Everton's Key Men Must Rediscover Form Amid Current Injury Crisis

As domestic and European football rolls back around, the upcoming block of fixtures is important for all those concerned with Everton Football Club.

For the team it’s critical that results take a turn for the better after a difficult start and for the supporters, the prospect of the upcoming Europa League jaunt to Lille is an exciting and long awaited one.

Indeed, social media is rife with banners and flags that a supposed 10,000 Toffees will haul with them to Northern France, most of which centre around the re-establishment of the “School of Science”. But at this juncture, the star pupils—James McCarthy, Ross Barkley, John Stones, Kevin Mirallas and Seamus Coleman—are all suffering with respective fitness concerns.

The School of Science? Or Everton’s treatment room?

It’s quite the index of key players that are unavailable, and injuries have played an undeniably detrimental role in Everton’s start to the season. But it’s harsh times like these when other key players must make themselves counted, and it must start in earnest against Aston Villa in their upcoming Premier League clash.

One these men is Romelu Lukaku. The powerful Belgian forward has failed to hit the heights of the 2013/14 season following his £28 million move in the summer, but against a physically intimidating Villa centre back pairing of Ron Vlaar and Philippe Senderos, Lukaku needs to rediscover not only his predatory instincts, but his bustling swagger.

Despite looking leggy early on in the season, Roberto Martinez has insisted his star striker doesn’t need a rest, but given his ineffective displays so far, taking him out of the firing line for a few games—especially with a player of Samuel Eto’o’s calibre waiting in the wings—will have surely crossed the Catalan’s mind.

Lukaku will be hopeful of notching again against Villa.

The same applies for Tim Howard, too. The American’s recent form has been nothing short of desperate, and after making rudimentary errors that have cost Everton dearly in a host of recent matches, there are plenty of those who frequent Goodison Park calling for Joel Robles to come in.

The Spanish back-up ‘keeper hasn’t really played with any kind of conviction in his scattering of appearances to date, but there’s a festering consensus that he deserves his chance based solely on the premise that he couldn’t possible do any worse that Everton’s usual first choice.

Although the roles of the aforementioned pair clearly differ, Martinez needs these high profile figures to stand up amid the club’s current injury crisis and haul Everton back up towards the pinnacle of the Premier League. And given the far from desirable form of both Howard and Lukaku, this process needs to start next time out against a tricky opponent.

Games against Villa have made for tortuous viewing for Evertonians in years gone by. Goals have been plentiful, late drama has been commonplace, but all-in-all, the men from the Midlands have usually got the better of things, even though they’ve suffered a decline of sorts recently.

Everton have typically struggled against Villa down the years.

Everton notched 2-0 and 2-1 victories in the two fixtures last season, but the wins only came about as a result of late goals and some streaks of inspiration from the likes of Steven Pienaar, Mirallas and Lukaku. Nonetheless, it’s difficult to shake off the notion that Paul Lambert’s side are a bit of a bugbear for the Goodison Park outfit.

The marriage of that sense of foreboding when coming up against a bogey team and the difficult start to the campaign that Everton have endured have left those in blue with a sense of unshakeable trepidation ahead of this weekend’s clash with the men from Villa Park. But it’s one that’s almost must-win for Martinez’s men as they look to inject some kind of impetus into their domestic exploits.

With no wins in their last five games and a myriad of injury problems, the international break came at an ideal time for the Toffees, and the news that Barkley, McCarthy and Coleman could all feature is a major boost. But even if all those players are reintegrated, this will be a very tricky game.

Villa are a team that Martinez has admitted he’d rather play away from home, and such is their counter-attacking prowess, it’s a fair comment. Indeed, when it comes to style, there are few teams in the Premier League that are better equipped to cause Everton problems than this Villa one.

Agbonlahor has been something of a nemesis to Everton down the years.

Lambert’s side have shown throughout this season that they can be cohesive for long spells, soak up pressure and spring with blistering incision. Admittedly they can be inconsistent and prone to lapses of concentration at the back, but when they get it right against a team that like to dominate the ball and push up the pitch, they can be devastating.

Going off the evidence of this current campaign, Everton are a side that will be wholly accommodative of Villa’s counter attacking principles. They’ve struggled against pace, struggled to break down diligent opposition and struggled to cope with physically imposing opponents.

So it’s understandable that the blistering spell of Gabriel Agbonlahor and the burly somatotype of Christian Benteke—two players who have caused big problems for the Toffees in the past—have got a few Evertonians concerned.

But despite the obvious qualities of Villa, Everton should have enough to emerge victorious, injuries and all. And you suspect the sell-out Goodison Park crowd would be delighted—if not a little relieved—if both Lukaku and Howard both played important roles.

Follow Matt on Twitter @MattJFootball