da marjack bet： The absence of Seamus Coleman in the Everton line-up gave Jonjoe Kenny the chance to stake his case to be the club’s first choice at right-back.
da cassino： Five games in a row, 450 minutes of football and no one in line to steal the spot sounds like the perfect audition, especially when your rival is entering into the latter years of his career whilst yours is really just beginning.
Going up against an established right-back in Coleman presents enough challenge for Kenny as it is -without injuries, opportunities to show what he has in the tank come thin and far between.
However, the chance did come for the 21-year-old and now Marco Silva has a decision on his hands with the Irish international expected to be fit again come the club’s next match, at home to Crystal Palace on October 21st.
Playing to the style of the manager is what established Seamus Coleman as not only Everton’s best choice for the right-back spot but one of the best in the Premier League.
The system brought in by Roberto Martinez utilised the full backs at Everton in a way that was still viewed as fairly unconventional, having them push high up the pitch and join the attack at every opportunity.
This style saw Everton improve on where they finished under David Moyes to being a Champions League contending team. Martinez had his flaws and the following season his Toffees team were found out by the opposition as they plummeted down the table, but the style he instilled on Coleman kept the full-back at the top of the class.
21-year-old Kenny must look to the way Coleman established himself and made the position his own if the Kirkdale lad has any true desire to be the Toffees’ number one right-back.
His outings in recent games have laid down another layer on the foundations set last term, but the former Wigan and Oxford loanee still leaves a lot to be desired.
Take Everton’s recent fixtures against West Ham and Leicester as two examples of the good and the bad the Englishman has to his game.
Against West Ham, Kenny was thrown into the team on the back of his teammate being ruled out through injury. In this match, he performed strongly by assisting Gylfi Sigurdsson’s effort to pull one back as their side trailed by two goals approaching half time. But come Leicester away, his weakness came to the fore.
Playing at right-back may mean getting forward more and more these days, but the role still requires a high level of defensive ability.
Against the Foxes, fellow full-back Ricardo Pereira made Kenny dance to his Portuguese beat as he cut inside and out to trick the defender four years his junior into committing to a block that simply opened the space for the ex-Porto star to score. More experience, like what Coleman could have brought to that moment, may have seen the situation unfold differently.
Only more minutes on the pitch will see Kenny build that football brain for scenarios like this, as training never amounts to the same intensity of a match. Therefore, keeping Kenny in the side for upcoming tests away at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge may bring out the best in the man in line for Coleman’s crown.
So, Everton fans, who do you see as the club’s first-choice right-back? Let us know by voting below…