The horrific leg-break suffered by Bryan Oviedo in Everton’s FA Cup mauling of Stevenage has forced Roberto Martinez to nosedive back into the January market. Toffee transfer activity was thought to be at an end for this season following the loan capture of Lacina Traore from Monaco, but now the Champions League-chasing Merseysiders – available at odds of 9/2 to finish in the Premier League’s top-four – are short of cover at left-back. Solutions to this problem are not in abundance given both Everton’s financial restrictions and the clock working against them, but Feyenoord youngster Bruno Martins Indi is one the Goodison Park recruitment team have been casting an eye over. The 21-year-old can operate at either left-back or in the heart of defence and has represented his native Holland on 11 occasions. Join bwin today and your free £20 bet could win… Premier League Dubbed the new Sol Campbell in various quarters, Indi sees himself as a centre-half, making him the perfect long-term replacement for the evergreen Sylvain Distin, while he’s also sufficiently Oviedo-shaped to fit into the hole forged at left-back on the short-term. BMI has started 18 Eredivisie games for De Trots van Zuid this term, the majority of which at left-back. Defensively, he makes 1.2 tackles and 4.2 clearances per outing, but the stat most likely to impress Martinez is his 86.4 per cent pass completion rate from the almost 50 passes he plays per game. This surpasses the rate achieved by Distin and is only 0.2 per cent shy of matching England international Phil Jagielka’s effort suggesting Indi is the sound technical stopper to slot into the club’s possession-centred system. Said system has been hugely beneficial for Everton this season, with only Manchester City and Sunderland able to better the Toffees in the league. It will be put firmly to the test in their next outing, though, in the all-Mersey turf war with Liverpool. The Toffees’ away goals conceded tally can’t be bettered by any top-tier adversary, but the Reds’ have notched at least twice in nine successive Anfield encounters. With Martinez’s men only allowing one at most in eight road games, something has to give and odds of 13/10 say the visitors can limit the contest to fewer than 2.5 strikes.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 16:25:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015