Two Everton youngsters press claim for first-team football

A couple of young Everton players who were overlooked by new boss Duncan Ferguson on Saturday, did their claim for a first-team place no harm last night.

Nathan Patterson and Lewis Dobbin played a key role as Everton won the Under-23’s match against Tottenham 1-0 with Patterson providing the assist for Dobbin’s winner.

Patterson (along with fellow new full-back Vitalli Mykolenko) wasn’t in Ferguson’s matchday squad against Aston Villa in his first game in charge since Rafa Benitez was finally sacked.

This was a surprise, certainly me anyway, and left questions about why this happened and what if anything it indicates for the future.

Particularly, because one of the key things I think is necessary for this Toffees team to make any progress this season – obviously essential if the club is to survive relegation – is a willingness to put trust in the young players in the squad.

Whoever takes over as manager long-term and it does seem likely that it will be someone other than Ferguson, I think they must be prepared to give players like Patterson, Dobbin, Anthony Gordon and Jarrad Branthwaite a proper chance to contribute to saving this season.

Anyway, whatever the exact reasons for Patterson and Mykolenko’s absence from the squad they will hopefully get a chance again soon.

Especially, because the young Scot produced the kind of dynamic, attacking performance that Everton could certainly do with a lot more for the rest of the campaign. Yes it was an Under-23’s match but still he showed his quality.

Just as when Gordon was belatedly introduced against Villa, Patterson’s vibrant performance and critically his creativity is exactly what the Blues need a lot more of if this highly disfunctional side is to stay up this season.

Interestingly, the Scottish full-back seemed to thrive playing in a wing-back type position within the 3-5-2 formation that the Under-23’s have adopted.

The three-man defence was also used extensively by Benitez before his departure. It generally didn’t work apart from the Chelsea match last month, which also conincidentally was a game that heavily featured the young players already mentioned, performing well.

I think it’s clear that Benitez brought in both Patterson and Mykolenko so he could more effectively play this type of formation.

I’ve said repeatedly that while there are occasions when defending deep and in numbers using a three or five man defence can be successful, generally Everton need to get much more on the front foot and use some version of a 4-3-3.

However, there might be one caveat. That is, if this type of formation and tactics represents the best use of the available players and maximise their strengths.

Looking at the players in the squad it does seem that if Branthwaite is fit and available he can easily slot into a back three as a naturally left-footed player whether operating as the left sided centre-back or in the middle flanked by two others.

In addition, Ben Godfrey has regularly played in a back-three. So let’s imagine a scenario in which Seamus Coleman, Godfrey or Branthwaite flanked Yerry Mina in a defensive three.

Patterson and Mykolenko could then theoretically push up and provide natural attacking width and help press as wing-backs while being able to drop back if needed to support the defence.

This would potentially cover for only having two central midfielders, which is not ideal, but again with a long-term injury to Fabian Delph and Tom Davies, Allan’s continuing problems with fitness and Jean-Philippe Gbamin having been frozen out, seems almost inevitable at the moment.

The disadvantage of such a formation, apart from the obvious potential for it to become overly defensive and negative, is that it restricts how many attacking players can be fielded.

Well, regardless of these tactical questions, whoever eventually gets the reigns at Goodison Park surely needs to find a way to utilise his talented young players effectively over the remaining months of the season if Everton are to survive.