Merlin Rohl made Everton supporters sit up again on Saturday. The 23-year-old returned to the starting line-up after a near four-month absence and looked every bit the player who had already caught the eye in mid-January at Aston Villa, this time doing damage from the right wing against Manchester City.
His pace repeatedly stretched City’s back line, a reminder that Everton have more than one weapon in the Germany-born youth international. Rohl is a central midfielder by trade, but he was used wide and still found ways to hurt a team that rarely gives much away. For a player making his way back after a long spell out, it was the sort of outing that can change a manager’s thinking.
David Moyes did not hide his view of what he has in Rohl. He said the midfielder is willing to talk, highly communicative and has built a strong relationship with Leighton Baines, adding that the pair even watched Everton Women together at Goodison Park recently. Moyes also said Rohl is among the quickest players in training, putting him right up there with Jarrad Branthwaite for top speed over distance.
That matters because Everton are still trying to pin down where he belongs. Moyes said the club are “generally still trying to find the best” position for him, and admitted Rohl started well before injuries interrupted his progress. He is now more settled, the manager said, and the hope is to get him more football next season once his loan from Freiburg is made permanent this summer.
The tension for Everton is that Rohl’s best traits are obvious even if his best position is not. He can cover ground, he can break forward and he can unsettle defenders with pace, but he has been asked to fit into different roles while the club works out where he can be most effective. That makes him both a useful option now and a longer-term project for Moyes and his staff.
For Everton, the encouraging part is no longer whether Rohl can belong at this level. It is whether they can stop treating him like a solution in search of a place and start using him as one.
