'Everton Are Playing A More Progressive Style'
- Leicester City take on Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday (5:30pm kick-off)
- Joe Thomas, from the Liverpool Echo, has provided an assessment of the the Toffees
- He believes Frank Lampard has succeeded in making the Merseyside outfit hard to beat
- A greater potency in attack is the next target for Everton, he adds
The Toffees narrowly avoided what would have been a disastrous relegation from the Premier League last term, finishing above the bottom three by a margin of just four points. Following a substantial transfer window in the summer, though, the Merseysiders are hoping to avoid such peril this term.
James Tarkowski, Dwight McNeil, Amadou Onana, Neal Maupay, James Garner, Conor Coady and Idrissa Gueye are among those who arrived. Thomas, a regular follower of Everton, is confident that Lampard has succeeded in making them more defensively solid, if not more potent in attack.
They host Leicester City at Goodison Park in the Premier League on Saturday (5:30pm kick-off).
"It’s been a decent start so far, not brilliant, but not bad either," he told LCFC TV. "Everton really did take it to the wire in terms of surviving in the Premier League last year, and whatever the judgement of this season is, it has to be set against the context of that. Everton were in that position for a reason.
"They had almost a Frankenstein squad and not a lot of it made it sense. Frank had a big job to come in and arrest the decline, from a momentum perspective, and from a confidence perspective. He was able to just about secure their Premier League status.
"Coming into this season, they had a good summer. They had a lot to do. The obvious thing with Everton at the moment is that goals are an issue. They have a bit of a problem with creativity and scoring goals. The reality was that Lampard had to address issues all over the park."
Of those issues, Thomas says Lampard appeared to prioritise the defence, which has led to them conceding just 12 goals. Tarkowski, along with loanee Coady, have been a big part of that.
"With the exception of Jordan Pickford, where there was no an issue whatsoever, every part of the pitch needed stuff doing to it," Thomas added. "Frank decided, rather than focusing on the forward line, that he wanted to sort the problems that Everton had defensively.
"He wanted to create a strong core at the back, increasing the resilience and robustness. You can see this really strong core emerging now, particularly the centre-back partnership of Tarkowski and Conor Coady, who are both signings who have had an incredible impact on the team – on and off the pitch.
"He’s rebuilt the midfield, he’s moved Alex Iwobi into the middle and he’s been probably one of the best players in the Premier League season so far. They brought back Gueye from PSG and he’s had an immediate impact along with Onana, a youngster from Lille, who looks like a real player.
"He’s perhaps been unfortunate in the sense that a lot has been required of him at an early stage of his Everton career, but he really had hit the ground running and he looks really good.
"Everton are playing a more progressive style. They’ve got from five at the back to four at the back. They look far more solid at the back as well, which is useful. They’re definitely making progress, but they’re just not quite at a point where everything’s going right for them at the moment.
"As I say, goals and creativity are still a bit of an issue. They’ve become hard to beat, they’re in every single game, but sometimes they struggle to kill off the opposition."
All times GMT.