Southampton v Everton: 5 Key Tactical Battles

After the crucial victory over Leeds United last weekend, Frank Lampard and his Everton team face another important match against an in-form Southampton side away on Saturday afternoon.

Although a five point gap has opened up over the relegation zone Lampard will be mindful that if Everton don’t pick up any points at Southampton then that gap will likely to be narrowed the following week at least when they take on champions elect Manchester City.

Ralph Hasenhuttl has overseen a brilliant few weeks as Saints boss, a draw with Manchester City, winning a five goal thriller at Spurs and a good point at Manchester United has seen the south coast side get into mid table security.

After a very poor start to the season which included a 3-1 defeat at Goodison Park on the first day of the season it has been a creditable group of results that has seen the Saints go above Everton and are now seven points clear of their opponents on Saturday.

Part of this article will look at how Southampton have picked up their form and how vital James Ward-Prowse is to the success of the team.

Everton have had the most settled week since Lampard took charge and with not much movement of players available to him will have put some good work in at the training ground this week, we will analyse how he might shape up on Saturday.

How key will Donny Van De Beek be again on Saturday and will we see a change in formation in midfield or keep the successful tandem with Allan from last week.

Demariai Gray is still missing from the Everton squad this weekend so options are limited up front, will Lampard stick with the fluid and movement of last week against Leeds or ask players to stay out wide more?

Set pieces could be key on Saturday and with Ward-Prowse Southampton have one of the best takers of them. We will analyse how Everton must counter act this and reduce the risk from the Saints’ most potent weapon.

How has Hasenhuttl turned Southampton’s season around

1. Why Southampton are one of the most in form sides

Over the last few Premier League seasons Southampton have been one of the most rollercoaster sides. A couple of 9-0 thrashings, battling relegation, beating the ‘big six’ and having runs of form that match Champions League positioned teams.

The Saints really are the pic’n’mix team of the Premier League and kind of remind me of the early David Moyes reign where Everton were so unpredictable before establishing themselves as a top six regular side.

Southampton probably will never get into that top six even once, but at last they have a manager who is dedicated to the club and improving every season.

Ronald Koeman and Mauricio Pochettino both did well but were pulled in to leave by more aspiring clubs. Everton fans will probably wish Koeman had stayed at St Mary’s after his fairly disastrous tenure at Goodison Park.

Hasenhuttl has instilled a plan on his side with a high intense press key to limit the technical players he has at his disposal. It very much matches up with Frank Lampard’s Everton side if you analyse their performance over Leeds United last weekend.

The formation the Saints like to use is normally the classic 4-4-2 with a very hard working midfield and not much attacking intent from the full backs.

The key to Southampton is pressing intensely high up the pitch to either win corners, free kicks and even throw in’s. It is no surprise that usually over recent seasons Southampton had the lead at half time more than most other sides.

Last season the issue for the Saints was holding on to those half time leads, this season they did start the same way and a leading example was witnessed at Goodison Park back on the first day when Southampton lost a one goal half time advantage to lose 3-1. However in recent weeks they have produced more goals and points with second half goals.

They scored twice late on at Spurs to win a five goal thriller and came back to get a point late on at Old Trafford when Che Adams scored a clinical right foot finish to get a 1-1 draw against Manchester United.

The Saints were actually unlucky to not get all three points in the end. Also in the FA Cup Fourth Round they came back to win in extra-time against Coventry City.

Perhaps more belief has come into the side after they picked up vital wins against relegation sides before Christmas or you can point to the sudden inclusion and form of on loan from Chelsea striker Armando Broja.

One constant with Southampton has been the form of Ward-Prowse, arguably the best English midfielder outside of the top six clubs.

He was very unlucky to miss out on England’s Euro 2020 squad. You could also argue he has the best technique of an English free kick taker since the best retired in David Beckham.

With Oriel Romeu sitting in front of the stable back four it allows Ward-Prowse to dictate the play, rather like Everton hope Van De Beek will on the other side. With the hard working duo of Adams and Broja up top it enables the wide midfielders to push right up on the opposing full back’s.

Everton have had a weakness at set pieces and Southampton will look to exploit this at every opportunity, plus the inconsistency of Mason Holgate and Michael Keane in concentration will mean the intense high press will be in evident from the first minute.

How will Lampard and Everton combat this on Saturday, or will they go with the same tactics from the comfortable victory over Leeds last weekend?

Lampard must try to turn Goodison form into away performances too

2. Everton and Lampard must keep up the momentum

So far it has been Jekyll and Hyde for Everton under Frank Lampard and the worrying aspect going into the game with Southampton is the one away performance was the Jekyll side of the Lampard era.

Everton have only won once in the Premier League away from home this season, although this was on the south coast also against a team who were in form in Brighton. Numerous defensive errors and a lack of goals at key moments have led to the Toffees having such sticky away form.

In fact since the first week of the season when they did so at Leeds and Brighton, Everton have not taken the lead away from home never mind win a game except for that short lived minute at Newcastle last week. Maybe the players were in shock at such an incident taken place!

However Lampard and his talented backroom staff have had a full week to get the mind set on a very difficult challenge that awaits them at St Mary’s on Saturday. Against Newcastle they basically had only 48 hours to fine tune tactics and see how they recovered from the cup win against Brentford.

Fortunately no more injuries have happened during or since the victory over Leeds, they will have Vitalii Mykolenko back in the squad after his Covid enforced absence.

