Wayne Rooney has silenced the doubters and a tactical shift from Sam Allardyce has sparked the Everton striker
Ditching the Ronald Koeman's short passing game has paid dividends for the former England skipper
Sponsored by
QUESTIONS were being asked about Wayne Rooney’s move to Everton a few games into the new season.
He was in and out of the team under Ronald Koeman and struggling for goals.
Those doubts have well and truly dried up now, though, after six goals in the last five matches for Rooney and ten in the league in total.
That’s one less than Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling, who everyone says is having a blinding season.
And the reason for the turnaround is simple . . . Everton are going long to come short.
Under Koeman they tried lots of short passes out from the back and played with too many No 10s all coming towards the ball, squeezing space.
Latest Everton news
People hammered the defenders but it wasn’t their fault.
Everton were losing the ball in killer areas and being run all over by teams on the front foot, taking advantage of the Toffees’ attempts to play out from the back.
They had no out-ball. No option to stretch the play and buy time.
Rooney was getting the ball in crowded areas.
But that has changed and David Unsworth deserves credit because Everton’s revival started with the 4-0 win over West Ham when Rooney got a hat-trick and he was still in charge.
There were signs that night they were trying something different.
Now, under Sam Allardyce, there is definitely a general attempt to play long early in the game to utilise the pace of Dominic Calvert-Lewin to create holes for Rooney.
I watched their 3-1 win over Swansea and for the first 15 minutes they played long, long, long, long and long.
Rooney and Gylfi Sigurdsson were getting up the pitch alongside Calvert-Lewin. Not once did they try and get the ball to feet off defenders with their backs to goal.
Now, if you are up against someone with Calvert-Lewin’s pace and the ball is going over the top, you drop off.
You don’t want to get into a foot race. You don’t want to be turning back towards your own goal.
So, after three or four balls over the top you sit ten yards deeper.
MOST READ IN FOOTBALL
This creates spaces in the midfield for the No 10s like Rooney to pick up the ball in dangerous areas.
It’s going long to come short. Or earning the right to play.
Everton averaged 430 attempted passes per game under Koeman. Under Allardyce it is 359.
That says it all.