 Welcome again to another episode of Toffee TV USA. As always, I'm your host, Ryan Williams, along with my co-host, James Boyman, here to bring you state side views on Everton Football Club. In that spirit, we thought at least for this episode, we would channel our inner stat heads and try and take a more analytical look at Everton and some of the recent performances, especially compared to how well we performed earlier in the year for those of you who have listened to the American Toffee Podcast in the past. It is something we like to do. I will say this, I know that's an American tradition, starting with baseball being probably the biggest stats-oriented sport, but we recognize soccer is very fluid sport. It's not all down to the numbers. If you're going to respond to us, hey, try watching the game, I can assure you we do and we watch a lot of them. But I think it's important to take somewhat of an objective viewpoint at things, and stats, analytical information is just that. It's just additional information, but we like taking a look that way. Sometimes you could see things in the numbers that maybe your eyes don't see. With that being said, we decided to pull up some figures and just take a look and see if there's anything in there that really would identify more discreetly some of the problems Everton's having in the past three matches. Obviously, they haven't gone well. We haven't scored a lot, haven't created a lot of chances, and we haven't really defended very well. Although what we did find was there aren't as many glaring numerical things that I would expect. James, I think the first thing that we thought about was, and I think concerns coming into the season was, we bought a couple of aged players. Guys like Hamez and Alon are more instinctual players, you're not necessarily relying on sheer athleticism. I think we had a little bit of concern on movement going into the season. We looked at those numbers and I thought it'd be interesting for you to walk through some of the things that we saw. It does look like where Charleston in particular was so important to our attacking movement. Maybe you can walk down some of those numbers. I think it does tell us something. Yeah. I mean, it'll come as no surprise to anyone who does watch Everton that where Charleston left a gaping hole in the side in his absence. We've really struggled to fill it, and it'd be easy to say we lost where Charleston and that's why we've struggled so much the last few matches. And that may be totally valid, but I think if you look into the numbers a little bit, there's some additional conclusions that you can draw from that. And so worth noting up front that movement is one of the more difficult aspects of the game to analyze from a numerical standpoint. But if you look at something like progressive runs, for example, the amount of times a player is running forward with the ball, we were 12th in that metric. So we're also 16th in offsides, which perhaps could indicate that we're not being quite aggressive enough with making those those incisive runs in behind the defensive line. Again, it's not a great measure, but if you look at players who are in the top 25 for progressive runs per match, the only player that we have is a Rich Charleston, who makes about 3.78 per 90. So a little under four progressive runs per 90. Below him, you almost have a full drop off with Alex Woby, who hasn't played that much for us and but he's at 2.88. And then you've got Seamus Coleman coming in at 2.05. So when you've got your top two being offensive players, your third being a defender, I think that says quite a bit about the amount of contribution we've been getting from some of the other players in those attacking roles. Yeah, it's a massive drop off, but what's even more crazy and let's actually let's defy was going to do this, but let's define progressive run to because, you know, I've had some discussions on Twitter with people about some of these labels and progressive run isn't just taking a run forward really, it is defined. So we pulled these particular numbers from Y Scouts. So a run is considered progressive if the distance before the starting point and the last touch of the player is at least 30 meters closer to opponent's goal, if starting and finishing points are an own half, at least 15 meters closer to opponent's goal, if starting and finishing points are in different field halves and at least 10 meters closer to opponent's goal of starting and finishing points are in the opponent's half. So naturally, you've got some different weights there so that you can kind of compare and contrast wingbacks who tend to go and run longer distances and you don't punish someone who's a very active forward like we're Charleston who's already closer to goal. I mean, there's only so much distance the guy can run. It's worth noting that. So people in the analytic community, when we say progressive runs, that's what we mean. It's not just people that run, it does measure activity, movement. Yes, I agree. It you need to be there at the match. Ideally, if you're watching it on video, you prefer to not have a Premier League feed that