Everton, tactically

[BlackToffee]

I'm not a football tactical expert (yes, I know that some of you are aware of this already), but I've noticed some real subtle changes in how Everton have set themselves out.

One of my main criticism of us is that when we lose the ball, teams seem to be able to completly over run us.

Clearly we've moved Mofro into his fav position, but I notice that we've tucked peanuts, and cahill in more. Baines has effectvely become our left winger.

One of my other gripes have also been asnwered. The "one back, all back" philosophy seems to have been abandoned, and when Saha is playing he doesn't go back when we are under attack, providing an outlet for counter attacks.

Heitinga is very under rated in relation to his clearances. Unlike Yobo who pumps the ball upfield, I have noticed that he tries to play diagonal balls into space so that forwards can chase onto.

Finally, Vaughan's cameo appearances not only help his rehabilitation, but because of his enthusiasm and never say die approach, teams who are lsoing cannot afford to send all their defenders forward, so an additional defender / midfileder comes back, protecting any breakaway from us, stretches the field, and Vaughan actually eases the pressure on the team.

This I believe why we scored against Arsenal with Peanuts, and nearly scored with Vaughan as Arse failed to bring back enough cover.

Prob a load of balls, but I thought I'd put it out there.

 

[NeoNaoNeo]

Howard seems to try to roll the ball out more to retain possession

 

[StDomingosGringo]

Not balls at all BT. Pienaar coming back has greatly improved our play all round. Round pegs in round holes helps too.

I also agree with Neo that we do much less long ball stuff with a combination of Howard cutting back on the long pumped ball and a more confident ball playing centre back in Heitinga and to a lesser extent Distin. Folk like saying Hibbo still lumps it constantly but in reality he doesn't but with it being Tony when he does and it doesn't work out he is villified.

 

[devonblue]

we seem to be kicking and heading the ball a bit more now

 

[Grarghsies]

We don't play with wingers. Never have. We play with a very narrow midfield and very attacking fullbacks. Hence us always using converted attacking CM's in our wide positions.

Moyes could easily have found a winger for the 9 million we spent on Billy. But he didn't, he bought a very central wide player.

Have we changed tactically recently? I think we have with players coming back. I think the main bonus to having Donovan here or Osman fit is that we can play the formation we played last year with Arteta. We definitely played a different style of football without Arteta and without Pienaar in the centre. That wasn't down to the loss of Arteta's class, but more directly to Moyes changing the formation because of losing Arteta.


Basically we play a 4-2-3-1 with 3 attacking midfielders and 2 holding midfielders. One of the holding players is defensive and breaks up play (Neville last year and Fellaini this year) and the other shows for the ball at every opportunity, gets it, turns towards goal and drives the team forward (Arteta last year, Pienaar this year). If the ball goes to either of the two outside attacking midfielders, they hold the ball up and step inside or go direct to the byline. If they hold it up then the fullback runs down for the overlap, usually for a deep cross to the far post for the on-running attacking midfielders.

If the ball goes direct to the striker he first looks for Cahill and then looks for the lateral ball to give him time to get into the box.

If Cahill gets it, he looks up for the striker making a diagonal run or plays it to the nearest ball-playing attacking midfielder.

 

[devonblue]

ben arfa's a winger i believe and maybe on his way

 

[Grarghsies]

Ben Arfa is also one of the most highly rated young players in the world. I'm sure Moyes and Baines would be more than happy to accommodate him

 

[devonblue]

we can but dream

 

[faddy the blue]

We don't play with wingers. Never have. We play with a very narrow midfield and very attacking fullbacks. Hence us always using converted attacking CM's in our wide positions.

Moyes could easily have found a winger for the 9 million we spent on Billy. But he didn't, he bought a very central wide player.

Have we changed tactically recently? I think we have with players coming back. I think the main bonus to having Donovan here or Osman fit is that we can play the formation we played last year with Arteta. We definitely played a different style of football without Arteta and without Pienaar in the centre. That wasn't down to the loss of Arteta's class, but more directly to Moyes changing the formation because of losing Arteta.


Basically we play a 4-2-3-1 with 3 attacking midfielders and 2 holding midfielders. One of the holding players is defensive and breaks up play (Neville last year and Fellaini this year) and the other shows for the ball at every opportunity, gets it, turns towards goal and drives the team forward (Arteta last year, Pienaar this year). If the ball goes to either of the two outside attacking midfielders, they hold the ball up and step inside or go direct to the byline. If they hold it up then the fullback runs down for the overlap, usually for a deep cross to the far post for the on-running attacking midfielders.

If the ball goes direct to the striker he first looks for Cahill and then looks for the lateral ball to give him time to get into the box.

If Cahill gets it, he looks up for the striker making a diagonal run or plays it to the nearest ball-playing attacking midfielder.

One very attacking full back I'd say.

Very well written post mate.

 

[ChicagoToffee]

We don't play with wingers. Never have. We play with a very narrow midfield and very attacking fullbacks. Hence us always using converted attacking CM's in our wide positions.

Moyes could easily have found a winger for the 9 million we spent on Billy. But he didn't, he bought a very central wide player.

Have we changed tactically recently? I think we have with players coming back. I think the main bonus to having Donovan here or Osman fit is that we can play the formation we played last year with Arteta. We definitely played a different style of football without Arteta and without Pienaar in the centre. That wasn't down to the loss of Arteta's class, but more directly to Moyes changing the formation because of losing Arteta.


