So much was expected from Alex Iwobi when he made a big money move from Arsenal FC to Everton. The Liverpool rivals were said to have paid a humongous trasfer fee in the region of €40million for the Nigerian midfielder.
Alex Iwobi will however struggle to justify the humongous transfer fee paid by the club. He was supposed to be one of the key players that will form the spine of a new look Toffees expected to possibly challenge the big guns for major honours.
Photo: Alex Iwobi in action for Nigeria
However, the Nigerian midfielder failed to settle in properly, managing just 1 goal in the Premier League and a couple of goals in cup competitions. The young man, found it hard to settle in with Competition for places very high.
He had Glyfi Sigurdson to compete with for the role of an attacking midfielder, he had Andre Gomes and Davies to battle with for role of Natural central midfielder. He also had Bernard, the little Brazilian and Theo Walcott on the wings.
However, the despite the best performances of the young Nigerian coming from Midfield, Carlos Anceloti have consistently played him on the wings.
Pre-lockdown Iwobi posted very poor performances as a result of poor form and injuries. The Nigerian Star was dropped from the starting Eleven at some point albeit having arrived at the club as an expected regular starter.
Since the return of Football activities across Europe, Iwobi have managed to play 5 games on the trot, all as a starter.
Even though there are no goals or assist to his name in the Premier League post lock down, Iwobi have quickly developed other area of his game.
Concerns have being raised on several occasions about what the Former Arsenal FC star have to offer the National team.
Sportmata have listed three areas Alex Iwobi’s game, that have improved since lock down and how this might be important to Gernot Rohr.
1. Defensive work
Iwobi have being a different player post lockdown, the Nigerian International could be seen closing down opposition players and on several occasions tracking back to help out in defense. Iwobi is more of an offensive player but lately he seems to be doing more defensively for Everton. He now averages 1.0 tackles per game and 0.6 interceptions per game. It will be nice seeing Iwobi play like this for the National team.
2. Going the Distance
Every single Nigeria fan, know that Alex Iwobi is not a player for the 90 minutes, surprisingly, the player almost played the entire game for the Toffees which they won by 2 goals to 1 against Champions League hopeful, Leicester in a Premier League encourage. Iwobi now averages 65min per game. Iwobi have being a peripheral figure at Goodison Park but lately, he has been highly involved.
3. Positional Discipline
Iwobi have so far being very disciplined when playing the role he is assigned by the Gaffer. In recent times when Iwobi is played in the centre of the pitch, he is often found at the extreme ends trying to make things happen for whatsoever team he plays for.
Recently, Iwobi have being very displined with his duty on the pitch for Carlo Anceloti men.
Hopefully, we will have an Iwobi that Rohr will instruct to play at Central midfield and and he will surely stick to his position.
Rohr will be glad Iwobi now plays week in week out.
