Alex Iwobi credits Frank Lampard with Everton success: ‘He’s given me the belief to express myself’

Until recently, Alex Iwobi never knew where he truly belonged at Everton.

A £28million signing from Arsenal in the summer of 2019, versatility proved to be both a blessing and a curse for the Nigeria international as multiple Everton managers trialled him in wide-ranging positions, many of them ill-fitting.

At different times of a three-year spell at Goodison Park, Iwobi had found himself tasked with operating as a winger, a No.10, in midfield and at right wing-back.

Such was the former Arsenal trainee’s positional enigma that Carlo Ancelotti – Iwobi’s manager on Merseyside from December 2019 to June 2021 – publicly challenged the player to name a preferred role after a cryptic social media post last year.

So where does Iwobi currently see his ideal platform?

‘Right now, I would say it’s like a No.8 or No.10 position,’ he reveals. ‘But I can’t say that [because] I don’t know where I’m going to play. Anywhere I’m told to play, I try my best.

‘Obviously when I was breaking through at Arsenal, there was a lot of midfielders at the time, so I tried different positions – one was out wide, one was up front. ‘But I’ve always been most comfortable in midfield.’

Settling into the central berth under latest boss Frank Lampard has been mutually beneficial to the Toffees and Iwobi, typified by his impressive display in their opening-day Premier League defeat to Chelsea last week.

But his renaissance began last season amid a tumultuous period, having returned from a disappointing Africa Cup of Nations to discover his fourth club manager in three years.

Those frustrations were channelled into an impressive run of form under Lampard which saw Iwobi make numerous invaluable contributions as Everton successfully battled to preserve their