Everton get some much welcome respite in midweek and the opponents, surely, couldn’t be better.
When you’re bottom of your own table and not scored a single goal, a trip to the team bottom of League Two should be exactly what you need, right?
Or it could be the moment Everton finally break Evertonians everywhere.
So how will Sean Dyche set up his team with goals (yes, plural!) the order the day?
Who’s Out?
There’s not expected to be any changes to the squad availability from the weekend. That means Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Alex Iwobi, Dwight McNeil, Seamus Coleman, Dele, Andre Gomes and Jack Harrison all unavailable.
Don’t hold your breath on Beto being in the squad, even though his move was completed in time.
EVERTON SQUAD AVAILABLE VS DONCASTER
Goalkeepers: Pickford, Begovic, Lonergan,
Defenders: Keane, Godfrey, Branthwaite, Tarkowski, Mykolenko, Coleman (INJURED), Patterson, Young
Midfielders: Doucoure, Iwobi (INJURED), Onana, Gueye, Garner, Onyango, Gomes (DOUBT), Dele (INJURED)
Wingers: Gray (LIMBO), McNeil (INJURED), Danjuma, Dobbin, Harrison (INJURED)
Attackers: Calvert-Lewin (INJURED), Maupay, Chermiti, Cannon
Tactics and Formation
Changes will undoubtedly be rung for this one, but the Blues don’t have a lot of players available at the moment, so it won’t be a completely changed eleven.
Joao Virginia will likely get the nod in goal, while Ben Godfrey and Vitalii Mykolenko will surely come into the side to get some minutes under their belts.
Who joins them in defence is more of a mystery. My guess would be that Nathan Patterson and Jarrad Branthwaite will keep their spots. Although it’s also possible that Branthwaite and James Tarkowski stay in the side in order to build their relationship, with Godfrey at right-back.
One would hope that Dyche will take a more attacking approach here and go with a 4-4-2, rather than his favoured 4-4-1-1. It will also make sense given the fact we now have more bodies available in attack than central midfield.
I expect Lewis Dobbin and Arnaut Danjuma to be on the wings, with James Garner getting a shot in his favoured midfield role next to young Tyler Onyango.
That would leave us with two strikers to choose from. One will be Youssef Chermiti and we’ll all hope the other is Tom Cannon, but it’ll probably be Neal Maupay. The latter might even bag a couple of goals, who knows?
Starters (likelihood of starting rated out of 10)
Joao Virginia – 8/10
Nathan Patterson – 7/10
Vitalii Mykolenko – 9/10
Ben Godfrey – 9/10
Jarrad Branthwaite – 8/10
Tyler Onyango –- 7/10
James Garner – 7/10
Lewis Dobbin – 7/10
Arnaut Danjuma – 7/10
Youssef Chermiti – 8/10
Neal Maupay – 6/10
Bench
Jordan Pickford
Andy Lonergan
Michael Keane
James Tarkowski
Ashley Young
Amadou Onana
Abdoulaye Doucoure
Idrissa Gueye
Tom Cannon
