Liverpool v Everton. The Everton Forum Preview
Right, straight off the bat, let me make this absolutely clear; I hate this fixture
Yes, I’m completely aware that this negative mindset amongst Evertonians is part of the problem when it comes to us going to Anfield but all things considered, it’s just not a good ground for Everton and whilst that needs to change if we’re to move forwards, until it does, I’ll continue to dread this fixture above any other.
This season the away derby takes place on Saturday 1st April at 12.30pm, live on Sky Sports 1.
Anyway, before I get stuck into it, a few words on what’s happened since my last preview…
We won at home to Hull by 4 goals to 0, it wasn’t a vintage performance by any means but we impressively punished a stubborn opposition once they were reduced to 10 men. Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored his first Premier League goal, Enner Valencia provided an excellent contribution from the bench and of course, Romelu Lukaku grabbed a brace to put himself back at the summit of Premier League goal scorers.
The one downer on the day was the injury to our midfield lynchpin Morgan Schneiderlin. The Frenchman was forced off with a calf strain in the first half when the match was at 1-0 and it was worryingly noticeable how much it stifled our play as it became evident the team doesn’t trust Gareth Barry in the same way it does with Schneiderlin.
Still, it was another home win, our 6th in a row and for 1 night we moved up to the heady heights of 6th in the Premier League.
A few days later we received some more good news. It might’ve been the worst kept secret in the history of worst kept secrets (if you follow Joe Anderson on twitter) but the Bramley Moore Dock stadium project took a major step forward as the club were finally able to announce purchase of the land along with initial details on funding the new ground.
This is Everton though and good news doesn’t tend to last long…
If we were worried that Morgan Schneiderlin might miss a key spell after the international break, it was only going to get worse for us on the pitch. In fact, in true Everton style, 3 times worse.
Last Friday night in Dublin two Everton players (who were both fitness doubts for the game); Seamus Coleman and James McCarthy were named in the Republic of Ireland starting lineup. The latter got injured in the warm-up and the former had his leg broken in the second half.
I won’t dwell on it for risk of going on and on but how about the Ireland setup trust Everton when they say a player his injured without giving any lip on the subject? It seems it’s only them, we don’t get this from other national teams and the fact Roy Keane can even come out and put Everton down in public about it makes my blood boil. He was a filthy football player and he hasn’t changed now his playing days are over. I get that Ireland don’t have a huge pool of talent to choose from but I don’t see why risking a player’s fitness is acceptable in his eyes.
A few days later and an eight or nine hour flight away, Argentina played Bolivia in La Paz on Tuesday night. Ramiro Funes Mori was named in the starting lineup and guess what? He gets stretchered off in the first half due to a knee problem.
Three injuries at a key time, zero fault of Everton. Where do we go next? Oh yes, Anfield, obviously.
The tricky reds
Liverpool’s last fixture was an entertaining 1-1 draw against Man City at the Etihad stadium.
That match was Liverpool’s 11th game out of 12 against the top 7 in the Premier League this season and to give them their due, they’re unbeaten in all of those matches.
If that shows anything it shows that this Liverpool side raise their game against the better sides in the league and if we zoom in a little bit more to focus on their home form in those matches, they’ve accumulated an impressive 11 points out of 15 available.
Liverpool tend to come into these big games at a pace, they look to press and harry the opposition into mistakes and force the issue to get the crowd onside early on. It works. In all of their three home wins against the better sides (Man City, Spurs and Arsenal) they opened the scoring in the first twenty minutes (two of those goals in the first 10 minutes).
Once Liverpool establish a lead in these games, high-flying opposition teams often fall into the trap of trying to hit back too quickly which leaves space for Liverpool’s quick and agile forwards Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino to cause havoc on the break.
The question I often hear in regards to Liverpool is, ‘if they’re so good against the better teams, why can’t they replicate it against the lesser teams?’. To me it’s down to 2 simple things.
Firstly, it’s natural that the Liverpool players don’t get the same hype for Swansea at home compared with Arsenal at home. Bear in mind a lot of their squad is foreign so won’t have grown up reading about Swansea for instance, whereas an established big side like Arsenal is bigger news and reason to up their game.
Secondly and more prevalently, lesser sides don’t come to Anfield looking to play Liverpool off the park. They don’t leave space in behind, they don’t mess around at the back, they keep the game compact, they slow the pace of the game and when they can they pray on a leaky defence – especially from dead ball situations.
If you look at the five top 6 teams who’ve visited Anfield this season, the three who you’d say play the most expansive football left with nothing. The two who took a point; Manchester United and Chelsea played a pragmatic match that nullified Liverpool.
Our previous agonising encounter with Liverpool saw us adopt a fairly negative style. Ok, I was disappointed we didn’t have more of a go at Goodison (and even more disappointed how it worked out) but I think, in hindsight, the approach was probably right and there was nothing in the game for 94 minutes.
If we compare that to the last time we came to Anfield when we could’ve easily lost 7 or more (they had 37 shots that night, thirty frickin’ seven) an unfortunate 1-0 defeat thanks to a jammy ricochet off the post isn’t the end of the world (although it took a while to get over).
In terms of the Liverpool players available to Jurgen Klopp, there are a few notable absentees; Boyhood Evertonian Adam Lallana is unavailable, reds captain Jordan Henderson looks unlikely to be fit in time and the same can be said of perennial sick note Daniel Sturridge.
