Furey1878
Player Valuation: £70m
There's been a common misconception that today we lined up in our usual 4-2-3-1 with Cleverly and Kone as the widemen:
However, we actually set up with a 4-4-2 diamond (it's even shown on the teamsheet posted on Everton's twitter). Which looked like:
It was encouraging to see set-up to make up for Mirallas and Deulofeu still not being ready to start, having 2 strikers linking up and Barkley been given free reign to run at the opposition.
Hopefully we can see more of this sort of flexibility to get the best out of whoever is available on the day and to keep our opponents guessing.
Howard
Coleman Stones Jagielka Galloway
McCarthy Barry
Kone Barkley Cleverly
Lukaku
Coleman Stones Jagielka Galloway
McCarthy Barry
Kone Barkley Cleverly
Lukaku
However, we actually set up with a 4-4-2 diamond (it's even shown on the teamsheet posted on Everton's twitter). Which looked like:
Howard
Coleman Stones Jagielka Galloway
Barry
McCarthy Cleverly
Barkley
Kone Lukaku
The confusion arose because a lot of the time when we weren't on possession, Kone was taking a wide-right position and Cleverly was doing similar on the left. However, when on the attack Kone always took up a central role with McCarthy and Cleverly playing as wide-midfielders as the formation above suggests. This shows that we set up to switch to a sort of 4-1-4-1 out of possession:Coleman Stones Jagielka Galloway
Barry
McCarthy Cleverly
Barkley
Kone Lukaku
Howard
Coleman Stones Jagielka Galloway
Barry
Kone McCarthy Barkley Cleverly
Lukaku
Sometimes it even looked like 4-2-3-1 as McCarthy sometimes took up position alongside Barry, rather than covering the wide positions and getting further forward like he was when we had the ball.Coleman Stones Jagielka Galloway
Barry
Kone McCarthy Barkley Cleverly
Lukaku
Kone and Cleverly were switched onto their opposite flanks in the 2nd half.It was encouraging to see set-up to make up for Mirallas and Deulofeu still not being ready to start, having 2 strikers linking up and Barkley been given free reign to run at the opposition.
Hopefully we can see more of this sort of flexibility to get the best out of whoever is available on the day and to keep our opponents guessing.