Three things to takeaway from Everton 0 Tottenham 0

3. Everton need the right balance to their team

The performance of Fabian Delph was perhaps the most impressive feature of the game against Spurs as the ex-England international produced the kind of dynamic, intelligent performance that would have been hoped for when he joined.

While the Blues’ have little luck with injuries, Delph’s return to fitness has proved fortunate with Abdoulaye Doucoure’s absence proving so difficult to deal with.

Delph was part of a three man midfield of sorts with Allan and Andros Townsend who was playing a sort of inside forward position tucking in more and helping out in the middle. This gave the team a more solid and balanced look than it did, certainly against Wolves. Anthony Gordon on the right also offered plenty defensively too and this is an important part of his developing game.

Benitez has tended to go with just two in the middle in either a 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 formation. This has been fairly successful until recently and his sides have been much more offensive than many expected with the team creating a lot more chances than usually seen in recent seasons.

The Spaniard has got much more out of Doucoure in attack too and that’s made a big difference to Everton’s attacking potential.

But, as we saw against Watford and Wolves the Toffees’ are still vulnerable defensively and the combination of those infuriating, recurring lapses in collective effort and concentration and unforced indivdiual errors can lead to some disasterous results.

In the end better players will hopefully solve these issues but that’s going to take time and some very creative work in the transfer market.

The return of Mina will help, but in the meantime I think Benitez has to find a way to balance the more dynamic, offensive play he has put in place with adequate cover in front of his defence.

This is certainly not easy and it will be a challenge to integrate all his attacking players when Dominic Calvert-Lewin is also fit again. But perhaps he needs to consider a midfield three with two players sitting deeper and a third able to also link effectively with the forwards as a sort of roving number ten.

Whether that is Townsend or Doucoure when he returns, such a refined formation might help to shore up that defence and give enough cover particularly to both full-backs, especially the ageing Seamus Coleman.