There was plenty of excitement on Monday with the appointment of Frank Lampard as the new Everton manager.
The former Chelsea boss was joined through the door by new signings Donny van de Beek, who arrived on loan from Manchester United, and Dele Alli from Tottenham Hotspur.
Both deadline day signings were understandably met with enthusiasm and there’s now a real sense that following their January transfer activity and with a new management structure in place, Everton are in a much stronger position than they were when the window opened.
Yet despite this, specifically in relation to the arrivals of Van de Beek and Dele Alli, there’s been questions raised about how you go about getting the best from both within the same side.
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For different reasons, both players haven’t been able to produce their best form in recent seasons, yet as players, both have excelled best playing similar advanced attacking roles.
At Ajax, Van de Beek usually featured either as a number 10 or as a number eight in a 4-3-3 formation. His excellent close control, link-up play, movement off the ball and ability to make late dangerous runs into the penalty area all made him a fine attacking asset for his side.
It was a similar story for Alli when he burst onto the scene at Spurs. The England international thrived playing in behind strikers and the top end of his side’s attack.
Picking the ball up in dangerous areas, threading passes into forwards ahead or making late piercing runs into the penalty area each became key staples of his game.
Had Everton signed just one of these two players, then the plan for how they would've be used would be clear.
However, it’s unlikely that Lampard will be able to accommodate both as number tens, but nor will he have signed them without the intention of finding a structure that will allow each to play together.
We’re not yet sure what formation Lampard will introduce at Everton, but one that may deal with this particular conundrum could be a 4-4-2 diamond.
A flat back four would be supplemented by a midfield diamond that would have a more defence-orientated Everton midfielder at the base, such as Allan or Fabian Delph
Then ahead of him we could potentially see the energetic Abdoulaye Doucoure in one central position, with Van de Beek in the other, operating similar to a number eight. And then at the tip of the diamond could be Alli.
Such a midfield quadrant would have the capacity to be pretty well balanced. Doucoure tucking in can bring that added defensive support to the player operating as the number six without the ball, whilst Van de Beek could be given license to push further forward with Alli in attacking sequences.
Ahead of them could be an attacking duo that would be rotated between Everton’s three most lethal forwards - Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison or Demarai Gray.
The major downside to the set-up is the lack of natural width, an issue enhanced by the fact that Everton focused heavily on bringing in wide attackers such as Gray, Andros Townsend and more recently Anwar El Ghazi under Rafael Benitez.
Yet to compensate for this, wing-backs would have to play a crucial role in getting up the pitch and providing width. This is something more than achievable following the arrival of Everton’s two new young marauding wing-backs, Vitalii Mykolenko and Nathan Patterson.
In the immediate then, don’t be too surprised to see a formation similar to this one implemented early into Lampard’s tenure.
