Bryan Oviedo. Potential Hero or Zero?

So as the title suggests, this article will be whether I think Bryan Oviedo has what it takes to make it at Everton Football Club.

A little background into Bryan then. Bryan is a 23yr old Costa Rican international who signed from FC Copenhagen in the summer for a fee believed to be around £1.5-2m. Bryan traditionally plays as a LB but can also put in a shift at LM as Evertonians have witnessed already this season. Bryan has a few noticeable traits such as; pace, work rate and desire. All three of these ‘traits’ lead me to the opinion that Bryan Oviedo will indeed succeed here at Everton Football Club. So onto why I think this.

(Before the Norwich Game) Bryan has played only 222mins of football for Everton this season but is already a fan favourite with the faithful coming up with the chant “Oviedo baby, Oviedo woahhhh” to the tune of Human Leagues – Don’t You Want Me. It’s very rare that the Goodison Faithful see so little of a player but still love him, I personally feel it is because of the ‘traits’ I mentioned above.
In Bryan’s first Premier League start for EFC he started at LM for the absent Steven Pienaar against Norwich City at Goodison Park. Safe to say, in that time Bryan impressed, it took him until the 14th minute to skim the Norwich RB and place a lovely ball into the oncoming Steven Naismith to put the Blues 1-0 up. Bryan’s blistering pace will most definitely pose a threat for any team which leaves me baffled as to why we have seen so little of him, one thing that Everton lack is pace, so why does Oviedo never get any decent time on the pitch? His first start at Everton was I think the League Cup game against Leeds United which he played in his most natural position of LB. That night however he had Magaye Gueye in front of him so it was probably never going to be the best of nights for the young 22yr old. You saw glimpses of him being a relatively good LB but at the same time he struggled a lot and part of his defensive game needed work, however, having said that it was his first start for EFC in his natural position so I guess we can let him off with that one and as I say, he very rarely got any support defensively and offensively from his left side partner, Gueye.

There are parts of Bryan’s game that most definitely need improving, however, he is only 23yrs old so there is plenty of time for him to develop certain parts of his game. One area I think that needs to be improved is his ability to take a man on, rather than trying to beat them for shear pace, he should try to add a bit of craft and cleverly get past a player. Another area is most definitely his final ball, although he isn’t the only one at EFC that needs to improve this. Defensively I feel he needs to bulk up a little so he isn’t bullied off the ball so easily, but that will obviously come with time, the more training he does etc. It’s going to be easy for Bryan to develop these areas because he has some superb people here at Everton he can learn from. For one he can learn from arguably the best LB in Europe in Leighton Baines. The same goes with his attacking, he can learn off Leighton but he can also learn off the likes of Steven Pienaar and Kevin Mirallas. Seamus Coleman has improved offensively and defensively so there’s absolutely no reason why Bryan Oviedo cannot do the same, after all he has shown that he has a desire to learn and to give his all and that ultimately is what we want here at Everton.

So do I see him as Everton’s future LB? Most definitely, there is a lot of work to be done with Bryan but the signs are there that he can become a top player, however, he has some competition to be Leighton Baines’ replacement in the form of Luke Garbutt, but, as mentioned earlier Bryan can play that LM/LW role quite comfortably so we could be seeing a Luke Garbutt – Bryan Oviedo left sided partnership in the years to come, which is going to take something special to successfully replace Leighton Baines and Steven Pienaar though. So it’s a massive YES from me. Bryan Oviedo WILL make it at Everton, you can even quote me on it.

So I asked Twitter what they thought about whether Bryan has what it takes to make it at Everton Football Club, here are a few of the replies;

@EvertonNewsFeed: If given the opportunity he could become a key player for the club. Just not getting the game time to prove himself.

@SamPolak: Yes he can become a success, as long as he bulks up. Signs are there with his pace and trickery.

@Johnrees94: Shown glimpses of his potential but isn’t consistent enough. Could be great one game then poor the next.

So, thanks for taking the time to read this, don’t rip into me too much haha! Also leave your opinions about whether Bryan has what it takes to be a successful at EFC or not.

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Cheers again.