Tribalfootball.com's tactics expert Connor Holden pulls apart Everton's FA Cup stalemate at Crystal Palace and details how both managers battled to make the most of their key players - Eberechi Eze and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

In a game where the headlines will be dominated by a questionable sending off for Dominic Calvert-Lewin, I have picked out a few tactical aspects in this game that were both positive and negative for both sides.

CRYSTAL PALACE EZE USAGE

I want to start by saying how highly I rate Eberichi Eze as a footballer, and I am not saying this is a bad way to use his qualities. However in a game like this, when your other main creative outlet in Michael Olise is unavailable, I feel this game plan wasn't maximising your best player.

In this match, Everton were willing to press high against the midfield (Chris Richards and Jefferson Lerma), be physical with them and compete in duels high up the pitch to win the ball back quickly and sustain pressure.

Palace used Eze as a dual threat to both bypass the Everton press, and to kickstart their attacks from deep.

Once the Everton midfielders had stepped up to try and win the ball from Lerma and Richards, Eze would drop deep into the midfield three, to receive the ball with his back to goal and drag the deepest Everton midfielder (often Amadou Onana) out of zone 14.

This was then Palace's trigger to attack, Eze either turning and finding a direct option out wide, or laying it off to another midfielder to make that pass. This left the space for Palace to attack, but my main issue with this was you now have your best playmaker not in the position required to create chances.

The few times this looked to work well, was when Palace got the ball from this area out to Matheus Franca. He was then able to go 1v1 with the Everton fullback, and create a chance.

Franca looked good in his 60 minutes, being direct and trying to make things happen, however he is still young and new to the side, and has not yet the understanding of the team that Olise and Eze do, in order to create chances.

When Olise is available, using Eze to drag players away from central zones, that Olise can then occupy to create from is a good way to use these two players in tandem. However without that creative output from Olise, you are looking to Eze for that, especially in a close game where one piece of magic can change the outcome.

As I said, on the few occasions it worked and they got the ball into Franca quick enough for him to isolate the defender 1v1, it did create chances, however it felt Eze wasn't able to affect the game as much as he would've liked, until the sending off where he played higher up, and had a great chance late on due to being closer to goal.

DIRECT EVERTON USAGE OF DCL

Here are two average position maps from the first half (first image) and second half (second image) for Everton.

As you can see, Everton were looking to find Dominic Calvert-Lewin (DCL) and get players around him to win the second ball, the wide players were playing more narrow for this and were looking to create chances in few actions after the second ball had been won.

From this Calvert-Lewin made two key passes leading to chances for his side, and won seven of his 14 aerial duels.

This was the focal point of Everton's attack with the likes of James Garner spraying passes towards one side that DCL had decided to occupy. This then allowed the fellow Everton attackers to get close and contest for the second ball, leading to direct chances on goal and quick territory gained in the opposition half.

Everton have a very good group of players that suit this playing style, using the physicality of DCL and often Abdoulaye Doucoure at times this season to gain territorial dominance in games with few actions, and willing runners around them such as Dwight McNeil, Jack Harrison and Arnaut Danjuma (in this game).

A lot of the times using this tactic, the focal point (this game Calvert-Lewin) does not have to win the ball every time, just being a nuisance, causing the opposition defence to drop off and deal with him, and being physical contesting in those aerial duels then allows others to contest for the second balls dropping around him.

This is something we saw in Dyche's days with Burnley, using the likes of Ashley Barnes in a similar manner, being a nuisance and having willing runners around him to contest duels once they drop.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this game lacked that bit of star quality to find the goal needed to progress, and the red card halted Everton's momentum at a time they looked the more likely to score.

Both sides set out with a gameplan, and in both instances I can see what each manager was trying to do, however in Palace's case I believe the personnel did not allow for the best out of Roy Hodgson's usage of Eze, and with Everton they failed to finish the multiple chances they did create through the gameplan set up by Dyche.