has this sort of narrow field. If you watch like be in sports, you know, they have some big ones. I watch a lot of Liga, MX, you know, wider, wider views. So not to the belabor the point, but that really means nothing unless you kind of compare it to other clubs. So I thought it was interesting to look at a couple of the more successful attacking clubs. And so we found some stuff that was pretty dramatic. I mean, Man City, for example, has, I think we found 10 players higher than Seamus Coleman. We only have two. And a movie doesn't play that often or hasn't. That's pretty dramatic. So you think, OK, well, what about a team like Liverpool and other good attacking side? Yeah, they've got eight. So I think the summary here is they're just numbers, right? I don't want to oversell what the numbers are. I know you don't either. But it's at least some objective indication that says, you know, maybe we're not active enough, especially in attack or from the back going forward. I know Carlo is liked having with provided by fullbacks in the past that are aggressive. And we're not seeing that much. But really, when you take where Charleston out, who's far and away our best and a Wobby is not playing for better or for worse, even Coleman was out for a while. It's hard to not look at this team and think sometimes, you know, we just need legs. And I think part of that may be the call for for Anthony Gordon. I don't know if he's really the answer there. But at least I get that Bernard's OK, too. I think he's at one point nine and Dean has some. But yeah, we just need legs and more movement. I think that is definitely part of things, especially if you're going to have a player like Gomez. And last episode, we talked a lot about Isco and the value he could provide. And we all agree is fantastic, but you got to have legs around them. That's something we really need to think about that can be created through tactics or just different personnel. So I'm beating the point into the ground. It's difficult to measure something like that. But it's an interesting indicator. And I wonder if that's something we need collectively. And we're Charleston's absence was definitely missed in terms of impetus and attacking impetus, especially on that left side. I think it's very important. That being said, we took a look at some other factors, too. We just kind of looked at passing, too, and how aggressive we are. Overall, for the season, our passes into the final third or only 10th passes into the penalty area, 12th, that's, frankly, just not good enough. But we didn't really see any decline, necessarily, in the past three, four matches, Hamez. So we kind of started looking at at build up. And I think the measures weren't so good, but at least some of the other analytical products we did look at. There were some big differences between the beginning of the year and the in the last three matches. Yeah. I mean, if you look at the sort of passmaps and the network of interconnectedness amongst the players on the field, they're pretty terrible. The last few matches are really bad. And it should it should come as no surprise when people are talking about Guilfee Sigurdsson, who's been criticized relentlessly. But you look at the number of passes that he receives forward, not that many. And then when he doesn't turn often and continue to play the ball forward, much more often is going backwards, which, again, the eye test will tell you. But the stats, the stats clearly back that up. And it's just it's just not good enough. And then you put a player, for example, against Newcastle, Andre Gomez, and that attacking role, it's not really his strong suit either. And so we're left with this weird no man's land. And as we're approaching the opposition goal, we're left with very little aggressive players who are looking to to slide that ball through. And furthermore, as we just mentioned, no players that are looking to run in behind to also be on the receiving end of a pass like that. Yeah, soccer is a fluid match football is this is a fluid game. I get it. We are American folks. We've got to be genuine true to ourselves, I guess. Yep. Yep. We blame the English for that, though. They gave us the name. So anyway, yeah, it all kind of works together. But the past maps are awful. You're right. I mean, it's really the network is our center backs passing it back and forth from each other and working out to the different wings and the full backs. Yeah, it looks awful. And you can tell there's just no central penetration. Now, some of it is hard like Southampton does an amazing job taking their center mids and smashing them together. But we knew that going into the match. So there's other ways you can create space in the final third to break through defenses and cut through lines. I think one of the things that was really interesting, we also looked at touches in in the offensive aspect of the game. It's unbelievable how few we had in the defensive third, the last two matches when you think about a team that's attacking often and being successful, you wouldn't expect that. But you kind of wonder, you know, maybe we're not being patient enough