The Liverpool line up is likely to feature; Mignolet in goal, Clyne and Milner as full backs, Lovren and Matip as centre halves, Wijnaldum and Can in the middle of the park then Coutinho, Firmino, Mane and Origi in the interchangeable attacking roles.
It’s worth noting that the two Brazilians were in Paraguay on Tuesday night after a few days in South America. Liverpool laid on a private jet to get them back promptly but with all that travelling and time difference to consider, there’s a possibility they might not be fully up to speed for this game.
Still, it’s going to be a strong Liverpool team that we face. There will be passion, an emphasis on pressing, playing at a high tempo and trying to force the issue early in the match.
Everton will have to play to get a result.
The blues
Everton haven’t won at Anfield this century. It’s beyond a joke how bad we are there.
Our last victory there was on 27th September 1999 when Kevin Campbell scored the only goal and aptly, the UK number 1 single was Eiffel 65’s Blue (da ba dee).
Last season at Anfield we produced the worst derby day performance in my memory. We had 2 centre halves available, 1 got sent off and 1 went off injured. We ended the game with central midfielders Mo Besic and James McCarthy at centre back. A left back (Bryan Oviedo) at right back, Tom Cleverley and a wide midfielder (Steven Pienaar) in central midfield. It was Groundhog Day.
It’s hopefully the only time I’ll ever come away from a derby game thinking, ‘good job it was only 4-0’ as it could’ve easily been double that and you don’t get over 8-0 in a hurry.
So hopefully this time around it surely can’t be any worse.
Obviously, the preparations for this one haven’t been ideal. Not only have the squad been here, there and everywhere in the week running up to the derby, Seamus Coleman, James McCarthy and Ramiro Funes Mori are all ruled out.
Everton manager Ronald Koeman will have only had a couple of training sessions with his full squad to try and convey his ideas for this match. In precious little time, he’ll have to explain; what shape we play, what the opposition plans are, who fills the void left by Coleman, who plays centre half, who plays in central midfield and how we go about winning this match.
It’s not going to be easy and I’m sure Koeman is livid with what’s happened in the past fortnight.
For me there are 3 main concerns when it comes to picking a team for this match:
- Is Schneiderlin available? If so, how fit is he? We’re playing against the team who (alongside Spurs) run the most in the league. We can’t afford passengers in the middle of the park. If Schneiderlin is available, given how we fared without him against Hull, he’ll have to be picked. But if he’s not with it, he’ll be eaten alive at Anfield.
- Who replaces Coleman? This decision will have a bearing on whether we play a back 3 or a back 4. Koeman could look to a Chelsea style back three (playing Holgate in the Azpilicueta role and Lennon in the Moses role) or he could play Holgate at right back in a 4, allowing the selection of another midfield player.
- Who plays at centre half? Prior to his injury I had Funes Mori down to play in this game as part of a 3. Now we’re probably going to play Jagielka alongside Williams, who as a pair lack the mobility I’d like to face small, quick and agile Liverpool forwards.
It’s very hard to second guess what Koeman will do at the best of times, but with the injuries we have at the moment it’ll be interesting to see what he does.
There’s always the option that a Jonjo Kenny, Matthew Pennington or Tyias Browning could get a start here. I’d be surprised given we’re talking about a game at Anfield, but Koeman has shown himself capable of putting faith in young talent.
I personally don’t think Koeman has had the time to implement a system with Lennon at right wing back so I think we’ll stick to a back 4 (also the last time Jagielka played in a 3 was Chelsea away and we know what happened there).
Alongside Schneiderlin (who I hope will be fit) I think we’ll see Gana Gueye and Tom Davies. Both of them have the legs we need in the middle of the park to compete with Liverpool who do miss their captain when he’s not around.
We can be thankful that our crown jewels in forward areas; Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley came through the international cull unscathed.
I feel that both of them, providing they’re given the ball in the right areas regularly can cause this Liverpool defence problems. After all, Liverpool have conceded goals at Anfield to Burnley, Swansea, West Ham, Stoke, Wolves, Southampton, Watford, West Brom, Hull and Leicester already this season and none of them boast a striker of Lukaku’s class.
Supporting Ross and Romelu I’d have Kevin Mirallas. The Belgian has often done well in big games for Everton, he needs to keep his passion in check as he can get carried away sometimes but he can be a game changer.
So If it was up to me I’d pick; Robles, Holgate, Jagielka, Williams, Baines, Schneiderlin, Gana, Barkley, Davies, Mirallas, Lukaku.
As ever though, it’ll ultimately be a question of Everton’s belief on the day.
Whilst, let’s be honest, Liverpool are a decent to good side at the moment, some of the teams that have beaten us this century won’t go down in their history books.
The problem is we go there beaten before a ball’s kicked. I started my preview on that note and the players go out there feeling the same. I don’t know how it stops, but it must.
Hopefully Saturday is the turning point.
COYB!
The Referee
Finally, you’ve always got to mention the referee in a derby game.
It’s Anthony Taylor and worryingly, the Mancunian isn’t shy of a game changing decision. Of all the Premier League refs, he’s awarded:
- The most penalties, 8 (2 against Liverpool, surprisingly)
- The most yellow cards, 98
- The second most red cards, 4
So for anyone like myself who delves into the ‘penalty awarded – yes’ and ‘player sent off’ betting markets for Merseyside derbies – this could be your man.
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*This article was written before Thursdays press conference