Everton manager Sam Allardyce has prioritised signing a striker in the January transfer window to take some of the burden off top scorer Wayne Rooney.
Allardyce watched Rooney score a hat-trick from midfield against West Ham in midweek but plans to rotate the 32-year-old this season so he can influence the games he does play.
Among the forwards he would consider bringing to Goodison in January are Jermain Defoe, Andy Carroll and Christian Benteke, all of whom he’s worked with before. Everton haven’t replaced Romelu Lukaku since selling him to Manchester United for £75million in the summer.
Sam Allardyce has earmarked some of his former strikers as potential Everton targets
‘I have to say it is a priority. If we achieve anything going forward to get into the top half, we need at least two players to score ten goals or more,’ he said.
‘If you can’t get one who can score 20, which is a very difficult task, you have to get one or two in who can get between 10 and 15. In all fairness, I stayed in the Premier League with Jermain Defoe scoring 18 at Sunderland and Christian Benteke scoring 16 at Crystal Palace.
‘There is a certain amount of goals you need to finish 10, around the 50-goal mark. So how do we get those?’
Allardyce, at his seventh Premier League club, accepts one of his biggest challenges is to persuade Rooney that missing certain games would be a good thing.
Allardyce is looking to bring in some support for current top goalscorer Wayne Rooney
The Everton boss could inquire about Christian Benteke (left) and Andy Carroll
‘It’s for me to judge when Wayne can keep delivering the kind of performance he did against West Ham the other night. And for me to talk to him about it and say ‘I might have to rest you in a game. I know you will be upset about it but I feel that as the manager it will be what you need. When you come back in you will be the match winner, the man of the match,’ said Allardyce.
‘He probably won’t accept it like the rest but it’s my job to be good enough as a manager to try and get the best out of him. It might be that he can handle it. I don’t know yet. I’ve only been here for two minutes.
Rooney scored a hat-trick in Everton’s midweek thrashing of West Ham at Goodison Park
‘Wayne’s legs are not as good as they used to be and they can’t be. He has played from 17 to 31 and apart from being injured, he won’t have had three weeks off a year. It has been one hell of a career.’
Allardyce stressed that Rooney, who returned to his boyhood club in the summer after spending 13 years at Manchester United, will be a key figure in the dressing-room as Everton strive to match the ambitions of owner Farhad Moshiri.
‘Wayne doesn’t stay down and he doesn’t hide. It’s not been going too well here but he always wants to receive the ball and he will always accept the ball and use his experience to help the lads along the way that are struggling,’ said Allardyce.
‘Everyone talks about team spirit when things are going well but that is easy. Keeping the team spirit together when you’re not going so well is a difficult thing to do. I think Wayne with his experience is vital.
‘He’s seen it all before, he’s done it all, if perhaps not in a difficult position like this. But still using his experience and his quality will help us get out of the problems we’ve got.’
But Allardyce admitted he will have his work cut out for him when he tries to rest Rooney