in the build up. Now, we talked obviously about the lack of touches up forward, but I do kind of wonder in the build up, maybe we are, you know, defensive teams will pack it in against us and condense the space in the final third. So perhaps that's something where we can be more patient and try and draw them out and be better at moving the ball and moving the ball more quickly. Anyway, there are a couple of different aspects here. I do think, though, they all they all work together, though, don't they? Yeah, they all work in conjunction. And I think, you know, the point about maybe being a little impatient in the build up, I think that's fair. You know, we're playing against a club like Manchester United most recently who we know don't pressure very aggressively. They don't. And so in some ways, it's about finding the balance. Like you can't if a team is going to let you sit back, you can't afford to just sit back and play around with the ball and you're half the entire match. You have to go at them to some extent. So maybe that's that's a reflection of why we didn't have as many passes around the back, but at the same time, you do have to kind of move the ball side to side and look to draw the defense out and then exploit the opposite side. Teams that want to compact centrally like Southampton. Again, you have to create width to draw them to get them out of shape and be able to exploit those opportunities. But even then, if you look at the touches, the distribution of the touches we're taking relative to the rest of the Premier League, we're frankly, just kind of middle of the road, we're 11th in touches per 90 in the final third. So and then in ninth in touches per 90 in the penalty box. So not only are we not getting a ton of touches in the defensive third, but we're not really getting a ton of touches in the opposition danger areas. And so it seems like most of our possession is kind of coming in this middle no man's land without any kind of can like constructive intent coming from that. It's it's very meandering, I think. Yeah. And I think the key there, too, is to say, all right, well, we do have some players that can unlock a defense, though, for sure. And so one thing that we did notice in terms of a trend and in the last several matches was, well, first of all, where Charleston wasn't there. So there's there's obviously a decrease in terms of touches and in one of your most dangerous players. But Hamrez Rodriguez has been consistently our most dangerous player this year with the ball. So one thing that I thought was pretty obvious is if you look at the number of touches that he had in the first four matches, what are we at? We're in between very consistent, frankly, right? We're right in between 65 and 70 touches. And that's a lot for a player that in essence is playing an attacking role on the right side. So not coincidentally, Liverpool match 55 touches and he went 90 South Hampton, who gives you space to they I mean, they pressure, but they pressure in the middle of the field. How many touches 53 and 90 minutes that that's again, 65 was the lowest in the first four games and we dropped down to 53 against the team that's going to concede some possession. And then you look at obviously he was out for a match, and you look at Manchester United doesn't pressure us. Great, it was only 79 minutes, but he only had 55 touches there too and was not as dangerous. He just didn't create as much. That's a problem. And it may be a sign that we're becoming more predictable when you look at those pass match maps and the networks. Hamrez is in similar spots. In fact, I thought that very few moments when he was pulled over to the left, I actually thought we were more dangerous. We seem to his ability to switch the field and make accurate passes quickly, decisively. I mean, he was hitting a woby a couple of times in dangerous spots. And I mean, we looked dangerous in that moment dynamic in the final third, not talking about in transition. We look they were packed in and we still look dangerous. We'll get to that in a second, how we can change the attack. But I wanted to transition a little bit into what I think is our bigger problem. I mean, ultimately, we're six and expected goals in the season. So we are scoring our share a lot from set pieces. Yes, true. But really, the goals against is the big issue that we can see. And really, you're looking at expected goals against or 12th in the league. That is obviously not very good. But ultimately, it comes down to our defensive metrics. They're not very good. I mean, you're not seeing a lot of pressure. We can get to the discipline record as well. But if you're not going to pressure, you better be you better be good at some other stuff. So I don't know if James, you want to kind of start us through some of those. I think some of them are interesting. I don't think we see a massive difference throughout, you know, in the last three games, necessarily. But but I think they're insightful nonetheless. Yeah, no, I agree. And just one last point on the the Hamas touches, because I think it's really illuminating. I mean, it's the you win games by getting