Everton must find way to reverse away form starting at Spurs

After a far from convincing FA Cup win over Boreham Wood on Thursday, Everton travel to Tottenham on Monday night to resume their Premier League fight for survival.

Everton have been in horrendous form away from home this season and haven’t won on their travels since defeating Brighton back in September.

It’s a dreadful record and one that I think has to change in the remaining quarter of the campaign otherwise I do fear for the Toffees’ ability to stay up.

Much has been made of how important Goodison Park will be to the Blues’ as they battle relegation. The unique atmosphere and passion that can be generated there will obviously be crucial.

However, while it does seem very likely the team will get most of their points at the Grand Old Lady, can they rely soley on that?

I’m not sure they can and I think to survive Everton will need to find ways to pick up a few points on their travels too.

Five wins at home meaning the team finished with thirty seven points at season’s end, would probably be enough to avoid the drop.

But, if they could find a way to secure maybe at minimum four points away from home – a win and a draw perhaps – that would take some of the pressure off those home matches.

For example coming up, the Toffees’ have two away games in London at Crystal Palace and then West Ham.

While neither are easy fixtures, if they could find a way to win one of them (something that I don’t think should be impossible for this set of players!) then what a difference that would potentially make.

Especially, because it’s almost certain the Blues’ will drop points somewhere along the line at Goodison before season’s end.

The very next away game Everton have is also in London, Monday’s match at Spurs. Can the Toffees’ start reversing that terrible away record and get something from this game?

On their last visit to the Tottenham Stadium the Blues’ won in the opening game of last season as Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored in a 1-0 win.

That victory kick-started a campaign that just like this season began with a series of good wins that prompted a cautious optimism that perhaps this team had turmed the corner. Well, it proved to be a false dawn then as it has proved to be this term too.

One thing that marked last season was the number of away wins Carlo Ancelotti’s team achieved. Eleven away victories was the result and represented a big increase on recent seasons.

Of course, this was I think largely the result of the unique conditions that existed with the absence of supporters almost throughout the whole season.

This campaign has seen Everton only manage that one solitary away victory at Brighton in the Premier League all season. The team has been timid, weak and far too defensive on their travels and has therefore paid the price.

Frank Lampard becoming manager hasn’t changed that terrible record and despite his attempts to shift his players away from that mentality, his last two away matches at Newcastle and Southampton have been just as bad as anything under Rafa Benitez.

So, there is very little reason to feel optimistic about Monday’s game. And, if Lampard starts with the same sort of team and tactics as he started the match against Boreham Wood, I very much doubt Everton will get anything from the game.

It was slightly mystifying to see how the Blues’ lined up for their FA Cup encounter with the National League side.

For some unknown reason Lampard decided to play three at the back against a team nearly eighty places below Everton. It was a strange reversion to a Benitez-style of tactics against a very weak side who posed no real offensive threat on the night.

As a result, in the first half the home team were slow, methodical and erratic in their build-up play with far too much timid sideways passing and allowed their opponents to get behind the ball and defend in numbers and with determination.

This they did well and so inevitably they quickly frustrated the Toffees’ meaning it became a much tougher slog than it should have been to break down and eventually beat the visitors.

It looks as though Lampard will have both Calvert-Lewin and Demarai Gray back and available to face Spurs although Ben Godfrey is still not ready to return.

I would like to see the same team as the one that played against Manchester City. That side had a three-man midfield, which provided support for the high press and additional protection in front of the back four and was resolute and solid defensively.

In fact it was a near-perfect away-type performance against a good team who control possession and offer a multi-dimensional attacking threat.

And, I would bring in Gray alongside Anthony Gordon with Richarlison continuing up front rather than bring Calvert-Lewin back to start.

As I said earlier, this team lining up in that 4-3-3 formation could operate in a flexible system allowing for good pressing and then adjust quickly and hopefully provide an effective defensive response as well when out of possession.

It’s important not to sit too deeply and concede too much possesion and all the initiative to Tottenham, but it’s also necessary to defend well when you have to. Getting that balance right away from home is critical and for far too long this Toffees’ side haven’t managed to do it.

The biggest single worry is of course Everton’s central defenders going up against Spurs centre-forward Harry Kane.

The England international started the season slowly but has recently found his best form and he will presumably be anticipating plenty of chances playing against Micheal Keane and Mason Holgate, nethier of whom are the most reliable to put it mildly.

I’m not too hopeful of the Blues’ getting anything from this match, but if the Toffees’ could find a way to get a point for example, it might make a difference in terms of confidence and give us a real sense that things were genuinely changing for the better under Lampard.