If this ends up being a serious injury for Vitalii Mykolenko, that’s not just going to be a disappointment to himself but to David Moyes and the Everton team. Vitalii has handled himself pretty well over the years in his battles against Mo Salah and he’d be a huge loss for next week’s derby match.
Along with a lot of Evertonians, I was disappointed that Jarrad Branthwaite was not picked to be part of Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad. I think that since David Moyes came in, his performances have really improved and have been closer to those levels that made him the breakthrough star of last season.
He missed much of the summer and has been playing catch up this term. It’s taken a while for him to find his rhythm and get back into his stride.
Everton defender sets 'true focus' as David Moyes offered glimpse into future
While we’re baffled that he hasn’t been given the chance to represent Everton with England again, on the flip side there also has to be some relief given the amount of time we’ve suffered injuries when players have been away on international duty and Mykolenko going off for Ukraine in Belgium is another case in point. In a similar manner to Branthwaite, he’s been another of the players whose performances have improved under David Moyes.
To be fair to Mykolenko, he often seems to step up to the plate against our arch rivals in derby matches. That’s the case when he’s up against tricky wingers, he concentrates on what he needs to do.
He’s also been getting forward and into the areas you’d want your full-backs to be getting into of late, like the Leighton Baines era under Moyes. If he’s out then it’s a ‘scratch your head’ moment for the manager over who he trusts to play in that position against Liverpool.
He could play Ashley Young at left-back, move Branthwaite over or even play a back three. At least there would be over a week to work on things before the game, if that’s the case.
As Everton moves forward though and grows as a club, you want the majority of your players to be going away on international duty. It also enables them to learn new ideas under different coaches, facing the world’s best players – they can come back injured, but that’s part and parcel of football.
With Mykolenko the only recognised option in the position, left-back could be an area that Everton look at in the next transfer window and I think there’s a lot of work ahead when it comes to reshaping the squad this summer. First, we’ve got to get over the line in the Premier League, but given the upturn in form under Moyes, most people are feeling a lot more confident about that now.
Once that is hopefully achieved then I think it’s going to be a very busy window for Moyes and the recruitment team over how to strengthen. As much as you’d like to, you can’t improve every single department.
It could be a slow process in some areas, but we want to see progress. After getting promoted, Nottingham Forest brought in 21 players in a single window and while that didn’t bear fruit at first, it seems to have worked for them this season.
Everton have got a lot of players out of contract so there could be several new faces coming in. The lads who are playing right now, you want them to be on the bench going forward and becoming squad players, as that’s how you improve.
So, between now and the end of the season, it’s up to the players already here to show who has got the right commitment, the right desire, the quality to be part of this football club, both next season and further into the future.