your best players the ball. And you can say that in dangerous areas, too. Yes. Yes, exactly. But even someone like Hamas, who, as you mentioned, has the ability to kind of create or move the ball into dangerous areas with his ability to switch, it's the same for any sport. You know, if you're if you're an elite wide receiver in football, you want to get targets, you need to get those guys target. So they're they're metrics, their percentages of they have a higher return on an average possession, then you're less effective players. So the fact that he saw such a dramatic decline, you know, 15, 10, 15 touches per match, and it just continued shows me that it just wasn't it just wasn't coming off for him. And, you know, there may be something there with regarding, you know, the injury that he's had, which we talked about on the last episode of the American Toffee podcast. But still you need to make him a focal point. And I think teams may be starting to catch on to the fact of or catch on to how important he is for us and targeting him maybe more than they were in the first couple of games. But again, as you said, let's get into some of the defensive side of the ball, some of the metrics there. So, Ryan, before we go into it, would you mind just giving the people at home a quick rundown on a PPDA? Yeah, that's a good point. There are a couple of metrics out there that don't necessarily measure effectiveness. They more of measure the style of a team. So, PPDA is, I guess we call it an advanced metric that Y Scout uses. It's called passes allowed per defensive action. And so what's interesting is you're only calculating values in the opponent's final 60% of the pitch, but really it's just measuring defensive actions, tackles, interceptions. That's the denominator and passes ultimately or is the numerator. The idea is to measure high pressing intensity, really. You know what I mean? How much pressure you're putting on the opponent and how many passes you're, in essence, allowing them to make, because that's the measurement in their own half. It's not necessarily affecting this. Shockingly enough, leads will be very high. No, I mean, leads actually does a little more, it's funny. They've actually pressured more in the middle of the pitch than they have high in the pitch. Another measure to a style is challenge intensity. That one's a little more intuitive, I think. It's really just kind of duals, tackles, interceptions per minutes of opponent's possession, and that one's really just a measure almost of how combative teams are. Now leads is far and away, number one in that one, of course. They're very aggressive. And I think our results in that, and this shouldn't be surprising, is we're 13th in PPDA. We don't press a lot high. And while we're third in the league in pressures, only 11th in attacking third pressures. So that's not necessarily bad. I mean, that's a structural component. There's nothing wrong with setting up your team in different ways. We're second in pressures in the middle third. But the pressure percentage, meaning as the success rate when we pressure an opponent is 14th. So I got a little problem with that. So structurally, that's one thing if you're designed in a certain way and you're executing and achieving what you're trying to do. Recovery is 12th as well, too. We have lots of tackles, but again, few in the attacking third. It's, you know, it doesn't mean we're not being that effective in it. Frankly, Allen and Decorio, the ones Decorio with recoveries and Allen with tackles that you expect, but it needs to still be a collective thing. And so it should not be any surprise that's almost no defensive actions that we've taken have led to a shot attempt. I think we're last in the league in that regard. Again, that's that doesn't mean, I mean, Lester and Liverpool are the top. That doesn't mean it's not the worst thing necessarily in the world. That's not really what we're trying to achieve. But I would assume if we're going to sit back just a little bit and when we do kind of, when they do kind of hit that middle third and we do start to pressure, that's fine. I would expect to see if we're position. Well, us picking off a lot of passes, blocking passes. I would think we'd be very good at preventing progressive distance and and helping with past completion, but it doesn't look like it's playing out that way, does it? No, it doesn't. And, you know, talking about these metrics and you alluded to it, a lot of them sort of just reflect the style of play, but then there's other ones looking at just essentially indicate that while our style is clear, it's also clearly pretty ineffective in a lot of ways. And then you look at positioning, you know, 16th and interceptions, 10th and passes blocked. So we're not even though we're not pressing high. So in theory, if you're pressing high, you know, you're you're extending your players, there's a lot more space to exploit. We're trying to sit relatively compact, but we're still not able to get in those passing lanes. And, you know, we talk about a player like Alan, who I believe I saw a graphic the other day, I think he's like first in