Everton linked with a move for French fullback: The ideal long-term replacement for Baines?

Everton are at it again. After last season’s summer transfer window madness, the Toffees have spent a massive fee of around £40m to sign Richarlison from Watford.

One thing Marco Silva has to do is to sign players to add more balance to that Everton squad. Last season, the club signed quite a few midfielders while Ronald Koeman was in charge and the imbalance of the squad showed when the season started.

Of course, signing too many players didn’t help as they took a while to play well together. The defence has been the cause of concern and Silva needs to sign a few more players to iron out the leakage of goals.

If reports are to be believed, the Merseyside outfit are linked with a move for Barcelona full-back Lucas Digne.  The Frenchman struggled for game time last season as he could make just 12 appearances in the league. He started in eight games as he struggled to displace Jordi Alba from the team.

Subsequently, he failed to make the French national team and wasn’t part of the World Cup as the likes of Lucas Hernandez and Benjamin Mendy, the latter despite missing nearly the whole season, was named ahead of him.

Lucas Digne – Stats

Lucas Digne rose to prominence for being a pretty complete fullback. A confident passer of the ball, Digne was also a good left-back when it came to tracking back and taking on attackers and winning duels.

Last season, he mustered a passing accuracy of 87.9% and made 1.8 interceptions per game. His crossing is something that’ll have to improve if Everton sign him.

At Barcelona, fullbacks aren’t used to delivering crosses into the box as they are asked to make those darting runs to take away defenders create space in the attacking third.

Everton have had Leighton Baines for quite a few years now and he was one of the most consistent left-backs in the league. Baines, though, is now past his peak and in the twilight of his career. Needless to say, he needs to be replaced with someone young and Digne could be the ideal player.

The Frenchman showed good consistency at PSG and Roma which earned him a move to Barcelona. It’s a shame it hasn’t worked out there for him but a potential move to Everton could be the revival he needs in his career.

Stats via Whoscored