Three new year resolutions for Everton

2. Stick to a settled defence

The Blues defence has been a source of almost constant worry and concern for the past two Everton managers, Marco Silva and Carlo Ancelotti.

Silva introduced a zonal marking system and a 4-2-3-1 formation. He tried different combinations at centre-back but his players seemed to struggle with the zonal system and his defence was vulnerable and constantly leaked goals.

The Portuguese thought he’d found the right combination in the middle when he eventually paired Micheal Keane and on-loan Kurt Zouma in the later part of the 2018-19 season.

But then Zouma returned to Chelsea and it was back to the drawing board. In addition Silva lost his key midfield defensive screen that summer as Idrissa Gueye left for PSG.

After another poor start to last season it was a shambolic defensive performance midway through the campaign that finally sealed Silva’s fate when Everton crashed to a horrendous 5-2 derby defeat at Anfield in early December 2019.

Then when Ancelotti came in to replace him he steadied things, initially sticking to Duncan Ferguson’s 4-4-2 line-up, which brought some much-needed defensive stability for a while.

It didn’t last though and once more vulnerabilities and inconsistencies crept into the Blues defending at the end of last season and for much of this one too.

Like his predecessor, to solve this problem Ancelotti has tried all sorts of different partnerships at the back and went with a three-man defence as well.

Again as with Silva, Ancelotti almost out of desperation and due to injuries to both his full-backs, stumbled upon a defence that worked when he decided to go with four central defenders for the game against Chelsea in early December last year.

That backline clicked and Chelsea were beaten with the Toffees getting only their second clean sheet of the season as well. This defence carried on throughout December, proving an impregnable one and hadn’t conceded a single goal from open play until Friday night’s match.

In that game against West Ham Ancelotti tinkered with this back four bringing Seamus Coleman into the team in place of Mason Holgate who moved to centre-back with Keane rested. This change disrupted his newly established defence.

When Lucas Digne returns to fitness Ancelotti will have a further decision to make. Will he bring the Frenchman back straight away in place of Ben Godfrey who has been – up until Friday anyway – superb, or could he find another way to get Digne’s creative and attacking talents in without disrupting what had been such a strong defence?

One way could be to bring Digne in on the left of a starting five-man midfield that currently operates when his 4-3-3 formation morphs to a 4-5-1. This would also enable Richarlison to play more centrally off Dominic Calvert-Lewin, which to be honest seems to better suit him.

Whatever tactics Ancelotti adopts, I think the Blues must have as settled a defence as possible to ensure they are difficult to beat at all times. This will also help to cope with the seemingly inevitable injuries to key attacking players, which inhibits their offensive play and makes keeping clean sheets so important to consistently picking up points.