STICKING TO A BACK FIVE CAN BE KEY TO EVERTON SURVIVING DROP THREAT
This relegation battle between Everton, Burnley and Leeds is turning into one of the most exciting bottom-of-the-table shootouts we’ve ever witnessed.
The way they are picking up points, even when their backs are against the wall, is phenomenal.
Just when you least expect them to get a result, that’s when they prove us so-called experts wrong! All are engaged in this last stand and it’s set up to be a scrap to the bitter end.
i was playing for Everton when the Premier League started in 1992. When you represent that club, you cannot help but be touched by the special passion and atmosphere that runs through the game-day Goodison Park experience.
i know how much it means to stay in the Premier League. The pain of relegation would be even more difficult to take while the red half of Merseyside dominate at home and abroad. When Frank Lampard arrived, Everton were 16th, four points above the drop. in Rafa Benitez’s final 13 games, he managed only one win, three draws and nine defeats.
in Lampard’s first 13, he’s won four, drawn one and lost eight, but they’re now 18th.
Watching Newcastle stride past them to safety, and then Burnley go ahead, was a huge body blow to Everton. But recent home wins over Manchester United and Chelsea, and a draw with Leicester, have given them hope.
Lampard previously said his players had to show they have the balls for this battle. They’ve done that at home and now they’ve got to do it on the road, with tricky trips to Leicester and Watford in the next five days.
They will need to show the same cocktail of energy, intensity, pace and technical quality that they showed against Chelsea at Goodison on sunday. Everton looked like a pack of hungry hounds chasing down their illustrious opponents. such is the difficulty
that Thomas Tuchel’s 3-4-3 system creates, Lampard changed Everton’s set-up to a back five to match up.
This isn’t revolutionary — several sides have done the same when facing Chelsea, like West Ham the previous week and Crystal Palace in the FA Cup.
The big difference was that Everton won and those other teams did not.
They were tough, resilient and the returning Yerry Mina was a commanding and important figure at the heart of the defence, particularly from set-pieces. That is an area from which Everton have struggled this season. Mina benefitted from having the mobile Seamus Coleman and Mason Holgate on either side of him, with the ever-improving Vitalii Mykolenko on the left and Alex Iwobi on the right.
Richarlison, though, is the jewel in Everton’s crown. He’s an immense talent who must fulfil his potential more consistently.
I liked seeing the collective aggressiveness of Everton against Chelsea. One moment in the first half encapsulated that when Mason Mount left a little bit on Mina and the rest of his teammates came to his rescue. It’s a one-for-all and all-for-one attitude, a total unity where they’re all at boiling point but not boiling over and recklessly adding to their Premier League-high record of four red cards.
Lampard needs to decide if the best way to pick up points away from home is to stick with this approach. They have a leaguelow six points on the road.
It’s an important decision, one which their Premier League status will depend on.
They’ve had seven days on the training ground to help the players understand this system better. Playing it last week, Everton got their winner by energetically pressing high at the start of the second half. That stunning win over Chelsea gave them great belief and left Burnley and Leeds looking over their shoulders.
These relegation rivals are doing all they can to survive. Although tempting as a player, looking at the remaining fixtures and all the possible permutations doesn’t help you to stay up.
What will help the team retain their Premier League status is to spend time on the training ground focusing, working hard and developing a team structure.
Each team will need a huge slice of luck to survive and it must be linked to a cast-iron belief that you, as a player and club, belong at this level.