Sunday’s 1-0 victory over West Ham United was their first time starting together but already Everton’s new midfield trio of Idrissa Gueye, Amadou Onana and Alex Iwobi look like a balanced combination with the hope that the Blues suffering from a soft centre can become a thing of the past.
As one of the Premier League’s greatest midfielders himself during his own playing days – and certainly the most-prolific – Everton manager Frank Lampard will have been frustrated with his team’s struggles in the engine room during his first few months at Goodison Park.
For a long time, Lampard found it difficult to even have more than a couple of options available in the position at any given point and such restrictions often necessitated the use of the 3-4-3 formation that he used both in his first few matches in charge and then the opening fixtures of this season. The arrivals of £33.5million man Onana – the Blues’ biggest signing of the summer – and then return of Gueye on transfer deadline day, have totally changed that dynamic though.
READ MORE: West Ham need history lesson over Amadou Onana, Everton and David Moyes
Throw into the mix, Iwobi’s rebirth as a central midfielder under Lampard after over two-and-a-half years largely flattering to deceive as a winger or number 10 under Marco Silva, Carlo Ancelotti and Rafael Benitez, and the metamorphosis is complete. There are also other options too, the likes of the fit-again Abdoulaye Doucoure, who came on as a substitute against the Hammers; Tom Davies and another new face from the final day of the window in the shape of James Garner, and all might be called upon to varying degrees to fulfil different roles over the course of a long season.
That’s not even considering Allan, the priority signing that Ancelotti pushed so hard to bring in from his previous employers Napoli but who wasn’t even included in the matchday squad at the weekend and therefore finds himself as de facto seventh choice in the position. Given his career accomplishments, it will be intriguing to see whether the Brazilian international remains at Goodison Park by the time of his 32nd birthday in January.
Just how did the various attributes of Gueye, Onana and Iwobi dovetail then against West Ham? An examination of their performances on Comparisonator shows how.
Although he’ll be 33 by the time Everton next take to the pitch at Southampton, Gueye doesn’t look like slowing down and quickly settled back into his former role for the Blues, providing a shield in front of the back four while also covering plenty of ground.
Fans know what they’re getting with the Senegalese international and on this occasion it was 20 defensive actions over the 90 minutes (the average for a defensive midfielder in the Premier League is 16.31) and more importantly, 16 of these were successful compared to an average of 10.81. Once again, Onana, who leads the division so far this season in his position for aerial duels, displayed his physicality to show his dominance in one-on-one situations.
On average, Premier League players in his position contest 5.84 offensive duels per game, winning 3.31 but Onana had 11 and won eight. He was also involved in nine aerial duels, way above the average of 2.37 and won nine compared to the 1.25 expected of his peers.
Iwobi was also involved in 11 offensive duels (winning four) but given his previous deployment in more advanced roles, it was in these areas in which he shone. He made six dribbles compared to the Premier League average in his position of 2.07 with three of these successful as opposed to an average of 1.42 while his nine attacking actions dwarfed the average figure of 3.64, with four of them successful – including the assist for Neal Maupay’s winning goal – compared to the 1.89 average.
Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising over 100 different parameters. Click here for more details.
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