Everton may need last season’s defence after Watford debacle

I think that the only solution to the defensive problems that seems realistic is to try the same approach that Carlo Ancelotti adopted when he was faced with a big decline in form and his team was leaking goals too easily.

True, he didn’t have a five-goal defeat at home but his sides were struggling at the Grand Old Lady in particular and he had a succession of injuries to key players to cope with, exactly what Benitez is dealing with again now.

To try and sort this out the Italian decided on a four centre-back defence at the beginning of December as Everton faced a crunch set of games with their season in danger of disintegration.

That defence of course was Mason Holgate and Ben Godfrey at full-back, with Yerry Mina and Micheal Keane in the middle.

This gave the backline enough pace and a much more defensive-orientated mindset rather than having a focus on the contribution to the attack they could make.

This was especially the case with full-backs Seamus Coleman and Lucas Digne, who tend to be much more attack-minded, which sometimes left the Toffees defence more vulnerable to the counter-attack and high press.

It was combined with a more generally defensive posture from the team overall and while it certainly didn’t lead to the best football, it worked by shoring up the defence, at least for time.

Ancelotti’s side struggled to score goals becuase his team lacked enough width and pace up front but the goals against did dry up to a considerable extent.

Looking at the individual players on the pitch on Saturday, it was clear that Godfrey is struggling to find his best form at centre-back. He looked all at sea alongside Keane and without that stable partner, Keane’s own frailties, in particular his lapses in concentration, will again be exposed.

Also both full-backs Coleman and Digne had horrendous days at the weekend and it’s questionable whether they should keep their places.

Digne in particular has been increasingly less and less influential and effective for probably more than a year or so.

I’ve said before I think Digne has been coasting for too long. He knows he’s guarateed a place in the starting eleven and he seems happy to pick up his handsome wages from Everton while playing well within himself knowing he can still get into the French squad too.

It certainly doesn’t help when Everton send their only senior reserve left-back Niels Nkounkou on loan for the season and the only other potential option in the squad Thierry Small decided not sign a professional contract and left for Southampton!

Perhaps given Godfrey’s problems in the middle perhaps moving him to left-back where he excelled last year might help him re-discover his confidence and form.

As for Coleman he had a nightmare and got involved in banter with some fans as the frustration of supporters spilled over.

He should have concentrated on his own performance and showed some leadership with his team-mates rather than arguing with fans who’ve paid a lot of hard-earned money to watch that dross and have seen far too much of this for far too long.

Critical to making this defence work though is the fitness of Mina as he is now by far Everton’s best natural defender.

He has been very strong and solid this season crucially also showing some desperately needed leadership.  We have to hope he is fit for Monday’s game although at the moment it seems unlikely. Along with all this is to consider going back to a man-to-man marking system at set-pieces, which have become a nightmare for these team.