One hundred and fifty million pounds. That is how much Everton have spent on attacking players in the last two seasons.
After the failure of Ronald Koeman and the unpopular pragmatism of Sam Allardyce in the last campaign, the manager Marco Silva is now attempting to instil a fluid, attacking style which will get the results to take Everton closer to the top six.
So far the success has been sporadic as Silva has continued to experiment with his attacking options. This week’s Game Dissected takes a look at Silva’s forwards and attacking midfielders as we debate the best players for the best system.
A striking difference
Silva has used variations of a 4-2-3-1 system this season, with the basis being a back four and two holding midfielders. The variations in his system have depended on which players he has picked for those four attacking positions. Gylfi Sigurdsson is a regular in an attacking midfield role with Theo Walcott on the right.
When available, Richarlison has been a guaranteed starter, though his position has been dependent on which of three players gets the final slot: the winger Bernard or one of two strikers; Cenk Tosun or Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
The graphic below shows Everton’s average positions in two games this season against Wolves on the opening weekend and Fulham at the end of September.
Against Wolves, Everton started with Tosun (No 14) as a central striker and Richarlison (30), Sigurdsson and Walcott (11) behind him. Though Phil Jagielka’s sending off meant Sigurdsson was sacrificed after 43 minutes we can still see Tosun as the most advanced player with Richarlison and Walcott out wide.
In the 3-0 home win against Fulham, Calvert-Lewin (29) played as the central striker and here, without a sending off to factor in, we see that 4-2-3-1 formation in reality. Richarlison (30), Sigurdsson (10) and Walcott (11) are playing behind Calvert-Lewin with Tom Davies (26) and Idrissa Gueye (17) as the two central midfielders and the back four as the other four positions in their own half.
In the last two games against Crystal Palace and Manchester United the system has essentially been the same but a change in personnel has seen a marked change in the average position maps, below.
Richarlison is picked as a central striker, on paper, but the reality is very different to when Tosun or Calvert-Lewin play. The first obvious difference between these maps and the previous two is a the lack of a central figure as the most advanced player. Indeed in both games Richardlison (30) is actually deeper than his supporting midfielders.
Tosun and Calvert-Lewin are strikers, who will look to play on the shoulder of defenders, making runs in behind to create space thus resulting in an average position higher up the pitch.
Richarlison plays the same role in a very different way, as a false nine — a player who will often drop deep in order to link play and feed passes to runners around him.
It is interesting that Silva is trying Richarlison as a false nine. The benefits would be that a) he can get Bernard — a talented wide player with Champions League pedigree — into the team and b) that essentially all four players could form part of a deadly, fluid forward line — the kind we have seen used by Manchester City and, dare I say it, Liverpool.
But is that having a negative effect on Richarlison himself? A 21-year-old, signed for £40 million, who has just broken into the Brazil squad.
As pointed out in last week’s column on Wilfried Zaha, it is important to play your best players in the position where they are most effective, and, while Everton are very different to Crystal Palace in that they have more talented attackers (Sigurdsson has arguably been their most consistent forward player this season) the effect on Richarlison is seen below.
The graphic, below, shows Richarlison’s touches in the games against Wolves and Fulham where he started on the left.
This second graphic, below, then shows his touches in the games against Palace and United where he played as a false nine.
The concentration of touches on the left wing compared to the sporadic touches across the pitch is interesting when we look at what Richarlison is good at. He has attempted the most dribbles (26) of any Everton player this season with a 50 per cent success rate. He is Everton’s second top scorer with four (Sigurdsson has five) and has had the second most shots with 18 (Sigurdsson has had 25).
The dribbling statistic suggests he is best out wide, attacking from the left wing and playing off either Tosun or Calvert-Lewin. The shots and goals — all four of his goals have been inside the box — suggest he can still be effective in a central area.
So which system is best?
First let’s look at why playing Tosun or Calvert-Lewin has it’s benefits. The image below is from that game against Wolves, and shows the move which led to Richarlison’s second goal.
Tosun has held the ball up and played in the Brazilian who can attack off the left wing, finding space just inside the area to curl the ball into the bottom corner.
In the win against Fulham note again the good work that Tosun does to help an attacking midfielder, below. Bernard, on as a substitute has the ball on the left. Tosun makes a run into the space in the box, taking the Fulham defender Tim Ream with him.
The result is a big area of space for Bernard to lay the ball off for Sigurdsson to slot home the third, as seen below.
In the 2-0 win against Palace, having seen his false-nine system easily thwarted by Roy Hodgson’s well-drilled side, Silva put on first Tosun and then Calvert-Lewin. The image below is Calvert-Lewin’s goal which broke the deadlock in the 87th minute.
The ball is crossed in from the left by Ademola Lookman and headed home by Calvert-Lewin on the edge of the six-yard box. Note how Calvert-Lewin and Tosun are the most advanced Everton players, in a good position to attack the cross, while Richarlison is on the edge of the area.
Now compare that image to this one, below, from the Manchester United game. Again a cross comes in from the left, this time via the left back Lucas Digne, but only Richarlison is close enough to attack the area where the ball ends up, again on the edge of the six-yard area.
Richarlison attacks the near post, an area well marshalled by the United centre backs Chris Smalling and Victor Lindelof, but neither Walcott or Sigurdsson make sufficient effort to get on the end of what was an excellent cross. Gary Neville was critical of both players when commentating on the game for Sky. A more traditional striker may have made the right run to take advantage.
But Richarlison is effective as a false nine too. Everton almost scored a goal which perfectly highlights how deadly a fluid front four could be. In the image below the Brazilian holds off Lindelof to lay the ball to Sigurdsson.
Bernard and Walcott make their runs forward and, after a neat one-two, Sigurdsson returns the ball to Richarlison, below.
Having done the job of a central striker well in holding up the ball initially, Richarlison now becomes the playmaker, turning and immediately playing a perfect pass for Bernard who has run off the back of Ashley Young, below.
A perfect move involving all four players would be complete if Bernard had rolled a simple pass sideways to Walcott to tap in, below.
Instead the winger goes around De Gea and shoots wide. This fluid and fast-paced, pass-and-move style is clearly something Silva is working towards but decision making, as in the case of Bernard, is important for it to be effective, particularly against top-six teams.
Indeed Everton lost 2-0 at Arsenal earlier in the season but got in behind the home side on several occasions. In this image, below, early in the game with Calvert-Lewin as a central striker, he is in behind the Arsenal back four.
A square ball would give Richarlison a tap-in but instead Calvert-Lewin’s shot is saved.
Again, in the image below, Walcott is in behind but is guilty of a selfish attempt on goal rather than passing across the box for two onrushing team-mates.
Silva’s system and starting XI is clearly still a work-in-progress. Despite Tosun’s underwhelming impact since joining in January and Calvert-Lewin’s inexperience I still think a more traditional, central striker has its benefits not only in creating chances for the three players around them but also the team as a whole.
It is interesting to note that the left back Digne has created 14 chances, second behind Sigurdsson’s 28, and many of those will be from crosses into the box like in the example against United — perfect for a striker to attack.
But perhaps Silva’s goal for a devastating fluid system will eventually be most effective with the four players he sees as his most talented. If that means Richarlison is unable to make an impact coming off the left wing the pressure will be on Bernard to justify his place. Certainly Richarlison has shown he is able to play the false-nine role.
The signs are good, though. Everton have created 106 chances this season, the sixth most in the league ahead of Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham. If the players continue to gel — and be more clinical with their decision-making — Silva may finally give the Everton board a decent return on their big spending.
