Everton’s new £27m signing struggling with Premier League, says Allardyce

Everton manager Sam Allardyce has revealed he has demoted Cenk Tosun to the bench because his new £27m signing is struggling to adapt to life in the Premier League.

The Toffees made Tosun one of the club’s most expensive ever signings in January after coughing up just shy of £30m to sign Turkey international from Besiktas.

Tosun has started Everton’s last two matches on the bench and was limited to just 12 minutes of playing time at the end of Saturday’s humiliating 5-1 defeat to Arsenal.

Allardyce has instead opted to start unpopular striker Oumar Niasse in attack and revealed Tosun’s early struggles have led to a demotion in the pecking order.

“He’s had service to him that he’s not held up and he’s found it a bit of a struggle at this level because of the pace and the physicality of the game,” the Liverpool Echo quote Allardyce as saying on Saturday.

“So his service hasn’t been too bad but his hold up play hasn’t been like it was at Besiktas so that’s why he’s not starting the games at the minute because he’s finding it tough going like every player does, particularly when they come in January.

“I said we wanted goals, he scored goals in the Champions League and with Besiktas but may not hit the ground running for us. He hasn’t done that yet, I’m sure he will do eventually.

“I’m more concerned about the other players than I am about Cenk. I’m more likely to feed him slowly and give him a bit more time over the next few weeks and hopefully by the end of the season he starts games.”

The 26-year-old has managed 143 minutes of playing time in the Premier League since joining Everton but is still searching for his first goal and has only mustered three shots on goal in that time, with none of those hitting the target. 

Saturday’s defeat to Arsenal means that only Stoke (52), Huddersfield and West Ham (both 46) have conceded more Premier League goals than Everton (45) this season, who have now only won one of their last nine matches in all competitions.