How to fix Everton (Part 2) - attacking midfield blend


In my previous piece I looked at the deep midfield blend.

in doing so I realised I hadn't actually considered the existing squad members as solutions.

Again I think the issue highlighted is that proper consideration wasn't given to squad building since Moyes left. We have a lot of very similar midfielders who don't offer the right blend of skills we need.

Tom Davies, l like him. He tries things, and makes things happen. He isn't consistent by any means and in some games nothing seems to go right. But so many senior players seem to disappear on days like that whilst Tom keeps on going. I'd keep him to develop.

Morgan Scheiderlin is a strange one. He was someone who looked very good in all sorts of statistical ways at Southampton without ever meeting my eye test. I never really saw anything special and was fairly skeptical of the signing. However in his first few months he won me over, he blended well with Gana and seemed to form a very good protective shield giving a platform for Barkley and Davies to shine in more advanced roles. It has gone wrong since, I don't know why but there is a player in there.

McCarthy has had bad luck with injury, again I was very cynical of his signing but again he proved me wrong straight away with lots of high energy performances, providing Barry (whose forward passing from deep is also missed) with energy and covering for Barkley's inattentiveness. Again it went wrong when the skills he blended with left, and the injuries of course.

You'll notice several mentions of Barkley already and that is because I feel that the skills most missing from our current midfield at the moment are the ones he provided. Barkley had the spikiest skill profile of them all with some skills at world class levels and others lower league. But we certainly haven't replaced his ability to drive forward with the ball from central areas, his ability to beat a man, and his sheer involvement in the game.

We've gone from an attacking midfielder playing 40+ passes a game (at around 85% accuracy) and 2.5 dribbles per 90 to one playing 20+ passes (at 70% accuracy) and <1 dribble per 90. This isn't about who is better or worse individually, just that the blend of skills has changed and the overall effect is that the midfield has got worse. Without the buccaneering player breaking the opponents defensive lines with runs and passes.

So if we play Gomes and Gana as our deeper players who could we play as the attacking midfielder other than Gylfi?

The missing skills are ball carrying, the ability to dribble and game involvement / ball retention.

The options within the squad are Bernard, Lookman, Dowell and Vlasic.

I watched quite a bit of the first three last season; Bernard because Paolo Fonseca was linked with the Everton managers job, Lookman and Dowell because they were often playing when Everton weren't.

Bernard played mainly on the left of a 3 in a 4-2-3-1 formation for Shakhtar. They are righly the hipster's choice of football team under Fonseca with some wonderful attacking play. The amount of interchange in the front areas meant a lot of the time Bernard was central and he did well. He can beat a player and he can retain the ball in tight areas. However he also was on a super dominant team with a manager who liked possession football.

Lookman played in a variety of positions too. As a left winger, striker in a 2 and as a number 10. The best game I saw him in was as a 10. His skill and creativity caused havoc and his ability to pick out a run from slightly deeper came as a very pleasant surprise.

The problem with Bernard and Lookman comes when seeing them as a midfielder in a 4-3-3. Both are probably better in the flexible front 3 than as a two way midfielder.

That leaves Dowell and Vlasic. The received wisdom with Dowell is that he has the ability but can be languid and lacks energy. Is he too nice? Would a 3 with Gana deep and Dowell and Gomes in front be good enough off the ball? I could certainly see Dowell as a Gomes alternative but I think you'd need to be putting an all action box to box player (like Sangare mentioned in the first article) in the mix too.

Vlasic is a really interesting option. If we were being linked with him direct from CSKA I'd be intrigued. He has thrived in Russia, and more importantly in the Champions League with a winner against Real Madrid. He is averaging 3 dribbles, 3 key passes and 2.5 shots per game. He could be exactly what we need in the attacking role from midfield. He is only averaging 35 passes per 90 which isn't as many as I'd like from a player in his position but he is still only 21.





So looking outside of Everton what type of player and skillset are we missing?

Rueben Loftus Cheek ticks a lot of the boxes for our missing midfielder. His forward passing and dribbling stats are good. He has the physical size the midfield lacks and offers good goalscoring from deep. I did doubt his ability to play in a 4-3-3 before but now he has matured a bit I can see him as an attacking player in that role.



Chakvetadze - Gent

I include Chakvetadze because, from the brief bits I've seen of him, he looks amazing. My issue at the moment is he is a bit biased to the left hand side, and with Bernard, Richarlison and Lookman already in the squad that isn't a position of need. However I could see him developing into a top quality attacking player. I've seen him drop deep to pick up the ball and run with it. With a double pivot behind he could flourish as an attacking midfielder.

In part 3 I'll look at the options for up front and the overall team.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Wyscout review and poking around the French third tier

Scouting report Dan Ndoye - Lausanne Sport

Picking progressive passers