Everton's midfield is the most passive in the Premier League

Everton's defence is not the problem. Their midfield is. While pundits fixate on Jarrad Branthwaite's recovery pace and Jordan Pickford's shot-stopping, Sean Dyche's most glaring flaw is a central axis that treats forward passes as contraband. It is a black hole of backward passes, not a platform.

The historical context of reactive football

Everton's current midfield functions like a poor man's version of Diego Simeone's early Atletico Madrid, but without the vertical thrust of Gabi and Tiago. Those sides defended deep, yet when they won the ball, they attacked with purpose. Everton's midfield wins it back and immediately looks backwards. Idrissa Gueye's return was meant to add bite; instead, it has added lateral passing.

Consider the numbers. In the 2023-24 season, Everton's midfield trio of Gueye, Amadou Onana, and James Garner completed fewer progressive passes per 90 than any other non-relegated side. They ranked 18th for passes into the final third and 19th for carries into the final third. This is not a new problem. It is the culmination of years of buying reactive midfielders and asking them to be creative. Onana has since left for Aston Villa, but his replacement, Tim Iroegbunam, is cut from the same cloth: athletic, eager, and terrified of the forward pass.

The argument: a midfield built to hide, not to play

Dyche's system relies on the midfield shielding the defence, not progressing the ball. It works when the opposition allows it. Against teams that press high, Everton's midfield collapses into a back six, and the only escape valve is a hopeful long ball to Dominic Calvert-Lewin. It is anti-football in the purest sense. The statistics bear this out.

  • Everton's midfield completed just 9.2 progressive passes per 90 in the 2023-24 season, the second-lowest in the league. The league average was 14.6.
  • Only Sheffield United and Burnley conceded more shots from central areas, despite Everton's impressive clean sheet tally. That is because their midfield invites pressure rather than relieving it.
  • Their average possession was 39.8%, but more damningly, their passes per possession sequence were the lowest in the league. They do not keep the ball; they get rid of it.

This is not a personnel issue alone. It is a coaching issue. Dyche's Burnley sides were similarly passive, but they had Ashley Westwood and Jack Cork, who at least understood the geometry of a forward pass. Everton's midfield has no such compass. Gueye, at 34, is a defensive shield, not a deep-lying playmaker. Garner is a set-piece specialist masquerading as a central midfielder. Iroegbunam is a runner, not a passer. The result is a midfield that cannot sustain attacks, which is why Everton's forwards feed on scraps.

The counter-argument: survival justifies the means

The steel-manned case for Dyche is simple: Everton have stayed up on a shoestring, and the midfield's defensive discipline is why. They point to clean sheets against Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool. They argue that with a limited squad, Dyche has maximised results by making Everton hard to beat. But this is a fallacy. Everton's survival was built on the back of Pickford's overperformance and some profligate finishing from opponents, not on midfield control. The expected goals against (xGA) was 14th in the league, not top five. The clean sheets were a mirage. And when Everton needed a goal to stay up on the final day, their midfield created almost nothing.

Furthermore, the idea that Everton lack the personnel is specious. They signed Iroegbunam and Jesper Lindstrøm, but the latter has been used as a winger. The midfield has been neglected. Meanwhile, teams like Bournemouth and Crystal Palace have shown that mid-table sides can play progressive football with modest resources. Everton's midfield is not a victim of circumstance; it is a symptom of a management that fears the forward pass.

Verdict: Everton's midfield will cost them this season

Unless Dyche abandons his passive midfield and introduces a genuine progressive passer, Everton will be sucked into another relegation battle. My specific prediction: Everton will finish the 2024-25 season with fewer than 40 goals scored and will be in the bottom three for progressive passes per 90. They will survive only if Pickford repeats his heroics, but that is not a sustainable strategy. The midfield is the problem, and it is not being fixed.

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