Everton: 5 things Frank Lampard must do to save Everton from relegation

Frank Lampard’s previous tactics can help us understand how he will set up Everton

1. Lampard’s tactical thinking

During his time with Derby County and Chelsea, Lampard introduced a playing style on both the Championship and the Premier League that liked to keep possession as much as they could and attack from a wide area.

Chelsea really used this well down the left hand side during Lampard’s time there, mainly down the left hand side with at first Marcus Alonso and then Ben Chilwell. Only when Reece James started to come into the side did the right hand side see the same attacking fever.

Formations used were often 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1, if the former was utilised then the full back’s would be the main wide attacking threat, if the latter then the wide forward players in the three would be more wide, but the full backs would be expected to overlap. This is explained in an excellent piece by Coaches’ Voice.

In his time at Derby and Chelsea, Lampard loved to use his attacking midfielders as the major goal threats. Maybe because he was so lethal at playing this role himself. The main architect of this for Lampard previously has been Mason Mount. Lampard had Mount on loan at Derby in his year there and back at Chelsea with him the season after. Mount found his mojo at Derby, how to find space, link up with the front man and have more shots on goal.

Mount has been rewarded thoroughly for Lampard’s coaching style and tactics, he has since gone on to be a key player for Chelsea despite the competition for places and become a key member of Gareth Southgate’s England side that meant Mount played most of Euro 2020 aside from the game he missed for self isolation.

This gives encouragement to the new signings made on the last day of the transfer window, Donny Van De Beek and Dele Alli, who both are this type of player.

Lampard likes his team to press high up and having more than one attacking midfielder enables this to happen more often.

As we have seen in one of Lampard’s first training sessions at Everton’s Finch Farm today, which Everton showed on their Twitter account below, he really likes to encourage players to not be scared of the ball under pressure while asking the others to press quickly:

The most interesting part of how Lampard will integrate these tactics into Everton is how to use his central midfield. He liked to have the two out of three midfielders in a 4-3-3 operate more defensively and break up play more often, the trouble with Everton is they only really have one in Allan at their disposal. For example at Chelsea he would play Jorginho and Kante with Mount as the midfield three.

This may mean the intense pressing will have to start right up the pitch and an emphasis on the full back’s being very mobile. At least Lampard has the backroom team in place already to get started right away.

On the next page we look at which formation these tactics will suit Everton best while including the new signings.