Good article. Although Sigurdsson good at set pieces? Every one goes a yard above someone's head.
For me if you have attacking full backs then the tendency is that you have wide players who cut inside, so the full backs can overlap. The wide players also need to work hard defensively. Baines had a great relationship with Pienaar for this.
However if you have more attacking wide players like James and Richarlison, then you won't get the same defensive output but you expect more going forward. So the over-lapping fullbacks then find themselves without the space to over-lap, and also with the defensive partner for when anything breaks down. There is too much responsibility on them. We've seen this for a few seasons, players like Walcott, James etc not getting back to defend and the full backs ending up exposed.
For me the better attacking players will be the actual attackers, so I'd always prefer full backs in the mould of Godfrey and Holgate and proper attacking players, rather than attacking fullbacks and central players playing wide. Lescott and Ivanovic were two examples of central defenders playing wide and getting success.
Carlo has really struggled to set up a team with these players to score goals. So setting up defensively and trying to build on a strong base is far better than being open and still not scoring.
Just to add, as a team to push on, Everton really need to recruit pacey attacking players who can run at people in and around the box and also provide an end product. All the top sides have such players, the better ones having multiple. Everton haven't had a player like that for a long, long time.
