Manchester United v Everton. The Everton Forum Preview
There isn’t a blue out there who doesn’t know or didn’t predict what happened in our last match so I won’t dwell on it.
Sure, we might wake up on the day of an away derby with that bit of false hope that ‘we might actually do it this time’ but deep down we just know what’s coming. We’re accustomed to it by now. Is it pessimism or is it realism? Either way it’s sad and the bottom line is, yet again, we put in a meek Anfield performance which allowed Liverpool to beat us comfortably without ever really having to leave 1st gear.
The good thing is we have a chance to get back on track promptly on Tuesday night at 8pm on BT Sport. The bad thing is its Manchester United we’re playing at Old Trafford…
United
Although going to Old Trafford doesn’t hold the same fear factor as it did in days of old, we’re still facing a team who haven’t lost at home since September and that game, a 1-2 reverse at the hands of Manchester rivals, Man City remains the red devil’s only home defeat this season.
Yet, despite that resilience on their home patch, things could be better and shockingly, Manchester United would only sit 10th in the Premier League table if it only took into account home results.
Why? Well the reds have drawn far too many home games (8 matches, which equates to 53% of their home results) and ultimately they’ll look upon those draws as the reason why they’re struggling to make the Premier League’s top 4 this season.
What’s strikingly noticeable is the lack of goals United are scoring at Old Trafford.
In 15 home games, Manchester United have scored just 20 times. To put that into context, that’s fewer than Swansea, Hull and Watford have managed at their home grounds so far this season and a full 14 goals less than we’ve managed at Goodison in our 15 home games to date.
Let’s just say it’s lucky for United manager Jose Mourinho that he’s got a CV to back him up as other managers wouldn’t be sitting so comfortably in their position if they were bringing those sorts of numbers to the table (ask the previous 2 United managers).
Whilst we were drowning our sorrows or locking ourselves in a dark room on Saturday afternoon, Manchester United were drawing 0-0 at home against West Brom; failure to score, failure to win – it was United’s home season in a nutshell.
The problem for Everton is a certain Swede returns from his suspension on Tuesday night.
Yep, as if by magic, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is back from suspension, nicely rested and presumably raring to go at an injury-hit Everton back line. The Swede is by far and away United’s top goal scorer (15 league goals) and undoubtedly the man they’ll look to for inspiration come Tuesday night.
Although Jose has often been hard to predict when it comes to picking a United team (and he does have 8 more matches in April) I think the draw between Arsenal and Man City (which keeps United in the hunt for top 4) will ensure he picks a full-strength team for the blues visit.
Presuming he does so, we can expect to see a team a little bit like this; De Gea, Valencia, Rojo, Bailly, Blind, Carrick, Herera, Pogba, Mkhitaryan, Martial, Ibrahimovic.
United will be solid at the back, robust in the midfield and moving forwards they’ll look to hit Ibrahimovic, work from him and utilise pace on one side (Martial/Rashford) and guile on the other (Mkhitaryan).
Whatever team is chosen, it’ll be a tough game for Everton. Regardless of their form, it’s still a side higher in the league away from home who are desperate for a win to kick start a positive end to the season.
The Toffees
It’ll be interesting to see how much of an impact Saturday has had on a young Everton side.
Was it just a one-off ‘rabbit in the headlights’ poor performance or was it the type of match that’s really knocked the confidence? Either way, we don’t have long to feel sorry for ourselves.
If I look at this one optimistically, it could be just the type of match that we need; it’s away at another rival, at a big ground under lights, against the team who are 2 places above us in the league and best of all, nobody will expect a young team decimated by injuries to pull off a victory – you could almost call it a shot to nothing.
It’ll be hard but if we were to win, we could really go on a great confidence boosting run to the end of the season. Then, Arsenal away last game of the season – with their stuttering form, who knows?
Alternatively, you can look at this one like a dead game; United and Arsenal are both above us and regardless of this result both have 2 games in hand. Lose here and the season’s over for us barr a fight with West Bromich Albion for 7thplace.
Whichever way you look at it, it’s another much-needed chance for a Ronald Koeman Everton team to learn how to play away at the better teams.
Our record of 1 (very fortunate) point and a total of 12 goals conceded in 4 games away against City, Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool needs to be drastically improved if we’re to achieve our aims in future.
Why are we so bad in these big games away from home?
You could look at it a few ways but personally I think we’re just too negative in these away games and we don’t have the players to play that way. We invite the best teams onto us and when you do that and your defenders aren’t good enough, you’ll inevitably get punished.
We might’ve improved in defence from the last couple of seasons but we’re not good enough to sit in and keep the best teams out as we’ve tried to away from home. Every single one of our centre halves and our goalkeepers are partial to big mistakes and you simply can’t get away with it away at the best teams as we’ve found out.
Unfortunately, with so little turnaround time between matches and so many injuries, I don’t see a great deal changing going into this fixture.
Ronald Koeman has confirmed we don’t have anybody returning for this match so Coleman, Basic, McCarthy, Schneiderlin, Funes Mori and Lennon all remain sidelined, meaning once again Ronal Koeman will be turning to youngsters.
It’ll be interesting to see if Koeman does implement a change of system, a change of personnel or neither. His post-match comments after the Liverpool defeat stressed how proud he was, so it’s plausible he’s willing to give the same lads another crack.
Personally i’d like to see Koeman change it up a little bit, even if options are limited.
Some people will suggest Joel Robles deserves to be dropped. I firmly disagree with this. Whilst he was poor at Anfield and probably not the answer long-term, his statistics since he got the shirt are excellent (he’s 4 clean sheets off golden glove elect, Thibaut Courtois, despite having paid nearly half of the games).
In defence, if Koeman insists on playing a 3 i’d prefer Holgate at right centre half and Jonjo Kenny given a go at right wing back. Alternatively, if we play a back four, Koeman has the choice of Kenny or Holgate as an orthodox right back.
For what it’s worth, I think the two veteran centre halves, Jagielka and Williams will relish a contest with Ibrahimovic. His touch is absolutely excellent but the Swede doesn’t possess the speed that both struggle with.
In the midfield, there could be a case for Gareth Barry here. Whilst i’d usually be firmly against playing Barry against a top team, our options are drastically limited and United are probably the least mobile of the top sides in the centre of midfield, particularly if Fellaini and Carrick are deployed. If one midfielder was to miss out, i’d put Tom Davies on the bench. Not just because he was poor at Anfield but because we can easily forget he’s still young and we shouldn’t expect too much from him too soon, he deserves to be managed and withdrawn from the firing line from time-to-time.
Moving forwards, we’re certain to play Lukaku (who needs to put in a performance away from home against a top team) and Ross Barkley (see Lukaku brackets) and i’d also like to see Kevin Mirallas given a start. I was very surprised Koeman went with Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the derby. I can only think he wanted more of a runner to support Lukaku, however I think Mirallas has more strings to his bow as an all round footballer.
If it were up to me, I think i’d play Barkley deeper in this match in a 4-3-3 formation which would allow us to play Lukaku, Mirallas and another forward; Enner Valencia or Ademola Lookman. As we haven’t shown ourselves as being able to hold out against good teams away from home playing negatively, we’ve got nothing to lose and might as well give it a crack.
So my team would be; Joel, Holgate, Jagielka, Williams, Baines, Gana, Barry, Barkley, Mirallas, Lukaku, Valencia.
It’s going to be very tough but if we give ourselves a chance to score goals, we can get a result against a team who struggles to find the net at home.
Pull off a victory at Old Trafford and suddenly Saturday is just a distant memory, COYB!
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