Has Lampard found the right tactical approach for Everton

Despite all the frustration and controversy over last weekend’s defeat for Everton to Manchester City, did Frank Lampard find his ideal tactical system in this game?

Many Everton supporters including me have been calling for a 4-3-3 type formation, or something very similar, for a while now as the best way to strengthen the team’s resiliance and effectiveness.

Since taking over as manager Lampard has used a number of different formations as he gets used to his players and copes with the usual injury absences.

The results have been mixed to say the least with two fine home wins and two awful away defeats at Newcastle and Southampton.

On Saturday evening Lampard’s team lined up with a three-man midfield for the first time as he finally had a fully fit Abdoulaye Doucoure to select alongside Allan and January signing Donny van de Beek.

This midfield worked very well especially in the first half against City as the Blues’ actually shaded the game and could have gone in at half-time with the lead.

Allan in particular was outstanding working his socks off, getting in plenty of tackles and screening the back-four very effectively.

He was able to do this because Doucoure was providing the legs alongside him getting from box-to-box as he does so well.

Meanwhile, van de Beek was calm and intelligent in possession and he ably supported the defensive work of his midfield partners.

This system was also very flexible and provided for both an effective attacking and defensive response to the situation.

The two wide players Anthony Gordon and Alex Iwobi, provided the width and worked hard too when they were needed to drop back and help stifle the effectiveness of City’s attacks particularly down the flanks. It will be even better with Demarai Gray opposite Gordon again.

This meant the formation altered to a sort of 4-1-4-1 with Richarlison the lone front man when Everton were in this more defensive mold.

The Brazilian forward also had a solid game. As I’ve said before, Richarlison is not a natural centre-forward but he has done well recently in that role.

He also enjoys the newly active, pressing approach under Lampard as this suits his strengths rather than a much more passive way of playing as was the case earlier in the season.

With Dominic Calvert-Lewin once again out injured for who knows how long, he will have to do this job anyway for the next few weeks at least.

This sort of flexibility is I think key to creating the kind of fluid and effective tactical system that provides a good basis for the team to move forward, especially away from home.

I actually think this is also the way to go long-term as well enabling the Toffees’ to combine both a front foot, pressing and attacking game and an effecient, counter-attacking approach within the same basic set-up. We’ll see if this is the case during the rest of the season.