Today's set-up

[Groucho]

The big thing for me was the almost total removal of having your defenders knock it around the back with Barry. Our defense was left with the job of defending and they did it excently!

The midfield worked fantastically with almost no sideways passing. It was all quick forward thinking football. Was brilliant to watch.

Yep, and in turn Barry looked more like his old self.

 

[parksey69]

Barry gets a lot of stick but I thought he was excellent yesterday. For me though that was Ross barkleys best game in an Everton shirt. Kept it tidy and simple with his head up rather then trying to take everyone on. The formation today was spot on and got to give Martinez credit for that

 

[Alec clelands forehead]

Bollocks...you play the team that gives you the best chance at victory.

Not so sir u look at the majority of sides that win titles and Ull find that there settled sides that change players wen there's injuries and not to suit different teams

 

[toffeejack]

Barkley doesn't tackle enough to play in a 2 in d middle

going to reply in here because it's not on topic in the transfer thread mate.

against teams like sunderland, bournemouth, watford, norwich etc. why should we worry about tackling? we play with a keeper and 4 defenders and then mccarthy alongside who can tackle. these are the teams who need to be worrying about tackling and stopping us rather than the other way around. they usually come to goodison and show no attacking threat so we don't need to worry about it. if they score 1, we can score 4 etc.

 

[granter79]

going to reply in here because it's not on topic in the transfer thread mate.

against teams like sunderland, bournemouth, watford, norwich etc. why should we worry about tackling? we play with a keeper and 4 defenders and then mccarthy alongside who can tackle. these are the teams who need to be worrying about tackling and stopping us rather than the other way around. they usually come to goodison and show no attacking threat so we don't need to worry about it. if they score 1, we can score 4 etc.

Good point. It's a pity barkley doesn't tackle n habe that bit of bite about him. He would be a world beater. Pulled out of 2 50/50s yest in d first half. I'd anything he could end up getting hurt if he's not willing to go in full blooded.

 

[toffeejack]

Good point. It's a pity barkley doesn't tackle n habe that bit of bite about him. He would be a world beater. Pulled out of 2 50/50s yest in d first half. I'd anything he could end up getting hurt if he's not willing to go in full blooded.

maybe it's to do with the two massive leg breaks. only he knows.

 

[Stanley Parker]

https://theexecutionersbong.wordpre...tical-deconstruction-southampton-0-3-everton/

There's a good analysis at theexecutionersbong!

It's difficult to reconcile the common tactics of last season - and the first half against Watford - with yesterday's exciting performance.

Good management is making the most of what you have. The defence never looked comfortable when keeping possession.

 

[Furey1878]

https://theexecutionersbong.wordpre...tical-deconstruction-southampton-0-3-everton/

There's a good analysis at theexecutionersbong!

It's difficult to reconcile the common tactics of last season - and the first half against Watford - with yesterday's exciting performance.

Good management is making the most of what you have. The defence never looked comfortable when keeping possession.

I would argue that 13/14 disagrees with this statement, but certainly, teams put big emphasis on pressing our back line so as long as we keep them guessing we'll have a bit more joy this season. There are times to play out of the back, and times when we shouldn't. It's not absolutely one or the other.

 

[Stanley Parker]

I would argue that 13/14 disagrees with this statement, but certainly, teams put big emphasis on pressing our back line so as long as we keep them guessing we'll have a bit more joy this season. There are times to play out of the back, and times when we shouldn't. It's not absolutely one or the other.

Perhaps the defence had more options for passing in 13/14, but found targets increasingly difficult to see last season.

Any way, yesterday was a triumph to match Everton 3 Arsenal 0 in April 2014.

Whatever your philosophy, the answer is to keep the opposition guessing. I wonder what he'll decide for Manchester City.

 

[Elvis]

There has been a lot of talk about the formation. I have only watched the 20 minute highlights from the Everton website but to my eyes it looked the usual 4-2-3-1. We have often played with a man wide on the right but the left sided man tucked inside. Yesterday Cleverley seemed to play wide left which perhaps allowed Kone to float more than our usual right-sided man.
I wonder what the situation is with Oviedo? Is he simply unfit or maybe on his way out? He is almost sixth choice at left back after Baines, Garbutt, Galloway. Barry and Browning.

 

[Furey1878]

So it seems like we're sticking with the 4-4-2 / 4-2-3-1 hybrid for the time being.

It's honestly quite confusing to watch at times because I'm never too sure what formation we're playing and when. The only thing I'm ever sure of is the back 5 and Lukaku playing predominantly as a central striker.

According to the club's twitter we had the following set-up against Chelsea:

Howard
Coleman Stones Jags Galloway
McCarthy Barry Besic
Barkley
Kone Lukaku
​

It must be noted that McCarthy and Besic aren't playing as "wingers", they are the wider of 3 central midfielders. Though I was confused by the lineup, I didn't begin fuming when I saw Naismith lining up to replace Besic, he's more suited to playing as a centre-mid than Mirallas, Lennon or Deulofeu.

Naismith isn't the most positionally disciplined player, so he would often interchange with the 3 guys ahead of him. I do think that is something Martinez encourages though. Especially considering we're used to 3 players behind the striker who often rotate.

The above formation (swapping Besic out for Naismith of course) is what I believe we were playing when we had the ball. Out of possession I'm confident we go back to our usual 4-2-3-1:

Howard
Coleman Stones Jags Galloway
McCarthy Barry
Kone Barkley Naismith
Lukaku​

The evidence for this being Naismith and Kone doing the covering on the flanks.

When Lennon replaced Kone, I think we made a permanent change to our usual formation in an attempt to see the game out. I t ended up being a great change with Lennon being involved in our third goal on top of his usual defensive work-rate which endeared him to many of us on his loan spell.

I think I said something similar when I originally made this thread post-Southampton, but I guess if it's confusing for us to see exactly how we've set up, then perhaps the opposition are having a hard time, too. Obviously, I wouldn't advocate us switching formations multiple times every single game because I think that would only confuse and disorganise our own players but certainly it's good to be flexible. The Swansea game will be interesting because they are a team that likes to play with a lot of width, giving a case for any of our 3 out and out wingers to start but with the form of Kone and Naismith it would be harsh if either of them were dropped.