Leighton Baines set to miss Chelsea clash, Everton should be fine

Everton manager Ronald Koeman stated in his pre-match press conference that Leighton Baines, the England left-back is set to miss yet another week with a continuing injury.

One short month ago, this would have sent terror down the spine of Everton supporters as the mere thought of Bryan Oviedo starting in his stead was about as frightening as thoughts come. Particularly against this suddenly coherent and powerful Chelsea side that Everton is set to match up against this weekend, Oviedo’s largely attacking style would have caused problems.

Chelsea in their preferred 3-4-3 formation will cause pressure from two players, wingback Victor Moses and whoever is deployed on the right, most recently Pedro. We have seen in previous matches that have required the services of Oviedo, Koeman counter high-powered attacks such as Manchester City with Tom Cleverly acting as a shield.

Cleverly as opposed to Oviedo will never be known as a gifted attack. His positioning on the wing was a clear sign that Koeman wanted defensive help for Oviedo. That tactic, of course, largely took an attacking option away from Everton, but it proved effective as the left side was locked down after a few opening problems.

The reason for optimism for Everton supporters as they continue to cope with the Leighton Baines absence is that Bryan Oviedo has grown into his role the past five starts. While his defensive play will likely never be considered world-class, Oviedo has made strides improving with the help of defensive help tracking back.

I would use the Manchester City match as a better template for the upcoming effort than the most recent match against West Ham (a match Oviedo was a shining light). Against Manchester City, who employs a 3-4-3, albeit slightly different from Chelsea, Oviedo was torched early on by Leroy Sane.

Ultimately, Everton escaped conceding from those early chances and game plan seemed to shift slightly. Cleverly, deployed in central midfield for this match and Idrissa Gueye were constantly giving Oviedo help against the constant threat provided by the wingback and forward striker on overlaps and penetrating runs.

Following the early threats, the Manchester City opposition grew frustrated enough to switch Sane with Raheem Sterling to give a different look and that was largely snuffed out as well.

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If the previous few matches for Chelsea are any indication, their 3-4-3 is more defensive and built around finding Eden Hazard the ball in space. Because Hazard primarily plays on the left side and Pedro (the starter last match on the right) is more of an in-cutting threat, I wouldn’t expect Oviedo to be challenged a great deal. That could change, of course, if Chelsea decide Hazard might have more success on the right, but I deem that as unlikely.

It will certainly be fascinating to see how Koeman constructs his squad for this match, given that Chelsea aren’t likely to dominate possession. Against both Southampton and Manchester United, Chelsea was content to concede possession and actually lost in that statistic by a wide margin in both matches. Clearly, Antonio Conte has become comfortable in fashioning his squad similar to those at Juventus, in that are just fine without the ball.

Should Everton lose this weekend, it won’t be because of Bryan Oviedo taking over for Leighton Baines. Rather it will likely come down to Gueye’s absence due to yellow card accumulation and an extremely in-form Chelsea.

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