'Lost', 'Imposter' - Pundits slam Everton ace who lost 71% of his duels vs Saints

Everton midfielder Allan ‘looked a little lost’ during Saturday’s Premier League clash with Southampton, The Liverpool Echo’s Connor O’Neill said.

Allan started a third successive league game in Frank Lampard’s midfield, lining up alongside Donny van de Beek in a 4-4-2.

He was booked only 15 minutes into the game after fouling Southampton right-back Kyle Walker-Peters, leaving him walking a ‘tightrope‘ in the words of The Athletic’s Patrick Boyland.

At half time, Lampard opted to withdraw the Brazilian, sending on Andre Gomes in his place.

On top of his struggles off the ball, O’Neill pointed out that Allan had spurned a ‘glorious’ attacking opportunity.

“Booked for a foul early doors, and has at times looked a little lost in the middle with Everton struggling to retain possession,” he wrote at half time.

“Also wasted a glorious chance to slide Calvert-Lewin in.”

BBC Radio 5 Live’s Dave Downie went further in his criticism, suggesting that he looks like an ‘imposter’ when he plays away from home.

The stats demonstrate that it was a tricky 45 minutes for Allan.

In addition to his yellow card, he lost five of the seven ground duels he contested and was dribbled past three times in all.

His passing accuracy of 76% (19 out of 25 found a team-mate) also left a little to be desired.

And his overall SofaScore rating of 6.3/10 was the joint-lowest in The Toffees’ ranks (along with Donny van de Beek and Jonjoe Kenny) when he was withdrawn.

You’d imagine that Lampard considered not only the yellow card, but also the underwhelming performance, when he opted to make the switch at the interval.

In other news, Kevin Campbell is delighted at this contract development.

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