maybe the top five European leagues, maybe just the Premier League and overall tackles. And we know how disruptive he can be. But as you said, Ryan, it has to be a collective effort. And there's other players who are just, frankly, gigantic liabilities in that regard in terms of interceptions. Guilfee Sigurdsen is not intercepting a lot of passes. Andre Gomez isn't isn't intercepting a lot of never have never have. So you bring in these two guys, Decore and Alan, who theoretically bring that sort of element to, to the side, but then our progressive distance against his 13th pass percentage against 14th. So we're really just kind of letting teams run riot and not disrupting their style of play. And we've again, talked about it on the pod. If you want to check it out, please do. But in our previews, we've given detailed kind of breakdowns of what we can expect from opposition. Manchester United. We're going to attack down the left flank and try that all day. So they have been kind of similar style of play. And we've been really not only have we not been great at executing on our own style of play, we've been relatively poor at shutting down what the opposition wants to do. Yeah, we're making it too easy for them. I think that's very obvious. And I almost feel a lot of its lack of positioning discipline. Carlos said after especially the Manchester United match, we weren't compact. And you could see it. I mean, we did some video breakdown actually in our discord, which is dulled in the notness, I'm sure for some. But the point is you saw too much space in between the lines in terms of distance between the center back pairing and the midfield and too much space in between players within the lines, just too easy to cut through. And in that particular team, you've got two danger guys. And it's obvious and Rashford is going to come back to the ball. Bruno is going to come back to the ball. So if we if the other team knows where Hamas is going to be half the time, he's not that tough to stop. He's still pretty good. The same thing should be for other teams. Rashford killed us. Bruno Martin, Bruno Fernandez killed us too. The point is, you know, where they're going to be. And there was nothing surprising they did. St. Hampton, the same thing. So if we're not taking people out of what they do well and making them uncomfortable, you should expect to see results like this. And I think those metrics indicate some of that. I even think the discipline is spelled over a little bit, even though it's small sample size, it's not the best predictor of anything into just kind of fouls. And I mean, so if you look at it, so we're sixteenth in the league in yellows. That's a lot of yellows. We've tied for the most reds. Do we lack discipline? Well, it's kind of funny because in the first four matches that we won, you know how many yellows we had? Two. So let's walk through the last four matches. Three yellows, two yellows, four, four. I know Mercy Side Derby is one of them. We know lots of cards in that one. I get it. Two red cards, too. But you start to wonder like, hey, look, if we're Charleston, doesn't slide into poor Tiago Alcantara, I hope he makes it back in time. Really, too. I was being sincere. No, in all seriousness, if he doesn't take a red there, I think we have a chance to win that match, truly. And those are the things that matter. Now, if Lucadine doesn't take a red, which I still think is a ridiculous red, do we come back and win that one? Probably not. I know, especially you were very disgusted with that one. And I agree with you. But that's not the point. The point is, and I think a lot of this stuff is really a by-product of structural issues in the midfield. I think that's at least what I'm seeing, whether it's Allen coming too high and leaving too much of a gap, whether it's our midfield not working well together to close the space in between them to allow them to push forward, whether our center backs are not pushing up high enough and Mina and Keen are not the best. And they've been there the majority of time pushing up. You know, Mina is a little more comfortable pressing than Michael Keen is, but they have to work as a unit. And obviously, you saw massive gaps between Holgate and Keen in the Manchester United match. So one thing I thought that was really interesting is we looked at team shape a lot. We always look at it when we look at matches into our match reviews. But I thought it was very obvious. I thought, taught in him, I recall watching the match and thinking, wow, we have a great team shape. We really seem like we're playing the right way. We're taking them out of what they want to do. And then I see a match like Newcastle where it just we were they were dangerous against us on the counter, which it was just totally flummox that that was the case. So, James, I know you're a big fan of kind of field position and that that schematic and that kind of tool. So why don't you walk us through what we saw when we looked at our shape against Newcastle versus Spurs, because I think it's very, very telling, especially in the midfield, it is. And if you look at Spurs, the shape was, in