Goodison Park would play host to Aitor Karanka’s newly promoted Middlesbrough side, who have begun the campaign solidly despite losing at home to Crystal Palace last week – their first defeat of the new season.
Koeman’s Blues, however, entered the fixture unbeaten in their opening 4 Premier League games, placing 2nd only to Manchester City prior to kick-off.
Line-Ups
Everton made no changes to the starting XI following their 3-0 victory at the Stadium of Light on Monday morning, which allows Gareth Barry to make his 600th Premier League appearance. Enner Valencia found himself in the match-day squad for the first time following his arrival on loan from West Ham and would go on to make his debut.
Karanka made some changes to his side following their 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace – Fischer, Stuani and Clayton departed the starting XI with De Roon, Ramirez and Nsue returning for the fixture.
Spacings During Build Up Play
Everton were largely impressive in their structure when in possession and used a style which would see both sets of full-backs playing touchline-tight in wide areas, and also wide-attackers utilizing positions in the flanks. This sort of structure and style of spacing was hugely effective in a variety of ways, especially when trying to build up from the middle and defending third.
In the early stages of the game and more particularly to the points in the game where Jagielka or Williams were in possession, Baines and Coleman would push very wide in order to create a option as themselves, but to also enable Everton to play through the opposition quickly, often missing out the deeper midfield duo of Barry/Gueye and going straight into Barkley or the other 3 attacking players.
This allows Everton to gain better attacking positions much quickly, and with Middlesbrough tending to press quite early it opens up plenty of gaps for Barkley to pick up possession through clear passing lanes and run at the exposed defence.
There were various contributions that made these scenarios effective – one being Everton’s quick ball circulation which allowed for opportunities to break ‘Boro lines as well as Gareth Barry’s positioning – slightly deeper towards his centre-halves, and ‘Boro’s disjointed pressing structure in their 4-4-2. It’s massively important that when playing this style of football players can shift passes quickly moreso when playing forwards into a #10 player.
Receiving passes in these positions were particularly easy, with ‘Boro’s spacing as a defending group was relatively poorly, however, in early stages players like Lukaku and Barkley made use of this well and developed much better as the half grew on.
Creating Opportunites From Wide Areas
Furthermore on the previous points, the shape of the team utilizing wide spaces allowed to use these as focus particularly in the attacking third. As a personal opinion, use the flanks has huge potential in terms of chance creation, especially when you have wide-attackers who are dangerous in 1v1 situations and have the skillset to supply crosses as well as cutting inside and attacking through central areas.
In prior seasons, under Martinez, Coleman and Baines provided a lot of the attacking threats from the flanks as opposed to the wide-forwards, with Lukaku occasionally drifting into the channels. However, under Koeman, players such as Mirallas have excelled in certain situations under the Dutchman’s tenure so far and with the addition of Bolasie to the side, he has a variety of players who are superb in 1v1 situations at his disposal – yet Coleman & Baines still offer plenty going forwards.
Bolasie was particularly effective at picking up wide positions, dragging his marker into a central zone allowing him to create space in flank before receiving the ball and match up his opponent 1v1. His end-product wasn’t particularly brilliant, but his overall movement off-the-ball and occupation of his opposite number was terrific.
Not all chances were made in 1v1 situations – Everton made great clusters of combinations between full-back, wide attacker and striker/central midfielders.
These quick, sharp combinations allowed them to make use of spaces that Middlesbrough centre-halves vacated when Lukaku would drop slightly deeper and wider – Coleman’s goal is a superb example of this – a scenario were the Toffee’s had a heavy numerical presence on the right-flank and short, sharp passes contributed to the chance and ultimately goal.
Mirallas and Baines generally had a good relationship on the left, and Barkley was usually quite involved on this side. Again, with a combination of 1v1s, overload and clusters of combinations, Everton made use of their advantages in wide areas well and created plenty of opportunities, whether attacking the byline for cut-backs/crosses or making diagonal runs with the ball and creating goal-scoring opportunities that way.
Considerations When Out of Possession
Whilst Koeman is making great strides with his sides attacking methods, the defending side of his squad can do with more time on the training ground. Fortunately for Everton, ‘Boro weren’t great at fashioning chances, but even still Everton look fairly disjointed when the opposition is able to spring on counters – this was much more evident in the 1st half, but minor changes in the 2nd made them much more comfortable out of possession.
Also fortunately for Everton was that Ramirez wasn’t having a good day at the offices – from a personal view, had Middlesbrough have a better quality #10, they would’ve created more and better chances. Negredo was quite isolated when ‘Boro had possession, and with spaces between Everton’s central defenders and midfielders, a play who could receive well in smaller areas could’ve done some damaged.
They also looked fairly suspect in wider areas and prior to his goal, Coleman was having a drab day on the right side – Downing had good qualities when delivering from wide areas, and Coleman failed to pressure Downing when he was in said areas. Baines was relatively in control on the left, however, Barragan did show glimpses of marauding forwards in vain of creating problems.
However, Everton did look much more comfortable in the 2nd 45. They used a 4-1-4-1 shape out of possession, with Barry operating as the more deeper midfielder, allowing Barkley and Gueye to protect central areas.
As a result, Karanka’s side managed to keep the ball, but only in sideways passes and wasn’t able to make penetrative passes without conceding possession.
Conclusion
Apart from ‘Boro’s positive start, Everton looked in control for the majority of the game and were effective in preventing Boro from attacking creatively, but yet able to attack themselves with bodies and create ample opportunities.
Twitter: xG map for Everton – Boro. Not the barnburner you’d think from the scoreline, but another quality Toffees win. https://t.co/w9pwmqgKtn (@Caley_graphics)
Idrissa Gueye again proved what an excellent signing he is for Everton – a quality central midfielder who is able to retain the ball effectively in his own half and has the capability to carry the ball or make clever passes. Gareth Barry starred on his 600th Premier League appearance.
A great result for Everton as they moved back into 2nd after Arsenal had dispatched Hull earlier in the game, and I am sure Koeman, Everton and the fans will be mightily pleased with their start to the season and life under the former-Saints manager.
