It took 100 games and over 8,000 minutes of action, but Vitalii Mykolenko now has a Premier League assist for Everton.
A total of 1,139 days had passed since the Ukrainian’s first league start at Norwich, but at Brentford he finally put that unwanted record to bed, curling a cross to the back-post for fellow defender Jake O’Brien to stoop and head home.
Stop to consider those stats for a moment. The UK has had four Prime Ministers in that timeframe. Everton, too, are on their fourth permanent manager since Mykolenko’s arrival. Rafa Benitez, Frank Lampard and Sean Dyche have all been seen off, while at least three takeover bids also collapsed during that extended spell.
Mykolenko has chipped in with goals and other pieces of attacking quality for Everton since his arrival. The superb volley against Leicester City in his first season that helped Lampard’s side stay up; two other strikes came against Brighton & Hove Albion and Crystal Palace on successive match-days last season and, in fairness, there was an assist in the Carabao Cup game against League Two Doncaster Rovers, of England’s fourth tier, last August.
But those moments have been fleeting — anomalies, when you look at the wider picture.
It is somewhat remarkable in the modern game, where so much emphasis is usually placed on full-backs as providers, that someone in Mykolenko’s position has gone so long without creating a goal in the league for Everton.
Assists are a dumb stat in a sense. They place undue weight on the finishing ability of other players. A cross or pass can be perfect, but if it’s not converted then it won’t count in your favour.
Mykolenko did score against Palace last season (Tom Dulat/Getty Images)
But even the more refined expected assists (xGA) model, which calculates how many assists a player would usually get based on the quality of chances they’ve created, shows Mykolenko as someone who has had limited attacking influence for his side.
Three years into his time on Merseyside, his xGA sits a touch above four. Sure, he’s been slightly unlucky not to register well, anything, in terms of actual assists since joining, but it’s no huge surprise his numbers are so low.
Mykolenko, of course, has never been an overly adventurous full-back. There were times in Wednesday night’s game, for example, where team-mates like Idrissa Gueye were beckoning him to make runs forward. On the whole, he has been a solid, steady if unspectacular performer since swapping Dynamo Kyiv in his native Ukraine for Goodison Park in the opening month of 2022.
There have also been long spells, particularly under Moyes’ predecessor Dyche, where Everton had little of the ball and played a defensive style.
Under Dyche, full-backs like Mykolenko were not meant to push high — their role was purely defensive. And the 25-year-old, in the main, did it fairly well.
It is arguably only in a more expansive team that he would either show his true worth or his limitations. This is a player, after all, who registered 20 assists for Dynamo Kyiv in 132 games, albeit at a lower standard.
But Moyes is asking for more from Mykolenko. At times he has been pushed much higher, effectively providing width high on the left side as the winger, usually Iliman Ndiaye, drifts inside.
The results have been mixed, but it was notable that Everton lacked balance and legs on his side in the FA Cup defeat at home to Bournemouth — the one game he missed in this run. He also kept the dangerous Bryan Mbeumo well in check during Wednesday’s draw in west London.
Moyes has often expected at least one of his full-backs to provide width and creativity. In his first stint as Everton manager, left-back Leighton Baines, now on his coaching staff, was a key creative outlet. Mykolenko is no Baines, but he is being tasked with showing more in the final third.
“He needs to improve on it (the attacking record),” Moyes said on Wednesday. “We probably crossed four balls into the keeper’s arms tonight and if we’d done that better, we’d have given ourselves a better chance of scoring. The one half-decent ball we put in, Jake (O’Brien) gets in round the back and scores.”
Everton are now seven unbeaten under Moyes in the league, their longest stretch without defeat since December 2017. He and his players will now fly for a warm-weather training camp in Abu Dhabi this week, a reward for the improvement witnessed since his January arrival. “The players have worked really hard and have had a lot of rubbish to deal with, so we’re going to have a few days training in the sun,” Moyes said.
Everton are seven unbeaten under Moyes in the league (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
Significant progress has been made in a short space of time, but it is still easy to see how the team can improve. Moyes will know the most significant changes will need to come in the summer transfer window when he should have funds to reinforce his squad.
Plans will not be properly honed until Everton’s Premier League status is confirmed, but full-back will be one of many areas under consideration.
Veterans Seamus Coleman and Ashley Young are both out of contract, while Nathan Patterson has struggled with injuries.
O’Brien is performing admirably out of position but should move infield in time, while Mykolenko’s numbers show the need for a more creative option to compete for the left-back berth too. The Brentford game was the first time two Everton full-backs had combined for a league goal since Baines assisted Coleman against Arsenal in December 2016.
Wednesday’s assist was a nice, milestone moment for Mykolenko after a difficult start to the season. It was a reminder that he has got the quality to make a difference in the final third at times.
Like the rest of the Everton team, he is improving. But he will need to show more still and build on Wednesday’s productive outing if he is to be part of Moyes’ plans long term.
(Top photo: Ben Whitley/PA Images via Getty Images)
