Formation / Tactics

[paulf]

It will always be a concern our midfield, as we dont have any composure whatsever. We miss a player who can stroke it around,take the sting out the game. We dont even have players who can play a simple pass 2 yards to another player without it going to the opposition or out of play.

 

[Toffe3m4n]

Not sure the 4-4-1-1 formation we've adopted so far is the long term play, although I do get why injuries have kinda forced Dyche's hand a bit.

In an ideal world - we'd play a 4-2-3-1 and have Danjuma, McNeil & Harrison in the 3 just behind Beto/DCL. I dont mind Doucoure but this should be the last season he's a starter in that role behind the main striker.

The two CM slots will be taken up by Onana with Gana & Garner rotating.

I'd also like to see if we can reintegrate Dele as he'd provide us with another option when fit.

 

[Calvin]

It will always be a concern our midfield, as we dont have any composure whatsever. We miss a player who can stroke it around,take the sting out the game. We dont even have players who can play a simple pass 2 yards to another player without it going to the opposition or out of play.

I think Onana does have ability, and I think using him in a box midfield will allow him to utilise it better.
The box midfield I’d play

Onana. Doucoure

Gana. Garner

This allows Onana and Doucoure the freedom to push forward, press high knowing that there is cover behind them. It would allow Onana to concentrate on the offensive side of his game, which I think is at a higher level than any of the other midfielders Everton have. I think Onana is the only one who can regularly play defence splitting passes.

 

[mahermi1]

Yeah I’d like to think Garner can do better than Gana but I’m not 100% yet

I’ve seen nothing that Myko is better than Young though and Young has been bad. They’re both bad

I get that pick the least worse ! And to think we once had peak Baines and peak Coleman..

 

[Calvin]

Not sure the 4-4-1-1 formation we've adopted so far is the long term play, although I do get why injuries have kinda forced Dyche's hand a bit.

In an ideal world - we'd play a 4-2-3-1 and have Danjuma, McNeil & Harrison in the 3 just behind Beto/DCL. I dont mind Doucoure but this should be the last season he's a starter in that role behind the main striker.

The two CM slots will be taken up by Onana with Gana & Garner rotating.

I'd also like to see if we can reintegrate Dele as he'd provide us with another option when fit.

I don’t think any 2 of the 4 central midfielders available gives the right balance. I think the only way to get them functioning is to play all 4 in a box.

 

[mahermi1]

It will always be a concern our midfield, as we dont have any composure whatsever. We miss a player who can stroke it around,take the sting out the game. We dont even have players who can play a simple pass 2 yards to another player without it going to the opposition or out of play.

Gomes says hi....as he ambled back to the bench..

 

[degsy]

You could have
Patterson Tarkowski Branthwaite...
...To me it's The Midfield - get the midfield blend/balance correct and everything else will click into place. Especially now with Beto, who can play up top on his own

Dodgy fullbacks, limited and / or inexperienced centre halves are all helped by the people in front of them.

That's what a Midfield is for...amongst other things

Ours isn't a fully functioning unit, it stutters to get going, when it does its in fits and starts, all its cylinders never fire together and worst of all

It lack any sort of Intensity...oh there's some huff and puff, but as a collective unit, be it 4 5 or 6
It's seriously average and has been for 8, 9, 10, 12 (?) you pick your own number years.

 

[paulf]

I think Onana does have ability, and I think using him in a box midfield will allow him to utilise it better.
The box midfield I’d play

Onana. Doucoure

Gana. Garner

This allows Onana and Doucoure the freedom to push forward, press high knowing that there is cover behind them. It would allow Onana to concentrate on the offensive side of his game, which I think is at a higher level than any of the other midfielders Everton have. I think Onana is the only one who can regularly play defence splitting passes.

Talking about composure and taking the sting out the game havent seen anything to change my mind so far..all about opinions isnt it mate..

 

[degsy]

Gomes says hi....as he ambled back to the bench..

Well he can just amble on the 'k somewhere else

 

[Streetender1878]

Both their goals yesterday happen coz our centre midfielders arent in the centre of the pitch. Nobody near their lad bang centre on the edge of our box and again the 2nd where is the midfield. Its either we play a variation of a diamond or both gueye and onana go awol. A team who cant pass will always get caught out coz the diamond leaves a big hole in front of the back 4. Plus we were winning away in a big game so why wasnt a centre midfielder kept back incase we give the ball away. It was much better 2nd half. Gueye seemed to hold centrally and our passing was alot better. We need to look how we set up when we havent got the ball for me.

 

[Calvin]

Talking about composure and taking the sting out the game havent seen anything to change my mind so far..all about opinions isnt it mate..

What I’m saying is if Onana is given less defensive duties he could concentrate on controlling the tempo of the game via possession and his passing.

 

[siddharth]

I saw this video shared in other forum topics and I thought it might help here more than anything:

This video shows a lot of data presentation and interpretation that might be helpful for discussion. It undoubtedly has some really good data presented, but I am going to suggest in my opinion some glaring points we need to be on the lookout for when we are presented with such things.

Two glaring things in particular really,

the first is this 'noise' thing that the presenter suggests and shows this graph:

This is a good graph but not for what he says it is good for, for example, any football fan/manager knows that we cannot really figure out what the team is like until we are like 10-12 games into the season and if we could predict positions with such accuracy, we'd have no shirt sponsor. And when he says that the prediction gets better with data as the season progresses, it might be true but not based on the presented data. Like, you have 38 games, and if you have to predict the final position at the 37th vs 15th, that is going to be wildddd. You can't say on the last day of the season, 'Hey, with the data I have, I am now able to 'predict' the table with 100% accuracy.'. This would also be very different for 'relegation fights', 'title race', and 'midtable battles'.

the second is the way 'overperformance' is portrayed;

This essentially says, that if your target is 35 points and you have 1 point, you need 34 points to reach your target in different ways. Essentially it is their version of 'we need 4 out of the next 9 points' argument, but they present instantaneous measures as something that stretched over the season to inflate the actual impact of the statistic. A thumb rule should be to not blindly trust statisticians who use more numbers to explain something fewer numbers can explain.

They claim that their model can predict the league winners every year, which just means they will predict Man City will win every year and if Arsenal or Liverpool win, the next year they will go we can now 'predict' why they won the title last year, which is boonnnnnkkeerrrrrrrssss.

Here is a very good example of how data presentation can be simple but really impactful->https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/epl-consistency-2023/

 

[beachy]

Goals. We need goals.

Beto and Danjuma up front.

 

[Lowste]

I think Onana does have ability, and I think using him in a box midfield will allow him to utilise it better.
The box midfield I’d play

Onana. Doucoure

Gana. Garner

This allows Onana and Doucoure the freedom to push forward, press high knowing that there is cover behind them. It would allow Onana to concentrate on the offensive side of his game, which I think is at a higher level than any of the other midfielders Everton have. I think Onana is the only one who can regularly play defence splitting passes.

You say regularly defence splitting passes

I maybe have seen a couple since he arrived, so I think your comment is way way off the mark

I would be happy if he started chasing people and throwing tackles in…. He could then maybe build on that

Let’s be honest here, he shows very little of anything

 

[Toffe3m4n]

As much as we need fresh ideas in terms of tactics, the absolute main priority for us should be in acquiring top coaches who'll take these players up a level at the very minimum. I feel like we haven't had that at Everton for absolute yonks and it most definitely shows..