Were Benitez Everton tactics exposed in United defeat

Everton slumped to a depressingly familiar defeat at Manchester United in their final pre-season game on Saturday. So did manager Rafa Benitez’s tactics get exposed in that loss?

The 4-0 defeat at Old Trafford was a sobering return to reality for Everton after a few hopeful signs in the Florida Cup matches.

All the old problems with this Blues team returned; defensive fragility, a midfield lacking enough grip and limited creativity and threat up front.

The lack of goalscoring threat is explained mainly of course by the absence of both main forwards Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Their return should hopefully improve that.

However, the other problems are more deep-seated and worrying, particularly the defensive inconsistencies and errors.

Jordan Pickford returned to his past of individual mistakes and unforced errors and the collective defending was too weak and indecisive at crucial times.

This is why Asmir Begovic was brought in to hopefully apply real pressure on Pickford as Robin Olsen did last season and why there are constant rumours of a new central defensive signing.

But along with these long-standing positional, mental or motivational issues, were the manager’s tactics also at fault in that defeat?

For me the biggest concern I had about Benitez’s appointment wasn’t the fact he managed them lot across the road or the comments made fifteen years ago about Everton (to be honest I don’t think they really matter) but the question of whether his tactical approach was outdated.

I feared he might be, like I think Jose Mourinho, a coach whose tactics and emphasis on defensive organisation and not conceding first and foremost with a resulting negative mentality, would prove ill-suited to the modern Premier League.

To be fair to him there were signs in his first albeit underwhelming signings that Benitez recognised the need for much more pace and width to Everton’s game.

And fifteen years ago Benitez and Mourinho were managers at the top of the game and competed for the big prizes regularly. But as always football has changed and evolved since then.

Being solid and well-organised is obviously crucial to any successful side and it’s important to get those basics right. However, an overly-rigid defensive mentality does seem to be outdated today when so many teams are playing a fast, more attacking style.

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While there is always a variety of approaches employed in English football and there is still room for more cautious coaches like Roy Hodgson at certain clubs with limited ambition, the majority of teams in the League – certainly in the top half anyway – now tend to play a much more high-energy, pressing type of game.

That’s not been Benitez’s style and so it raises concerns about whether if he does deploy overly-defensive tactics next season his teams will be exposed as a result of that.

This was actually also a problem we saw at times last season under Carlo Ancelotti and it cost Everton dear, especially at Goodison Park.

Benitez employed his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation against United and while it’s a system suitable for certain games or opponents, the midfield two of Abdoulaye Doucoure and Allan were swamped at times and that put the defence under a lot of pressure, especially in the first half.

In addition, not having a proper centre-forward to lead the attack meant there was no focal point up front and the Toffees attacks often broke down too easily. This was a problem in the past when one of Benitez’s many recent predecessors Marco Silva employed a similar formation.

Unless he can bring in some additonal players (a big ask) like another striker, more midfield reinforcements and better defensive strength, then I think Benitez will have to adjust his tactics to better suit his existing players. That might mean using a flexible 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3 to give more midfield balance and numbers and better protect his defence.