Everton have a midfield injury crisis ahead of Sunday afternoon’s meeting with Leicester City which could force Marco Silva to utilise Gylfi Sigurdsson in a makeshift deep-lying role alongside Tom Davies.
The Toffees could be without five midfielders at the King Power Stadium – Jean-Philippe Gbamin (thigh), Andre Gomes (ankle), Fabian Delph (hamstring), Morgan Schneiderlin (knock), Beni Baningime (knock) – so Silva is left with little choice but to use square pegs in round holes.
Sigurdsson is a natural attacking-midfielder who has been dribbled past 15 times (52%), averaged one interception every 220 minutes, lost the ball (through dispossession or an unsuccessful touch) 31 times, but he does have experience in a deeper role.
Whether a partnership of Davies and Sigurdsson can keep the likes of James Maddison, Wilfred Ndidi and Youri Tielemans at bay remains to be seen, however. The Everton duo will be in for a difficult afternoon as Leicester are the Premier League’s third-highest scorers (31) and boast the best defence (8).
What will the result be vs Leicester?
Foxes win
Draw
Blues win
Everton picked up all three points the last time they travelled to the King Power Stadium, but the Blues are 14 places and 15 points worse off. It’s a bad time for an injury crisis in such a key area.