Basically we play a 4-2-3-1 with 3 attacking midfielders and 2 holding midfielders. One of the holding players is defensive and breaks up play (Neville last year and Fellaini this year) and the other shows for the ball at every opportunity, gets it, turns towards goal and drives the team forward (Arteta last year, Pienaar this year). If the ball goes to either of the two outside attacking midfielders, they hold the ball up and step inside or go direct to the byline. If they hold it up then the fullback runs down for the overlap, usually for a deep cross to the far post for the on-running attacking midfielders.

If the ball goes direct to the striker he first looks for Cahill and then looks for the lateral ball to give him time to get into the box.

If Cahill gets it, he looks up for the striker making a diagonal run or plays it to the nearest ball-playing attacking midfielder.

Good post but this bit confused by that.

 

[stinger]

Simple - we (as fans) wanted out and out winger, but Moyes prefers attacking central midfielders playing out wide. And that's why he bought Bilyaletdinov. If Moyes would be interested in different type of player, he would spent this 9m on typical winger.
We are Premiership version of Villarreal - team which is well known for years for using CM/ACM out wide, like Cazorla, Cani, also Pires always impressed with his playmaking ability in final 3rd.

Having Donovan can however change our game - we are now using system more similar to Spurs, when Modric or Kranjcar are playing as false left midfielders, and on right side Spurs are using out and out winger in Aaron Lennon. Also, lleft back (Assou Ekotto) is constantly overlapping, where right back (Corluka) is more defensive minded.

 

[monty]

We don't play with wingers. Never have. We play with a very narrow midfield and very attacking fullbacks. Hence us always using converted attacking CM's in our wide positions.

Moyes could easily have found a winger for the 9 million we spent on Billy. But he didn't, he bought a very central wide player.

Have we changed tactically recently? I think we have with players coming back. I think the main bonus to having Donovan here or Osman fit is that we can play the formation we played last year with Arteta. We definitely played a different style of football without Arteta and without Pienaar in the centre. That wasn't down to the loss of Arteta's class, but more directly to Moyes changing the formation because of losing Arteta.


Basically we play a 4-2-3-1 with 3 attacking midfielders and 2 holding midfielders. One of the holding players is defensive and breaks up play (Neville last year and Fellaini this year) and the other shows for the ball at every opportunity, gets it, turns towards goal and drives the team forward (Arteta last year, Pienaar this year). If the ball goes to either of the two outside attacking midfielders, they hold the ball up and step inside or go direct to the byline. If they hold it up then the fullback runs down for the overlap, usually for a deep cross to the far post for the on-running attacking midfielders.

If the ball goes direct to the striker he first looks for Cahill and then looks for the lateral ball to give him time to get into the box.

If Cahill gets it, he looks up for the striker making a diagonal run or plays it to the nearest ball-playing attacking midfielder.

I see you upholding the TT standard there mate, great post


I think that too much attention is paid by the fans second guessing DM's tactics, surely a game plan has to develop as the match unfolds. Every manager goes into a game with preset ideas, within seconds of the kick off a bad tackle, defensive slip, poor decision by the ref can send preconceived ideas into the waste bin before they have been tried. A player is picked to do a certain job and fails, the man on the spot has to decide there and then how to remedy that situation with the remaining players he has available............that is one thing DM has excelled at this year due to circumstances beyond his control. Just look across the park, whenever FSW takes a 'star' off the side cracks up proving my point I would think

Fewer injuries brings the bonus of a settled side, players not having to fill in but rather play their own parts in the team...........our present eleven endorse this every time they go on the park. This team is up for it and the confidence levels must be sky high. This side is evolving, and evolving positively as each player understands fully their tactical duties both on and off the park or what the boss wants during a game

 

[Grarghsies]

One very attacking full back I'd say.

Very well written post mate.

They both get into attacking positions, Baines is just the only fullback that has the ability to drive it on his own. Pip and Hibbertoni both just cross it first-touch.

Good post but this bit confused by that.

It's hard to describe as it's not a traditional position, but basically Bilyaletdinov is a 'channels' player. The channel being the corridor of space that separates the centre and the wing.

Everton play with 2 holding midfielders, one central attacking player and 2 wide players in the channels. They're not wingers and they're not 'Wingless Wonders' wide midfielders, but somewhere in between wide central players and central wide players

The channel gives those players a plethora of options when they have the ball. Another added advantage is that it's one of the few positions on the pitch where a player without much pace can succeed. It's all about close-control as the play is tight and surrounded by defenders.

It's also the position in which many defenders prepare for strikers to run into, causing no end of organisational problems when the midfielders are there.

Disadvantages being the ball can get bogged down in the middle of the park and lack of an 'out' ball to the wing. Also it takes time for the fullbacks to get forward which also slows the play.

And although there are around the same number of blue shirts in defence, they are positioned more centrally which can create an 'out' ball for the opposition to counter into.

Maybe that explained it better?

 

[Jamo Martinez]

I think the fact that Howard is bowling the ball out more is simply due to the fact that Heitinga, Distin and until recently Neil are all tecnically better ball players than Yobo and Jags. Also the fact that the first midfield outlet for the defence is now Fellaini, Whose distribution is better than Neville's or Carsley's before him. We've had a fairly technically adept midfield for a while but the transition from defence was letting us down from a footballing point of view.
With a long punt from the goalie or a hoof from the defenders, the opposition is always well set defensively. Even when we did pick up the rebounds or get lay-offs from the strikers, the space was always tight and we would lose the ball frequently and quickly.
Starting the attack from the back tends to draw the oppositon out thus freeing up space for the likes of Piennar, Donovan, Billy, Cahill and Ossie to do their stuff when they do recieve the ball.

 

[Robert Jarvis]

One point though which creates problems is that we get caught defending too deep which lets the opposition come at us because we give them midfield space.