It was a fantastic start to Frank Lampard’s tenure as Everton boss as the Blues hammered Brentford 4-1 in the FA Cup on Saturday.
The gloom that has hung over Goodison Park for much of the season so far was lifted as excited Evertonians were given an insight into the sort of expansive and attacking football we can expect to see from the team under Lampard in the coming months and hopefully years to come.
Very much against what has been the theme of the season so far, Everton enjoyed the lion share of possession (57%) and outshot their opponents by 14 efforts to just two.
The result of this was a commanding and satisfying victory. Yet beyond the positives from a collective team point of view, it was notable how Lampard’s tactics hugely benefited certain key Everton individuals, the most notable of which was perhaps Andre Gomes.
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Everton signed Gomes permanently from Barcelona for £22million in the summer of 2019 after a strong season-long loan in the 2018/19 campaign.
Although he was a key player during that first campaign, the former Portugal international hasn’t since really lived up to the same heights he set in those initial 12 months at Goodison Park.
His Everton career was hugely derailed following the horror ankle injury sustained as a result of a challenge from Tottenham’s Son Heung-min in 2019, sidelining the midfielder until February 2020.
And there’s a general school of thought among Everton fans that the injury had an adverse impact on Gomes’ abilities, consequently meaning he’s not been able to perform as efficiently since.
Although this may be true to some level, Saturday highlighted another, often overlooked potential cause of his struggles - tactics.
When Gomes was signed, then-manager Marco Silva had ambitions to implement a philosophy not too far away from what we are likely to see from Lampard.
During Silva’s one full season in charge, the same campaign in which Gomes came in on loan, Everton’s possession average was bettered only by the Premier League’s top six sides.
This suited Gomes perfectly. His technical proficiency and ability mean that the former Valencia man thrives best acting as a key cog in a possession-focused system.
The following season though, Everton’s approach changed after Silva was sacked and Carlo Ancelotti arrived.
Ancelotti was much more pragmatic in his tactical approach, and by the end of his one and only full season as manager at Goodison Park, only six sides had finished with a lower possession share than the Toffees.
Everton veered even further away from a dominating style under Rafael Benitez, almost always forfeiting possession to the opposition, irrespective of who they were.
These changes over the last couple of years at Everton have meant that more robust and energetic midfielders have been more crucial to the team’s success, with defensive traits taking precedence over attacking ones.
Inevitably this need for a different type of midfielder has meant minutes on the field for Gomes have been at a premium, and when he has played, he’s struggled to truly excel because the side just isn’t built to get the best from him.
It was a different story on Saturday though. Lampard's formation (3-4-3) and the team’s focus on possession and building through the thirds provided Gomes with a platform to play his natural game.
On the day, the 28-year-old attempted 78 passes, a season-high. For comparison, his average for pass attempts this season has been just 34 per 90, whilst last season it was 46.
This significant boost in touches and passes allowed him to become the glue for Everton in possession, orchestrating and dictating build-up play.
Although Lampard’s tenure is still in it’s infancy, under his leadership, Gomes once again looks like he could be a player who could forge himself an important role in the side.
And if he does, there’ll be a level of acknowledgement that perhaps his recent struggles at Goodison Park came less as a result of his own change in ability, but instead as a result of the wider issues that have played out at the club in recent years.
