EVERTON ABEL TO COPE WITHOUT XAVIER?
Everton's wily Scot has seen numerous members of his playing staff laid off for significant periods of time this season and the prospect of losing more defensive cover in the shape of Xavier does not help matters. "The worst aspect is the timing, losing a player in the middle of the season", Smith told the club's official website.
The ex-PSV Eindhoven defender has not been a regular in the Everton side though, so the impact may not be as big as some at the club might imagine.
In his two-and-a-half seasons at Goodison Park Xavier has accrued roughly 3,400 minutes of action in the Premiership - only a third of the total time on pitch he could have accumulated.
In his first campaign in England he had some difficulty adjusting to the pace of the game and was particularly poor when challenging for the ball. Xavier won a paltry 40% of the tackles that he went in for in the 1999-2000 season, which was the worst record at the club and one of the lowest ratios recorded in the division.
To be fair to Xavier though, he seems to have made significant strides in the last 18 months or so. The versatile defender has won an above-average 77% of the tackles he has contested in the current campaign, which makes him one of the Everton's most successful ball-winners. Indeed he has impressed at centre-back in recent games as opposed to his more usual role on the right and has shown that he can function in a variety of roles both in defence and the midfield.
He has been consistently careful when supplying passes for his Everton team-mates too. This term Xavier has connected with 80% of attempted passes which is the best record of any Goodison regular, but with the vast majority of these being played in his own half he is not one for too many adventurous, defence-splitting deliveries.
Certainly Everton will not miss the former Benfica man's attacking attributes. In his time on Merseyside Xavier has yet to score or even set up a goal in the league - hardly surprising when you consider that he has mustered just five shots on target and six passes leading to a clear goalscoring chance in that time. In comparison Liverpool's virus-stricken Markus Babbel, the man Xavier would most likely cover for, netted three times and set another three goals up in last season's Premiership.
Nonetheless Smith has few resources available to replace the 29-year-old World Cup hopeful. Xavier may not have played as often as his boss would have liked but his departure will still leave a sizeable gap in the squad, with the team sitting just four points above the relegation zone.
