Striker is Big Sam’s top target

EVERTON manager Sam Allardyce has prioritised signing a striker in the January transfer window to take some of the burden off top scorer Wayne Rooney. Allardyce watched Rooney score a hat-trick from midfield against West Ham last Wednesday but plans to rotate the 32-year-old so he can fully influence the games he does play in. Among the forwards he would consider bringing in next month are Jermain Defoe, Andy Carroll and Christian Benteke, all of whom he has worked with before. ‘It is a priority. If we achieve anything going forward to get into the top half, we need at least two players to score 10 goals or more,’ Allardyce said. ‘If you can’t get one who can score 20, you have to get one or two in who can get between 10 and 15. I stayed in the Premier League with Jermain Defoe scoring 18 at Sunderland and Christian Benteke scoring 16 at Crystal Palace.’ Allardyce, accepts one of his biggest challenges is to persuade Rooney to sit out certain games. ‘It’s for me to judge when Wayne can keep delivering the kind of performance he did against West Ham. And for me to say, “I might have to rest you in a game”,’ said Allardyce. ‘It’s my job to be good enough as a manager to try and get the best out of him. Using his experience and his quality will help us get out of the problems we’ve got.’