal with the overlapping runs of Ryan Bertrand throughout a miserable first half.
He also failed to stop a Danny Ings cross which Che Adams slammed home to seal a richly deserved 2-0 win for Southampton.
But Everton legend Osman believes that Godfrey should not be written off after one difficult afternoon in a position which is not his own.
“Yeah I did (feel sorry for him). I think he has the potential to be a very, very good player for Everton but I think he’s a centre-half. I think he’ll be a ball playing centre-half,” the former England international says.
“And if he does go and play right-back, like he did at the weekend, it will be from a very old-school right-back position. He won’t be going too far (up the pitch), he won’t be getting up and down the wings because you wouldn’t expect your centre-half to do that.”
Osman adds that Godfrey was not exactly given much help by the drifting James Rodriguez as Southampton brutally exploited Everton’s instability down the right-hand side.
“When you’re then playing a James Rodriguez style player ahead of him, who is also wanting to not be in the wide area, I think you leave that area of the field very exposed and Southampton took full advantage of that.”
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