liverpool played everton in their home . everton are top of the league and many of them had started predictions that this may be the blues year . this was an important game as to how everton approaches it and whether they are good enough to win the league . well i dont think so . leicester had been in the similar position and they had won the league . but let me tell you leicester were playing way better football than what everton are doing . if everton are to improve then they need to do improve drastically on both the fronts . they are having deficiencies on both ends and they need to address that and if they can address that then they stand a chance of having surprising many and if others keep on dropping points then may be they have a chance .
everton started with 4-5-1 formation while liverpool start with 4-3-3 formation . the game had high energy to it . everton were trying to play on the counter attack while liverpool too try to do the same they try to break at pace as soon as they get the ball . everton were sitting back and were trying to play on the counter attack . most of the liverpool attack were from the wide because everton had three in the midfield . while liverpool had the ball they tried to play through salah who having the better of digne in the physical match up while on the left side robertson was causing everton all sort of problems . now the trouble with everton formation on defense is that rodriguez is not a hard worker and he was suppose to mark robertson who is a willing runner . everton didnt had three in the middle in the same line instead gomez and dacoure are higher up the pitch trying to press liverpool midfielders while allan is more of a sweeper who tries to read the play tries to win the possession back and start the attack .
the trouble started when liverpool spotted that rodriguez wasnt tracking back robertson and i think that he isnt fully match fit or is not a hard worker . the thing was that dacoure was trying to press thiago while mane had moved inside so coleman couldnt go out and press robertson since that will leave mane free and create problems . the other thing was that robertson wasnt that wide as the fullbacks usually are . he was quite inside so what that does is that the pass that he makes reaches the players faster compared to the pass from the wider areas . thirdly because of firmino the back four couldnt come out and mark mane . while back four were trying to defend the six yard box and firminiho allan was the only player who was present in front of the back four and so there was a lot of space on his left and right to exploit and thats what mane did . he found the space between the lines and score . the thing is that ancelotti should had made sure that as soon as the ball comes upfield then atleast one of the two midfielders should be along side allan . so that he can step up and be assured that there is somebody who is marking the space that he is leaving . liverpool kept on exploiting this space for the entirity of the match . in the second half ancelotti read this and ancelotti had made the changes . he changed the system from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 and made dacoure go mark robertson but as soon as everton saw that liverpool were exploiting the spaces in the middle they got dacoure in the middle . liverpool should had seen that change and should had told robertson to exploit that freedom again .
whenever everton has the ball they should have a plan a,b and c since it may be possible that the intial plan may not work . everton when they had they the ball they had only one play they were trying to play the ball to calvert lewin . the obvious problem with everton's formation was that both james and richarilson were wide . secondly they were trying to go direct and they were trying to release calvert beyond the back four but liverpool could read that . most importantly when everton had the ball in the first half they just didnt know as to how they need to take the ball upfield . when a player spends time on the ball that means that either he has too many targets to choose from or has none . in terms of everton the players were not in cohesion with each other . secondly when calvert was played the ball he didnt had anybody behind a no.10 to roll the play . there was nobody who was there to go beyond calvert so that he can play him and that threat can create the space for calvert . both rodriguez and richarilson who are threats were wide and by the time they would come in liverpool would have players in defensive positions . so everton has to learn to keep the ball and pass it around as calvert has shown that he is an aerial threat and digne is a superb crosser . for me rodriguez looks out of shape . he has the quality and has the eye for the pass and can thread a defense splitting pass but he needs to take control when everton have the ball and he need to work harder . most importantly ancelotti needs to create an offense which can suit rodriguez who can be a real gem .
i think the injury to van dyke was the most important thing that happened . untill vasn dyke was there calvert wouldnt get time and space on the ball . he cannot out jump or say he would get the space to jump as freely as he did for those two headers that he had in the box . van dyk would be tighter to him and can read the game better to joe gomez . joe gomez allowed van dyke time and space on the ball . he was ball watching and allowed him to jum freely and score . he should had got the warning in the first half when calvert miss a similar chance in the first half from a similar cross . gomez should had been tighter to him . most importantly when liverpool loose the ball they play with one intent of trying to win the ball back and that can back fire since the team can just play out and when the ball is in the box they dont have that disciplined approach as like the other team have to keep the formation and try to defend their zones and keep tight disciplined unit . this thing can be their down fall and if teams can exploit that then they can have problems .
there were two other games that were played on saturday . arsenal played man city while the other was the milan derby . arsenal lost against man city . there was only one goal scored and the reason for that was that arsenal just allowed man city to play . arsenal were pressing man city . the goal that was scored was because when arsenal were pressing man city teirney who was pressing maharez allowed him time and space on the ball . had teirney not allowed maharez time and space on the ball then i think the goal could had been prevented . there are two things first off teirney was afraid that maharez would turn on him and he would leave his back four collegues exposed so backed off a little . but also there is another angle to it . maharez is far off from the goal . even he had turned then teirney has the pace to catch maharez . the others when seeing the danger would had rushed off and would had brought more arsenal players on defense . for me arsenal just allowed man city too time and space on the ball . they might had been scared of city's ball playing ability or the players possessing pace . arsenal should had backed themselves . the only arsenal player that impressed me was young saka who looks good at this time .
the other game that was played was the milan derby . a substandard game with old horses . conte should had seen the game and analysed it . what did he find . after looking at the game what did he find . looking at the team didnt he remember of the argnetina team . everybody playing for themselves . he should look at the team and see at how much his team was undisciplined when they had the ball . they just wanted to the heroes and were not ready to play their team mates . while nothing great can be said about milan they were equally or say more hopeless than their counterparts . juventus already had the league in the bag .
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