View: Donny van de Beek Everton tactical roles could change
Everton midfielder Donny van de Beek impressed during the Toffees’ 3-0 win against Leeds United in the previous game.
The on-loan midfielder from Manchester United played in the deep-lying playmaker role and excelled in his first Premier League start of the season.
Apart from spraying out intelligent passes and keeping the game simple, he made some brilliant tackles and crucial interceptions.
Van de Beek is a technically gifted player and it will be interesting to see how Frank Lampard used him once Abdoulaye Doucoure returns.
Doucoure was superb under Rafa Benitez who gave him the license to attack. However, he is someone who can hold back and play as a proper box-to-box midfielder.
It will be difficult for Lampard to drop an influential player like Doucoure when he returns.
Lampard has probably hinted what he might do. He feels that Van de Beek is equally capable of playing in the advanced central midfield role.
“Donny can definitely do both roles and I just felt that, for the make-up of the team, as I came in I saw Donny as being a player who can really link from back to front,” said Lampard, as quoted by Liverpool Echo.
“That means he possibly has to start a bit deeper. I think as we hopefully evolve and some other players get fitter, there may be different opportunities to tweak things and get him higher up the pitch because he’s certainly comfortable when he’s a goal threat.
“He has a real instinct to arrive in the box, he always has.”
In that case, his overall role will change. He has this knack for getting late into the box, and we could see a different version of the player.
It could pose another problem though. The structure of the team could be altered. How will he accommodate Richarlison and Dele Alli or Anthony Gordon into the system?
Nevertheless, Lampard will welcome this selection headache. Doucoure has just returned to Everton training, and he is expected to be drafted into the team shortly.
In other Blues news, Michael Ball slams Everton owner Farhad Moshiri for Anwar El Ghazi move.