View: New Everton system could reinvigorate their season
Carlo Ancelotti debuted a new system for his Everton side’s clash with Fulham this weekend as the Toffees returned to winning ways with a 3-2 win.
Everton have used a four-three-three system this season with three midfielders sat ahead of the usual four-man defence.
Against Fulham, Ancelotti switched to a five-man defence and sacrificed a position in the midfield.
This saw Ben Godfrey, Yerry Mina and Michael Keane start as centre backs with Lucas Digne and Alex Iwobi playing as wing-backs.
This gave the Toffees a more compact defence while also allowing the chance to dominate the wide areas of the pitch with four wide players in the starting eleven.
The deadly attack of a centre forward and two wingers stayed the same as Everton’s attack wasn’t the problem during the three-game winless streak that the Toffees recently endured.
Despite conceding two goals against Fulham, the new system looked to have improved Everton’s defence.
For Fulham’s first, the positioning from the midfield and defence was spot on. Allan was sat covering the defence while the three centre backs stood on the edge of the box keeping a strong defensive line.
Allan made an error which allowed the ball to find Bobby Decordova-Reid inside the box as he scored Fulham’s first.
This goal came from an individual error and Allan was actually perfectly positioned to deal with the attacking threat, he was just unable to avoid a mistake on this occasion.
The second goal came from a wicked deflection off Mina’s leg which left Jordan Pickford helpless.
This goal came from poor blocking rather than a failure in the system that saw Everton tear Fulham apart on the counter-attack and led to three first-half goals.
Fulham were fairly effective going forward but their attack was nullified by the presence of three centre backs and it looks as if the experiment was successful for Ancelotti.
The system will work better after the players have had more time to adapt to it and Ancelotti’s hope will be that the team gets stronger the more used the new formation they get.
Toffees fans will be hoping for something similar after witnessing their side return to winning ways after going over a month without a league win.
In other Everton news, some Toffees fans blasted Yerry Mina for his display against the Cottagers.