When Sandro Ramírez finally arrives at Everton, it looks like he won’t be the only arrival up front.

According to the Daily Mirror, Ronald Koeman wants an overhaul of his attack at Goodison Park.

With Romelu Lukaku wanting out and Arouna Kone and Enner Valencia already leaving Everton, it seems normal for Koeman’s priority to be up front.

He has reportedly made Burnley striker Andre Gray, who's approaching the last 12 months of his contract, an Everton transfer target.

The Toffees reportedly made an initial approach for Gray towards the end of last season and are still believed to be interested in the former non-league hitman.

And if a move for Gray fails, Joshua King of Bournemouth is said to be an alternative target to Gray.

But what would they offer?





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Andre Gray

For the most part, Burnley play a 4-4-2 formation and they have at times dabbled with a 4-2-3-1/4-1-4-1 variation but according to Sean Dyche used the former set-up on 29 occasions last season.

Gray is used to playing alongside one of Sam Vokes or Ashley Barnes in attack and his task is to play on the shoulder of the last man, a role he could do in Everton’s 4-3-3.

In a throwback to the little and large partnerships of the 1990s, Gray is the little one.

The aerial duels won per 90 minutes paints a picture – Vokes won 8.89 and Barnes 3.99, whereas Gray was at just the 0.16.

In the stills above, taken from the Burnley match against Leicester City, you see how soon as the ball is played long the striker is on his bike anticipating the flick-on.

He’s quick and he’s got space to attack so more often than not it’s the perfect storm in terms of him being able to showcase his strengths.

Of course, he’d be perfect to play alongside Lukaku, but that is definitely unlikely.

Gray isn’t just the legs man. He’s capable of holding the ball up and bringing others into play. In the pictures above, against champions Chelsea, he drops into a wide area and drags Gary Cahill out with him.

He holds off the former Bolton Wanderers player and draws another of the opposition players to him before playing a pass into the space he had created for one of the on-rushing midfielders.

And it’s skills like that as the hold up man, which could bring other more creative Everton players into play, which would attract Koeman.

Joshua King

Bournemouth played most of 2016/17 with a 4-2-3-1, while King featured largely off the main striker as an attacking midfielder.

According to WhoScored, he featured 16 times in the league as an attacking midfielder and just nine as the main striker.

But this was the best goalscoring season of his career, as he scored 16 times.

He managed six last term, but in four Championship seasons with Blackburn Rovers and Hull City, he hadn’t previously hit the back of the net more than twice.

But that doesn’t mean he’s not a goalscorer, some players develop later than others.

But if you look at five of King’s most recent goals, you can tell he does have a true goalscoring instinct.

Against Sunderland, you can see how he’s only focused on getting free and into an area to score.

When the ball reaches the Bournemouth player in the first still, King heads forward straight away, and by the time of the second picture, he is already free of any defenders and in a position to get a shot off.

While the ball doesn’t come to him straight away, he still stays focused and actually gets himself in a better position once Ryan Fraser has squared it to him.

There’s no doubt he’ll finish past new Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, and he does that calmly.

And that desire to put the ball in the back of the next is also clear above against Middlesbrough.

As all good goalscorers do, he’s on the move as soon as Marc Pugh looks anywhere near like putting a ball in.

He shows Pugh he’s the man he needs to get it to, and he is a step ahead of the defender, and shows good strength to stay upright enough to fire low past Brad Guzan.

If you look at the goal he scored against Chelsea, you can again see something else that he offers.

From a quick break, King uses his pace to ensure no Blues defender can get near him – granted, Cahill isn’t exactly Usain Bolt.

And then when he’s given time on the edge of the penalty area, he does what any good striker does, and gets a shot away.

It may not be the cleanest of shots, but the deflection saw it go past Thibaut Courtois and they all count.

King’s strike against Liverpool showed his strength and nous in the opposition penalty box.

When the long throw came in, he was in the perfect position to attack the ball.

He stays in the middle of the action when it falls out to Charlie Daniels for a shot, and when that’s cleared again, he’s also right there when Harry Arter has an effort.

This hits King, and he shows quick feet to work it onto his right foot, as well as strength to hold off the Liverpool defender to get a shot away.

And his skill for this goal against West Ham United just underlined his class.

Getting the ball in the area on his right foot, he flicks it over the defender onto his left foot before finishing calmly.

That goal enough would have been enough to attract attention from bigger clubs than Everton, like Bournemouth.

Sandro

Probably the most complete of the three, Sandro is not just a goalscorer and has a great eye for a pass too.

But of course, he doesn’t have the Premier League experience the other two have.

Against Granada, as you can see below, he picked the ball up on the left wing before cutting inside, leaving the defender for dead and playing a defence-splitting pass for his team-mate to get the shot away.

This passing was also on show vs Barcelona, as you can see below.

Sandro found himself with the ball on the left with Jony free in the middle.

Despite it being a massive moment in the match, he stayed calm, playing a cheeky lob over Samuel Umtiti into the space behind.

The ball was spot on and Jony was able to control it on his chest and take it past Marc-André ter Stegen and fire into the empty net.

And it just summed up Sandro’s quality.

When he scored against them, as you can see below, it also just showed his goalscoring instinct.

He was playing on the last man, timing his run to perfection to get on the end of a long ball over the defence, using his pace to ensure he would get away from the defenders.

And as he found himself one-on-one with ter Stegen, he was calm enough to send him the wrong way and place his effort low into the back of the net, a composure he has added to his game in his season at Málaga, where he got 14 goals in 28 league games.

Comparing stats

If you compare the 2016/17 league statistics of the trio, plus those of Lukaku, you will see none of them are an out-and-out replacement for the Belgian.

His goalscoring record beats all of them, and although he played the most football out of the quartet, per 90 minutes he still leads the way too with 0.69 goals – Sandro is on 0.54, King on 0.53 and Gray on 0.36.

But you will notice that all but one of his goals were outside the box – Sandro managed five last season, and King was on three.

What’s more, the trio’s passing completion rate is much higher than Lukaku’s – that was at just 66 per cent last season.

The Belgian did create more chances than the others though, although Sandro at 1.25 per 90 minutes was practically the same as the Everton man’s 1.27.

But the biggest change will probably be in the air.

As mentioned above, Gray isn’t the strongest at all, and none of them can compare to Lukaku in that way.

The Belgian wins on average 3.53 aerial duels per 90 minutes, while King is closest to him on 1.06, with Sandro (0.27) and Gray (0.17) on less than one.

In terms of win percentage of aerial duels, it doesn’t read well for the Burnley man either, winning just 12.9 per cent, compared to Lukaku’s 41.16 per cent.

It’s clear Koeman isn’t trying to replicate Lukaku with his targets, and while the Belgian has undoubtedly been great for the Toffees, it looks like it’s a fresh new start in style as they try to beat their seventh-placed finish.