fact, very, very good, very solid, very consistent, where you have the back four. You've, of course, got Luka Dean and James Coleman who are out wide a little bit higher up the pitch. You've got the center backs holding it down, Michael Keen and your Mina. Then you've got Alan sitting almost perfectly in the center in that sitting six roll as seems to be his best, but hasn't really hasn't really achieved maybe what he's capable of the last few matches. You've got Decoré and Andre Gomez, slightly in front of him, sort of advancing that play, providing the link up. And then you've got three true forwards. Got Rich Arleson out on the left hand side. Calvert Lewin pushed up even higher than either of them. And Hamas slightly, slightly tucked in on the right hand side. And again, this is average position. We know that he was kind of all over the place and typically is. But you really have that true authentic four, three, three shape that you would come to expect compared with the Newcastle match, where there were some personnel issues and some interesting choices. This was the infamous Christmas tree experiment. And it is a weird, weird shape. And I wish we could show you hopefully in the next few episodes. We'll be able to show some graphics on the screen. But you've got this weird cluster over on the on the left hand side of the pitch where you've got Andre Gomez. You've got Alan pretty isolated in the middle. And you've got to quarry over on the left hand or right hand side. Excuse me. And then you've got right hand side, completely isolated. Hamas is tucked almost perfectly in the center. It doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. And you've got John Joe Kenny pushed up way higher than anyone else. Very providing the only width on the right hand flank. Calvert Lewin, very isolated up top. So it just shows like the very disconnected style in that match. And frankly, that's why the match went the way it did. I think the biggest tell there is why is Alan's average position higher than decorace? Yeah. You know, I don't understand that at all. Hamas is literally in the exact same spot for the most part as he was in the other match, yet it's a different formation. Yeah, it's it's just a mess. And it's funny because you look at Spurs and you look at that position and you think, yeah, Coleman's back a little deeper. That's more Carlos style. He actually likes that asymmetrical back line where one full backs pushed up higher than the other. You could see what they're doing. They're thinking, OK, look, we got to be compact in the middle. Alan's got to drop deep because Harry Kane likes coming back for the ball now. And son is the one that running runs behind. So you know, Coleman's all over him. That makes sense to me. This new castle diagram, please go check it out. If you can, you can get it on who scored in other places. It's it is astonishing. And we're so compact. And well, I mean, part of its personnel, too, because even if you're in that like Guilfe's uptight, even if he's in that dangerous spot, he's not going to receive the ball and do much with it either way. I think he had five shots that match and 14 giveaways. Yeah, I mean, that's Coray on the shots that were nowhere near scoring. I mean, you just can't do that. But anyway, I think what really is important is that begs the question going forward, you know, what is the solution in the midfield? Clearly, we've gotten disjointed. It doesn't make sense. It's they seem out of shape. So I put a very quick poll on a couple of weeks ago. And my idea was, you know, what's the immediate the best immediate solution to Everton's midfield struggles? And I gave a couple of different options. You know, one was Hamas sitting in front of in the middle, Alan and Decoray with the innocence of being four, three, three, but really two behind the one almost a four, two, three, one. The other one was Alan and Alan and Decoray as center mids pushed up a little higher with the true defensive mid behind them. I had Godfrey there. It could be Fabian Delft too, honestly, depending on health. But Godfrey had played defensive mid a lot of his time growing up, especially on loan as well, even though it was lower league football. That's a position he's he's a more natural there than Mason Holgate, who played one time at Manchester United. Let's he's a much better fit for it. And frankly, I think he's a little better with the ball. His ball control skills are better too personally. And so and then the other option was let's just go four, four, two. And it's very interesting because Carlo Ancelotti, both at Real Madrid with Hamas and at Napoli with with Alan, played a version of four, four, two. Right. Yeah. I'm channeling Charlie Stilettano there, but it was more like a four, two, two. And basically what it had is is a defensive midfield pairing. But at Napoli, Alan stayed a little farther back and allowed Ruiz, who's a lot of rumors on him right now. He's a wonderful player, but he plays a little bit similar to Decoray. Maybe a little more skilled Decoray is maybe a little more athletic. But, you know, the idea is Alan kind of stayed a little bit behind