Michael Ball details mistake that allowed Iwobi to thrive for Everton in win v Fulham
Former Everton defender Michael Ball has claimed that Fulham’s obsession with James Rodriguez allowed Alex Iwobi to thrive in Sunday’s win.
The Toffees returned to winning ways with a 3-2 win over Fulham on Sunday and Iwobi turned in one of his most impressive performances in an Everton shirt.
Ball, speaking in his Liverpool Echo column, claimed that the Cottagers were too focused on marking Rodriguez which allowed Iwobi to operate freely.
He said, “The Fulham game was a prime example of them being so obsessed with trying to stop Rodriguez that it left spaces wide open for Iwobi to exploit in the first half. If they then don’t mark Rodriguez, he’s got himself in dangerous areas to cause problems, which he did in the build-up to two-goals.
“If Rodriguez gets into dangerous areas, he can suck players into man-marking him so it can leave someone else on the pitch to be free.
“In the first half this weekend it clearly worked for us, because Iwobi was the one benefitting from the amount of space created.”
Ball’s assessment bodes well for Everton as Ancelotti’s side has so much attacking threat that defenders need to watch out for, it is inevitable that the situation that unfolded on Sunday will occur again.
Opposition defences can’t mark Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison, Rodriguez and Iwobi at the same time which means one or more of them will always have time and space to pick out a killer pass or have a shot on goal.
Playing all four of these attacking players was allowed by the introduction of a new system from Ancelotti where Iwobi was deployed as a wing-back.
This allowed him more licence to go forward without having to focus on defending as there were three centre backs behind him who could deal with the Fulham attack.
We think that for the most part the new system worked and it will be interesting to see if Ancelotti uses it again against Leeds United this weekend.
In other Everton news, Danny Murphy hailed the impact of one player in the win against Fulham.