Merlin Rohl has come back into the picture at Everton in recent weeks, much to the joy of Everton fans.
Merlin Rohl has spent a lot of time on the bench for the Toffees this season, making just 18 appearances for 684 minutes.
Did Everton make a mistake in signing Merlin Rohl? 🫣
Or do we need to be more patient? 😬
His performance against Aston Villa back in January was particularly good, but for some reason David Moyes then didn’t hand him a single minute across the next seven games. He got cameo appearances in the next two after that.
But against Manchester City last week Rohl was handed a surprise start – and the youngster took his chance, putting in a fine display as a winger.
He started again against Crystal Palace and wasn’t quite as brilliant, but he still made an impression.
Rohl’s development will be one to watch, and David Moyes has given a positive verdict about him for next season.
Moyes wants to hand Merlin Rohl more opportunities, but doesn’t know where to play him
Everton will turn Rohl’s move to the club permanent in the summer, with the club having easily secured Premier League survival.
It’s been a season in which Rohl has rather dipped his toe so far. And next term, expectations will be greater.
And thankfully, Moyes seems ready to call on Rohl more. But the manager does admit he still doesn’t yet know where best to use him.
He said in a feature piece on Rohl from the Liverpool Echo: “We are generally still trying to find the best [position for him]. We’ve had some thoughts on how we work and we brought him with an idea because we knew about his physicality and what he could do.
“He is a good player as well and he can score. But he just found that we couldn’t really get him in the side at the start. We started quite well, he was not really able to find a place and he had a few injuries.
“He’s now certainly got used to it. So it takes a lot and I think that I’m hoping that we can find a way of getting him more football and getting him a chance, next season especially. He’ll need to be the one who does that but he’s a really good boy to work with.”
Idrissa Gana Gueye decision could impact Rohl
Rohl has previously suggested that he prefers to operate as a box-to-box midfielder, but we’ve rarely seen him in that role.
This term, we’ve seen Moyes call on Idrissa Gana Gueye for most games, with the veteran playing alongside James Garner, who’s been undroppable.
For Rohl to play in the box-to-box role regularly, he would surely benefit from Gueye moving on this summer.
Everton have an option to extend Gueye’s contract, but it’s still up in the air as to whether they’ll take it up. Gueye also needs to give the green light.
We’ll see what happens. It’s good that Moyes appears to want to use him more, but perhaps slightly concerning that Rohl doesn’t yet have an identified position in the eyes of the manager.
That he has shown he can be effective out wide though will boost his chances of getting more minutes.
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