With 11 games played in the Premier League season, Everton have racked up a rather mixed bag of results so far under the reign of Rafa Benitez with four won, four lost and three drawn.

One player that has heavily featured in those 11 games for the Merseyside club is midfielder Allan who has made an appearance in each of their 11 league games, starting all of them, leaving only defender Michael Keane (990) having played more minutes than the Brazilian midfielder (964).

This shows just how important the 30-year-old has been for the Toffees this season. However, taking into account his age and the fact that his current contract at Goodison Park is set to expire in the summer of 2023, it's safe to say that he could well end up leaving the club at that point.

With that in mind, we feel the Merseyside club could already have their perfect replacement for Allan with 18-year-old midfielder Isaac Price.

As a product of Everton's youth academy, Price has made 16 appearances for their U18 side and 23 appearances for their U23 side.

So far this season, Price has started in all of the Everton U23 games across all competitions, playing the full 90 minutes in the majority of them, which goes to show just how important he is for them in midfield.

Back in April, Everton U23s manager David Unsworth said that Price has "got a bit of everything" in his game, showing how much of a well-rounded midfielder he is after the youngster got his first taste of training with Everton's first-team players.

This also shows how he could well be Everton's next version of Allan who has been described as being a "defender's dream" by Toffees teammate Keane and that he "does a lot of running" and "puts in a lot of tackles."

Looking ahead to the future, we feel that if Price continues to play regularly for the U23s this season at a decent level, that he certainly has what it takes to start knocking on Benitez's door to get some first-team minutes under his belt and potentially become the club's tough-tackling midfield heir.

He's undoubtedly one to watch as the campaign plays out.

In other news: Forget Holgate: £90k-p/w Everton dud with fewer touches than Pickford let Rafa down - opinion