Mina must use friendly to gain match sharpness ahead of stern Chelsea test

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Everton have organised a mid-season friendly against Gor Mahia to give some fringe players the opportunity to get some match-sharpness without Marco Silva needing to reshape his successful Premier League first-choice team.

One man who is in desperate need of gametime is Yerry Mina. The Colombian international got a few minutes at the end of Saturday’s 3-1 win over Brighton, but still needs more.

Michael Keane and Kurt Zouma are forming a formidable duo at centre-half, and managers do not generally like to tinker with their backlines but Mina needs minutes from somewhere.

That’s especially pertinent because Zouma is set to be ruled out of Everton’s next Premier League match; a visit to the Frenchman’s unbeaten parent club Chelsea.

With Alvaro Morata returning to some sort of form and Eden Hazard always liable to cause havoc, Silva needs his backline to be up to full speed at Stamford Bridge.

That means Mina must get up to speed as he’s the man most likely to come in for Zouma on Sunday and tonight’s friendly offers up his best opportunity.

Mina has had to wait for a fair while to show what he can do, but the friendly provides the perfect opportunity to take the next step ahead of the huge test that awaits at the Bridge.