Southampton v Everton: 5 Key Tactical Battles

Goals have been raining in under Lampard, but forwards need to contribute more

4. Everton forwards must be more clinical

In three league and cup games so far under Frank Lampard Everton have scored eight goals, however only two of these have been scored by forward players. Anthony Gordon and Richarlison have scored one each, while central defenders have got half of these goals.

While this is a great goals ratio over the three games it will be slightly worrying about the productivity of the Everton frontline.

They had 21 shots in total against Leeds, 10 of these were on target, the highest since near the end of the 2018/19 season and has you can see below this was better than most of this season’s shot totals.

The return to fitness of Dominic Calvert-Lewin is clearly a boost for Everton and Lampard to enable him to get his first choice attack out on the pitch. After a four month lay off it will be key for Calvert-Lewin to get amongst the goals, certainly the form of Gordon and Richarlison should mean this happens sooner rather than later.

The shot to goal ratio for Richarlison has to be better and although the goal last week that was eventually credited to Gordon was all down to him, I don’t think it would have beaten the Leeds goalkeeper without the clip off Gordon’s heel.

Perhaps the space they may get with Southampton’s high press may mean more joy tomorrow. Certainly the Saints are better at defending set pieces than Brentford and Leeds so it will require more joy from the forward areas.

One notable stat that didn’t sit too well was the lack of Calvert-Lewin shots on goal despite the team managing so many efforts.

In games away from home Everton will need to get their striking talisman more into shooting positions and tomorrow this will need to be the case for Everton to certainly pick up the three points.

While Gordon and Richarlison have been mobile and playing off each other well, Southampton will not be as helpful as Leeds with space to work in and not pressuring the initial pass through to them. Therefore a different plan may be to get Gordon especially more out wide to get crosses in the box for the front two.

Richarlison has a great scoring record against Southampton for Everton as his pace and movement does cause them trouble, this will only assist Calvert-Lewin in being one on one and being able to utilise his excellent heading technique if they get the crosses in.

Lampard will not care where the goals come from if three points is the result does it matter of the forwards don’t score? Well yes, but long term you will want to get Calvert-Lewin firing as this will enable others to revel in the space afforded to them.