A truly epic FA Cup fifth round tie against Tottenham on Wednesday finished 5-4 to Everton, but depsite the victory do the Toffees need to return to a more solid defence if they are to go on and win trophies and secure European football?
This breathless cup clash came a few days after Everton had fought back from going behind twice to Manchester United before eventually equalising with basically the last kick of the game.
There are two ways to look at this situation. On the positive side the Toffees showed great inner strength to secure a big point at Old Trafford in a way that previous Everton teams might not have been able to do. Then they played Spurs and after twice gaining the lead the visitors came back each time forcing the Blues to come again and finally win it 5-4.
Both these results showed Everton appeared to have the mental resolve and resources to find a way to get a result when they were up against it. That’s a terrific quality to have.
The other way to see these two matches was the fact that the Toffees conceded seven goals and looked very vulnerable especially when defending set-pieces.
Carlo Ancelotti has tinkered with his defensive unit in these games deciding to put Lucas Digne in at left-back with Ben Godfrey going to centre-back against United and then on Wednesday moving Godfrey to right-back.
In both cases this seemed to weaken the defensive solidity of the team. At Old Trafford Everton let in two goals they could or should have prevented.
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In particular the McTominay goal from a set-piece that gave United the lead again after the Blues had clawed it back to 2-2. This goal saw the Toffees fail to defend the set-piece and keeper Robin Olsen also didn’t get to the ball.
Against Spurs Everton conceded two more goals from set-plays and allowed Harry Kane to sneek in and score Tottenham’s fourth at the far post.
I also don’t think Godfrey suits playing on the right. Perhaps a little oddly he is more confortable at left-back or on the left side of the defence even though he is mainly right-footed.
I remember Pat Van Den Hauwe who played left-back in the eighties teams was another right-footed defender who was perfectly comfortable playing on the ‘wrong’ side.
In my view Ancelotti needs to return to the back-four of Mason Holgate, Micheal Keane, Yerry Mina and Godfrey and then build or graft his attacking resources onto that base, perhaps along the lines previously mentioned with Digne moving further forward on the left of midfield.
He could even contemplate a tactical change reverting to a 4-4-2 with James Rodriguez or Alex Iwobi on the right and Richarlison pushed more centrally to support Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Ancelotti has a dilemma. He wants to increase the creativity and attacking flair of his team but he also doesn’t want to undermine the defensive gains made recently. It’s a problem he has to resolve if the Blues are going to become consistently competitive and successful.