Also the sight of Abdoulaye Doucoure back in training, although tomorrow will come too soon, will have given everyone a boost. Demarai Gray is also due to be back in training next week.

Therefore I believe Lampard must fight fire with fire on Saturday and possibly go with the same tactics, formation and players that did very well in the comfortable win against Leeds.

This will mean they will match Southampton’s high intense press and the 4-4-2 formation. The only slight alteration will be Anthony Gordon who may be asked to play a more wide role on the left than be inside as much as he was against Leeds. When Everton have the ball it could well switch to a more 4-2-2-2 like last week with Gordon and Iwobi coming inside again.

Against Newcastle the midfield was overrun by their press, however if Donny Van De Beek can reproduce the form of last Saturday they should keep the ball far better.

The only personnel change could be Mykolenko for JonJoe Kenny, but many including myself would feel this would be harsh on Kenny. He was far more positive and productive last week despite switching to the left back role.

It will be so important for Everton to match Southampton early on, last season when Everton had won four out of four at the start it was the Saints who ended the run and basically did so in the first half an hour. The season before Richarlison scored the winner after Tom Davies scored a very early opener and Everton won the game, coincidence I think not!

At least Evertonians can go with more confidence than the previous away games knowing Lampard’s style and hard work is now showing in home performances at least.

Now can they do it away at what will be a windy day on the south coast, at least they know those conditions very well playing on Merseyside.

After a man of the match display against Leeds, Donny must continue his comeback

3. Van De Beek has to start after classy display

Donny Van De Beek produced one of the most classiest performances from central midfield in an Everton shirt possibly since Mikel Arteta against Fiorentina over a decade ago. He controlled the game against Leeds and produced a man of the match display.

For someone that had hardly started since moving to Manchester United a year and a half ago, you would have thought Van De Beek had come straight from his brilliant Ajax performances in the Champions League in 2018/19.

The Dutch international just looked so natural and at home in the midfield alongside Allan. His part in the first goal was sublime and what was particularly encouraging was his link up play with anyone in a blue shirt around him.

As Paddy Boyland put so eloquently in his Athletic UK piece below:

The key for Southampton tomorrow is to match up with the Saints hard working midfield, one to help stop them and probably the second is more important which is to keep the ball and get Everton moving forward through Gordon and Iwobi.

The word ‘pivot’ is the key one to describe how Van De Beek needs to play others into the game. Allan can do the more dirty work next to him and after last week’s display Evertonians will have more confidence in dominating possession and being on the front foot more than previous away games this season.

Certainly it will be a key battle between Van De Beek and Allan against Ward-Prowse and Romeu. Whoever wins this could well go on to win the game for their side.

It should mean that Dele Alli remains on the bench for now, but even Dele showed great promise last week when there was more room on the pitch later on.

With Doucoure about to rival him  a midfield spot as he regains fitness, players will have to fight to keep their place and that alone should be a massive motivation for Van De Beek after being on the bench at Manchester United for so long.

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.

Ward-Prowse is the key offensive weapon for Southampton

5. Everton will be severely tested at set pieces

Before last Saturday it became a ritual for Everton to concede a goal from a set piece. Even with Paul Clement taking over set piece coaching on the training ground, Frank Lampard has seen at first hand how much a big task this will be.

Against Newcastle last week Everton conceded a goal direct from a corner, albeit Yerry Mina had just been injured and subbed off meaning they lost their best header in defence, just a minute after taking the lead.

This has been a common theme throughout the last few months, goals at Crystal Palace and at home to Brighton and Aston Villa really exposed Everton’s fragile defensive make up at set pieces.

Against Southampton on Saturday they will face possibly the most consistent and deadly set piece taker in the Premier League, certainly on current form this would be the case, in James Ward-Prowse.

His delivery for an English footballer is up there with the best, even David Beckham would be impressed with the Southampton’s man form and technique.

A recent free kick against Wolves was possibly the best free kick seen in the Premier League for a number of seasons, right up there with direct free kicks scored by Cristiano Ronaldo, Leighton Baines and David Beckham. Take a look for yourself and see what you think from the video below:

He also has the best Premier League scoring record from direct free kicks out of current players in any team:

Therefore, I am sure the message to the Everton players from Clement and Lampard will be to not give any free kicks around the area, even in a wide position. This can be managed, however stopping corners is a different issue and sometimes cannot be avoided.

Also, a slight worry is the ease Kieran Trippier scored a free kick past Jordon Pickford at Newcastle last week, certainly he will have to expect to be worked well if Ward-Prowse is lining up a free kick within 30 yards.

In terms of corners Everton must be watchful of the Southampton centre backs and the front two of Adams and Broja as they attack the edge of the six yard box intensely knowing the delivery from Ward-Prowse will be accurate time and time again.

If Everton can curb the efforts from corners and limit the free kick opportunities for Ward-Prowse and Southampton then the win possibility will go up enormously.

As mentioned before Southampton do struggle to maintain the intense pressing and style for a full 90 minutes and Everton will get times in the game to dominate.

Notably, there have been comments this week in regards to Southampton having players go down for treatment halfway through the second half, something that was even asked to Lampard in his pre-match press conference.

While he said it was not an issue and many teams do this, it may mean game management will be another key thing to watch.

Certainly, you would feel goals will happen at St Mary’s on Saturday, both teams have lacked clean sheets but do score goals in almost all their matches.