We’ve all seen it, now stats back us up! Everton NEED a Midfielder and a Striker.

After stumbling upon Bloomberg’s top 50 players in Europe list, where Fellaini ranks 12th, I also stumbled upon the statistics that show the top 10 per position in the Premier League, and Everton are regular showers.

Firstly, we have the goalkeeper list. Tim Howard just fits in at 10th. This is bang on average then and while we Evertonians acknowledge that we could improve in that area, it’s not a position that we need to focus on this summer.

We move on to the Left-Back position. Surprise, surprise, Baines comes in at 1. Next!

Centre-Back is the next position to follow and once again Everton comes in with ‘Mr. Consistent’, Sylvain Distin. The man who regularly plays as if he’s 10 years younger slots in at a healthy 3rd place.  I’m not sure where Jagielka finds himself, possibly just behind after a poor start to last season despite resurrecting himself in the final few months.

Next up is the Right-Back position. This position has been a revelation for Everton this year as Seamus Coleman has stepped up and has found himself  becoming a real threat in the Everton attack. The Irishman is ranked 6th and that comes even after a poor first few months where he was responsible for a number of conceded goals.

We move on to the midfield positions and first up is the holding midfielder role. Everton are not to be seen. We have Gibson as a distributor but injuries have taken their toll on him and Evertonians have been crying out for a midfielder this season. After being very close to signing Leroy Fer last January, it seems we missed out on a great opportunity to fill the void. To rub salt into the wounds, ex-Everton midfielder Mikel Arteta takes the top spot.

Back to Everton being in the lists, and this time it’s the second part of our left hand side with Steven Pienaar coming in at 4th. While Pienaar has not necessarily had his best season, he’s still been a key figure over the course of the season.

Crossing the midfield to the Right-Midfield position and we find another revelation of the season in Kevin Mirallas. Before last season our right-hand-side had been woeful for years and years, but this season Mirallas and Coleman formed a great dynamic partnership and it showed with the tricky winger coming in 3rd place despite injuries over the course of the season.

Onto the Attacking-Midfield role and this season Marouane Fellaini occupied this position very well. As mentioned earlier, Fellaini came 12th in the top 50 players in Europe by the same statistic finders, although the tall Belgian was beaten in the position rankings by Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla. 2nd place is still incredibly respected though. If you look back to the holding midfield position, maybe Fellaini could have dominated this area if he had been played there in what is his preferred position. Maybe the holding midfield position is not the position we should be targeting, but rather in attacking midfield.

Finally we fall to the Striker problem. What’s happened to Nikica Jelavic? Who knows, that’s a different debate for a different day. This season we relied on Anichebe, and while he’s been so much better than in recent seasons, I think the majority of Evertonians know that if we’re really going to progress as a team, we need so much better. Hopefully Martinez can bring in a top talent this season and whoever that may be, can find himself in the top ten rankings next season.