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Moise Kean Development Can be Positive News for Everton

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During his time at Everton, it’d be fair to say manager Carlo Ancelotti didn’t have complete trust in young striker Moise Kean.

That was emphasised by the meagre 13 minutes he played in the Premier League this season, before moving on loan to Paris Saint-Germain.

So for Evertonians watching on on Tuesday as PSG sought to see out a tense Champions League quarter-final clash with Bayern Munich, it would have been intriguing to see Kean introduced into the action with 17 minutes remaining by his manager Mauricio Pochettino in place of midfielder Julian Draxler.

For Kean, it was a major show of faith, with the striker asked to do a diligent job on the left flank as Bayern piled forward in search of a goal that would have taken them through. In the end the Italian and his team-mates were able to get the job done.

Kean did his job well. While he missed a great opportunity to score, the striker showed defensive appetite and carried the ball forward brilliantly on the counter-attack to give his team a release against the Bayern pressure.

That kind of street smart was lacking during his time in the Premier League, with the game passing Kean by far too frequently in his first season on Merseyside.

Clearly he’s reaping the benefits of working alongside world-class players on a day-to-day basis, as well as an elite coach in the form of Mauricio Pochettino. And perhaps with the gaze of players like Neymar and Kylian Mbappe on you, you will always be more prone to putting the graft in.

From an Everton perspective, all of this has to be taken as a positive.

Either they get a more rounded footballer back in the summer and he can play more of a role next season for Ancelotti’s team. If they are willing to cash in on him at the end of the campaign, PSG will surely be in the fight for the 21-year-old too, with Pochettino already showing he’s ready to depend on the strike in the most important of circumstances.

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