DEFENDERS
Tony Hibbert
Very much a peripheral figure now, the defender is surplus to requirements with the emergence of Tyias Browning. With 15 years service, ‘Hibbo’ has been solid but nothing more.
Perhaps a positive influence on the dressing room and well liked but the right-back should be moved on.
VERDICT: LET GO – Forget sentiment and use his wages elsewhere.
Leighton Baines
Up there with the best attacking full backs in Europe, Baines remains one of the first names on the team-sheet. His guile, goals and assists from the left wing remain vital to Everton’s progress.
VERDICT: KEEP – Still an integral part of the squad and one of Everton’s main attacking threats.
Phil Jagielka
Always laughing and joking, Jags must be great around the dressing room. The skipper is an important member of the first-team and continues to consistently impress at the back.
Adapted well to Martinez’s style of play and regularly puts his body on the line to protect the Everton goal.
VERDICT: KEEP – The Everton captain has formed an impressive partnership alongside John Stones which should see the Blues looking much more solid next term.
Sylvain Distin
Just what has gone on for the Frenchman to be frozen out nobody knows but all will be revealed at the season’s end according to Distin.
Apparently denied the chance to leave for West Ham during the last transfer window, the defender’s Everton career is surely over at the age of 37 having not featured since the start of January.
Reliable since his arrival from Portsmouth in 2009, Distin’s performances dipped at the start of this campaign.
Distin, along with Howard, was largely to blame for a number of defensive horror shows which haunted the Toffees for the opening half of the season.
VERDICT: LET GO – A great servant and good professional, now is the time for pastures new, Sylvain.
Seamus Coleman
It’s not been a vintage season for Seamus but the Republic of Ireland star remains one of the best right-backs in the Premier League.
Contributing goals from the back – just like Baines – Coleman’s runs down the right boost Everton’s attacking play while he’s also improved as a defender.
VERDICT: KEEP – Signed for £60,000, Coleman can be a mainstay of this Everton team for many years to come.
John Stones
A Rolls Royce of a footballer, Stones will become one of the best centre-backs in Europe. So assured on the ball, the England international glides effortlessly through games but can rough it up and stick a boot in when needed.
An excellent reader of the game, the youngster is a real ball-playing defender. Full of confidence, Stones is coolness personified and gets fans on the edge of their seats with his marauding forward runs from the back. Pure class.
VERDICT: KEEP – Never let him go. Lock him in Goodison between games if needs be. John ‘Beckenbauer’ Stones.
Tyias Browning
Browning’s first two Everton appearances came at Anfield and Old Trafford and the occasion did not get the better of the youngster.
Involved in the passage of play which led to Jagielka’s last-minute thunderbolt, Browning looks capable of making the grade.
The 20-year-old also looks good defensively and boasts huge energy levels up and down the wing.
VERDICT: KEEP – Another homegrown talent good enough to make it in the top-flight it seems.
Antolin Alcaraz
The Paraguay defender is far too lackadaisical on the ball and let the club down in Kiev as Everton crashed out of Europe. At times in Ukraine, it seemed the centre back almost willingly missed the ball with his head.
Good feet but not much else, Alcaraz is error prone, far too laid back and his positioning is abysmal.
VERDICT: LET GO – See you Antolin. Not good enough.
Luke Garbutt
Out of contract in the summer, Everton look set to lose a real talent in Garbutt.
Seemingly unwilling to commit his future to the Toffees, the young left-back signed from Leeds faces a tough task displacing Baines and may look elsewhere for first-team football.
However, Everton have to do everything they can to tie Garbutt down to a long-term deal despite the current stand-off. The 21-year-old possesses a wand of a left foot and great composure on the ball and is already a competent Premier League player.
If he leaves Goodison Park, Everton will have to deal with seeing Garbutt playing Champions League football for another club for the next two decades. Make no mistake, we will regret letting him slip away.
VERDICT: KEEP – Give him the assurances and whatever else he needs to stay. If not, we’ll have to reluctantly move on and deal with it as he reaches the very top elsewhere… he’s that good.
Brendan Galloway
The young central defender showed his versatility at left back during his Premier League debut against West Ham on Saturday.
Galloway joined the club from MK Dons for whom he made his professional bow at the age of 15 and showed real potential at Upton Park.
VERDICT: KEEP – Galloway has been tipped for a big future in the game.