freeing and Decoray up, but they were both truly defensive mids. And Decoray said that he's that's his he likes defensive mid. Now, he's going to be more active maybe than Alan, but there needs to be a dead or disciplined. So that's the idea is those two sitting back there. And then the two in front could be Hamas still on the right, playing more narrow, of course. And it could be anyone. It could be Richard Wilson on the left, although I don't know who would be played jank with DCL, probably not. My man will be could be on the left. Bernard could be on the left, Gordon even, you know, I mean, it'd be fine with Richard Wilson and Dominic Albert Lewin working up top. Anyway, there are a lot of different combos and then there's an other column. So I believe the winner was actually Godfrey to defense center mid. I'd have to update, look at the poll response, but it was pretty close between that and Hamas sitting up in front of Alan and Decoray. The other is someone a couple of people brought up, just put Andre back in there because, you know, we've only lost once with him in there. I don't know if he was necessarily all that instrumental to those guilty. I'm not entertaining any response for him in there. I just don't think he's a fit. I mean, I just don't think he's a fit anymore. Honestly, James, I don't know. I'm kind of curious what your thoughts are on it and what option would you choose and how can we fix the midfield? Personally, I just kind of subscribed to the idea of player players at their best position. We all know that Hamas is number 10 for a reason. That's where he's most effective. So why would you not put him there? The relentless insistence by Carlo Ancelotti to play Guilfrey Sigurdsson week in week out in that midfield is just so weird. And I know there's a precedent for playing Hamas on the right because that's how he was mostly used at Madrid, but play him centrally. He drift centrally anyway, and then you've got the resolve of Alan and Decoray to kind of provide that steel behind him. He doesn't have to necessarily track back as much. And then you've got, I mean, I guess it then you, it raises the question of, well, who do you move out on the right instead? But I think with a front three of like Rich Arleson, Wobie and Dominic Calvert-Lewin playing in front of that midfield, you've got that steel in there. I think that would be my personal pick. But I also really like the idea of a 4-2-2-2, because I think, again, that gives you the right balance. You put those two defensive mids in there, but then you can offset that with more offensive players who are going to move the ball forward, drive the ball forward and Alex, Wobie and Bernard, perhaps. And then you've got the duo of Rich Arleson and Calvert-Lewin as a strike partnership, which we saw work so, so well last season. Yeah, I think they're all those are all good takes and interesting combinations. I am also a little partial to just playing Hamas in the middle. Now, he did it when when Carlo played 4-3-3 at Real Madrid, Hamas did typically play in the 10. I know sometimes he played out right and when Bale wasn't there, but he really only played out right for the most part in his 4-4-2, 4-2-2-2, which is interesting, too, because I've read lots of articles that said he played right all the time in the 4-3-3, but the research does not back that up, by the way. But yeah, I just think it makes us less predictable. If he can roam out all the different places, and I really believe, having played a little defensive mid myself, I think it's a lot easier to organize if you're a duo. I think communication is easier. And really, we need that chemistry between Alan and Decorre to develop. And I think Alan just needs to be a little more disciplined. I'm great that he's leading the league in tackles. That being said, that being said, even though Alan came up most of his career as a defensive mid, his transition to more of a box-to-box midfielder was legit. And even if he's not a phenomenal athlete, he's comfortable with the ball. He's confident with it. And he is energetic. I have to admit, now, if J.P. Bemean was healthy and you know how much I loved him and how excited I was when we made the move to get him a couple of years ago. If he's healthy, all bets are off. I would love to see how interesting it would be to put Alan and Decorre in front of him and just let them run around like madmen and just destroy people and have Bemean sit there as a sitting six. I think that would be really interesting. It would be really interesting and effective, maybe not the most attack oriented, although Bemean can pass. But I got to wonder if maybe it's time to is that a way to ease Godfrey into the side? He seems like he has a lot of the characteristics in that way. I'm concerned about him as the center back right away. I think he still thinks he's very raw. He got lit up at Norwich, made a lot of very immature mistakes, which, hey, he's young. I don't think it's a bad transfer necessarily. But it reminded me a lot of Holgate a couple of years ago, where he was almost impulsive in some of the things he did, going to ground when he shouldn't