Everton - Premier League season so far - {A thread}

RTs appreciated :))

This analysis will be focusing only on the premier league & Everton’s strongest possible starting eleven, they were unchanged for the first 3 games and were forced to make changes in their fourth game because of injuries to Allan & Gomes.

Line up:

Pickford; Coleman; Mina; Keane; Digne; Doucoure; Allan; Gomes; Rodriguez; Calvert-Lewin; Richarlison

Other Players used so far: Sigurdsson, Kean, Davies, Iwobi, Delph, Walcott

Everton appointed Carlo Ancelotti as their new manager after 18 games into last season, sacking Marco Silva after a poor run of results. When the Italian took over, Everton were three points above the relegation zone.

Since that day, Everton lost only 6 out of the next 20 league games to finish the season at 12th place. In spite of this good form, there were underlying issues as a result of some poor recruitment under different managers.

In the just concluded summer window, Everton secured the signings of James Rodriguez & Allan, two players who have worked with Ancelotti in the past and also the signature of Abdoulaye Doucoure, a long term Everton target and all three players have fit right into the starting 11.

Everton set up in a 4-3-3 formation in all of their games so far, moving away from the 4-4-2 that Ancelotti predominantly used last season.
- The average position map below shows the formation in use with full backs higher up and Allan orchestrating from the center

Out of possession, they set up in a 4-1-4-1 with Allan sitting in front of defence and the wide players James Rodriguez & Richarlison dropping deep to be alongside Doucoure & Gomes respectively. The full backs, Digne & Coleman, out of possession are positioned in the half space.

- In build up, Richarlison and James tuck in and form triangles with the respective sided defender and midfielder.
- This allows them to quickly move the ball or switch the play from one side to another and Digne or James finding the runner on the opposite side with a diagonal

The touchmap shows,

- Majority of the possession is on the wide areas and very little activity through centre
- Most of the activity occurs in the wide central area of the pitch as indicated by the triangles in the previous graph

Individual player touchmaps shows,

- Center-backs covering their respective sides, when the full backs go higher.
- Allan sitting in front of the defense & James being given the freedom to roam around.
- Richarlison dropping into left half space when Digne is higher up

The above touchmap also shows,

- Doucoure dropping deep to cover Coleman when the full back is higher up.
- Gomes combining with Digne on the left side.

The Individual player pass maps shows,
- Pickford going wide from a goal kick to pick the run of Coleman/James or Digne/Richarlison
- James Rodriguez’s diagonals to pick Richarlison
- Center-backs most often prefer to play it short
- Digne plays more passes into the penalty area.

Everton’s front three look sharp as ever and Dominic Calvert-Lewin has already scored 6 goals. He is always in the box to apply the finishing touch, which is the most important for a number 9. He gets in the best goal scoring positions.

His touchmap earlier showed his very little involvement in buildup but he still gets the goals, which is typical of a no.9.

A thread on Calvert-Lewin’s movement to get into these ‘good goal scoring positions’ by @C_Carpenter14 is something you should check out before going ahead with the other tweets in the thread https://twitter.com/C_Carpenter14/status/1309560189100732417?s=20

The shotmap below also shows the volume of shots from the left side of the pitch and James cutting in to shoot frequently from outside the box.

The pass heatmap once again shows,
(The below plot indicates pass starting zones only)
- Very little activity through the central areas and how well Everton use the width.
- The very dense areas in the middle show the involvement of midfielders in the buildup

Earlier we saw that James frequently attempts the cross field diagonals to Richarlison and that piece of play has yielded the most shots for Everton this season. James’s passes have also resulted in 4 shots for Calvert-Lewin which is the second best combination for Everton.

The below is a plot showing where did Everton players’ passes end up(* not a pass map*)

- The map of Allan and Rodriguez is quite extraordinary - All over the pitch.
- Andre Gomes and Doucoure interchange well with Digne and Coleman respectively

The above graph also shows,

- Richarlison finding the overlapping Digne and,
- James finding Richarlison / Digne with his Diagonals

Conclusion:

Everton have started the season well and the game against Brighton showed that the squad players are getting used to the system and style of play as well, with Iwobi exceptionally good.

Conclusion II:

Everything has gone right so far for Ancelotti’s men. Whether Everton can compete with the very best throughout the season, only time will tell. But they look set for an exciting season ahead and am looking forward to watching more of them

Thanks to @utdarena/ @uapersonal for the inspiration as always. I have to also tell that, for this thread, I specifically took inspiration from @victorrenaud5 - whose thread on Barcelona is one of the best I have seen.

Link to @victorrenaud5's thread: https://twitter.com/victorrenaud5/status/1310581123936849922?s=20

Feedback & suggestions welcome:

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