Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's Form As Everton's Attack Becomes More Balanced

Two wins from two, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has been a key reason why for Everton. 

The English midfielder hasn't been at 100% so far this season. There have been games where he's struggled to make a positive impact, and that's hampered Everton due to how crucial he is to the side. 

That being said, one thing you can't fault Dewsbury-Hall for is his work rate. He will always work hard to win the ball back, to get into advanced positions, and you will never find him shying away when it comes to taking responsibility with the ball. 

Because of that, you can accept some poor performances and give him some slack. Even his bad performances are only labelled as such due to the high standards many have for him, and we're sure he has for himself. 

There has been an interesting theme with Dewsbury-Hall's last two performances, though. Everton have been without Jack Grealish following a disciplinary issue, and we've now seen Dewsbury-Hall go to another level. 

There might be multiple reasons for this, so lets explore them. 

A common theme when Dewsbury-Hall and Grealish play together is that Everton like to focus a lot of their play down the left-hand side. David Moyes likes Everton to get Grealish on the ball as much as possible, and this leads to Dewsbury-Hall drifting out wide to create combinations and overloads.

When it works, it's great, but the issue is, it becomes predictable. It also throws off the balance of the team, with the right-hand side almost neglected at times. 

Even when Iliman Ndiaye was at the club, he was often left isolated on the right, and we'd eventually find him and hope he would take on multiple players marking him. Without an attacking right-back behind them, it was always a difficult task for the right winger. 

What we're seeing of late without Grealish is that Dewsbury-Hall, and Everton, aren't focusing so much down the left-hand side. 

Everton focused 40% of their attacks down the right-hand side against Newcastle in both the Carabao Cup and the Premier League games. If we look at the Ipswich game, it was 50%. The Chelsea game, 55%. You get the point. 

If we look at the above heat map from the Newcastle (Premier League) game, although slightly favouring the left-hand side, his average position was fairly central, while there was still a strong focus on the right.

In isolation, this heat map might not mean a lot, but if you take a look at the game against Ipswich below, you'll see the huge difference.

As you can see, his average position is more left, and the heat map tells a bigger story. Dewsbury-Hall was barely involved at all down the right-hand side due to such a big focus being down the left. 

As mentioned, the balance of the Everton side becomes so much better and more unpredictable. You could tell Newcastle weren't ready for Merlin Rohl's bursting runs in behind Lewis Hall, and Everton were a threat on both sides of the pitch.

This also allows Dewsbury-Hall to find more space in the pockets. As he's drifting into more central areas and to the right or left, he becomes more difficult to mark. I'm sure you all noticed, but Dewsbury-Hall was finding absolutely acres of space all the time against Newcastle. That's partly down to their shape, but also due to the fact he was more flexible with his positioning. 

The lack of focus down the left-hand side is allowing Dewsbury-Hall to flourish and Everton to become more balanced.

As previously mentioned, Dewsbury-Hall isn't one to shy away from responsibility, but there is extra responsibility now on his shoulders. Whatever you think of Grealish, he creates chances, and without him in the side, Everton need others to step up.

And that's exactly what Dewsbury-Hall is doing. He's taking more responsibility in the final third when it comes to creating chances and making things happen, as Everton simply can't rely on Grealish. 

The pressure of being Everton's main creator could be a lot for certain players, but Dewsbury-Hall has grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

We need more of this from Dewsbury-Hall now. Even if Grealish does come back into the team, we've shown we don't need to be a one-trick-pony and are more effective when the attack is balanced and unpredictable.