have, maybe being slightly out of position. And we've seen his maturity. I don't know, they got to change something. No, I don't think Andre Gomes back in the fold is necessarily the right thing to do. But yes, in the immediate, I would probably put Alan and Decoré behind Hamez. It doesn't even matter. I actually think it will be looks better on the right for some reason, for some reason. And maybe I'm distorted by watching how insanely crazy he played for Nigeria on the break. If you haven't watched that audience, please go. It's every other passes, just some crazy trick. I think in the right side, he almost seems more disciplined, more direct. He almost maybe doesn't feel as compelled to create. He can sit back. He can use the space better. And he almost seems like he likes to play wider on the right. Well, Seamus Coleman's healthy. That's good for him because he likes to cut more in the middle into the half space rather than being a traditional wide kind of outside fullback. But yeah, but I think if you put a gun to my head, I would say the number one option is put Alan Decoré behind Hamez and give that a roll and see how it goes. I am a little surprised though, knowing that Carlo played Madrid and Napoli with both those two guys that we haven't seen the 42 to two. And we saw the Christmas tree first, but we know Carlos willing to tinker. So I wouldn't be against the Christmas tree either, but you got to have different person. I can't have Andre Gomes and Guilfeu Cigars and behind Dominic Calvert-Lewan. That's just, that's madness to me. I think it would be interesting though, if maybe you flipped it around and played a one, two up top and put Hamez behind Richard listen and Dominic Calvert-Lewan. I think that'd be an interesting experiment too. And maybe make someone like Delphin there is the three mids with Alan and Decoré. I don't know. All right, Hamez, you got to pick one immediate solution midfield problem. Yeah, I mean, I'm more and I'm not writing off Andre Gomes to the extent that maybe you are Ryan. I know, you know, it's still thinking he, he's a lovely guy. He's a great guy. The problem is similar almost to Tom Davies in a way where it's, he's not an attacking mid. He's not really good on the defensive side of the ball. And he can't really play in a two-man midfield. So what do you really do with him? Yeah, stylistically a little different, but the effectiveness in the final third and the defensive third are very questionable. I'm not saying they're, they're similar, but I'm just saying, in like their utility there, you run into the same problems and trying to fit them into various formations. For me, it's going to be go with the strong to strong defensive pairing of, of decor and Allen and play Hamas in front. I really am curious to see what he can do in like a free Rome number 10 role, drift wide, provide that link up more frequently. I'd be, I mean, obviously him and Richard Wilson have demonstrated a great link up from, from, excuse me, from opposite sides of the pitch. What can they do when Hamas can kind of slide over to that left-hand side and link up with both he and Luca Dean on a regular basis? I think that's a really intriguing idea and something. Again, it hasn't really worked the last few matches. We finally got Richard Wilson back. So we may just see Carlo go back with the lineup that, and we've, we've picked us some injuries, but the lineup that was so successful for the opening part of the season, but he does have options. And I think, you know, with the personnel that we have coming back, GPG, there's still some, some unexplored territory as it pertains to the Everton midfield. I'm going to second that notion. I figured your best three midfielders in the middle, our Hamas, Allen and Decore play him, get it sorted out. I think two, two man midfield would be easier to, to organize, I guess, from a defensive standpoint, sit them and let Hamas do his thing in the middle. And Doniz is not going to duck out of tackles and stuff too. He's got a little bite to him as well. And he likes to play a little deeper anyway. I think that makes sense. And I think he can use the whole field at that point, Rome, wherever the heck he needs to do. And I think it's a lot easier to make in-game adjustments too, when you have to discipline, more disciplined, at least defensive mids that can work together. That's my take. I think it would help with build up too, because everyone's just putting people on Allen and making it harder for us. So I'm with you. I agree. 433, let's try it again. Let's change up the personnel a little bit. Two defensive mids, double pivot, away we go. Well, I think that will just about wrap it up for ToffeeTVUSA this week, coming to you again, every, every week, midweek, from now until God knows how long. We brought some stats today till they kick us off. We'd love some feedback, please. Give us a shout. Check out our Discord community. Please check out the American Toffee Podcast on a variety of different, different mechanisms through podcasts. And Hamez, I don't know if you want to take her home or not. 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