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Premier League Preview: Everton
Written by ad_wilkin on Friday, 18th Oct 2024 10:54

One half of Liverpool has already visited Portman Road, now it’s the turn of the Blue half as Sean Dyche’s Everton make the trip down south.

They’re a team in trouble following four defeats from their first four games. What makes that even harder to swallow is that in two of those they were 2-0 up and in both they lost 2-0.

The first of those against Bournemouth was the latest in a game that a side has lost a two-goal lead in the Premier League with the Cherries' first not coming until the 87th minute.

Unlike Town however, they have got their first win of the season, beating Crystal Palace 2-1 at home last month, and come into this one three unbeaten following a goalless draw with Newcastle last time out.

Goalkeepers

Everyone should know Jordan Pickford. The 70-cap England number one is coming into his sixth season with the Toffees and rarely misses a league game for them. He’s kept 77 clean sheets in 284 appearances and finished last season with a goals prevented rate of 2.47.

The main reason that he keeps his England place is his ability with his feet but under Sean Dyche this season that doesn’t seem to be utilised. Pickford has the longest average length of passes (excluding goal-kicks) of all goalkeepers in the league at 48.4 yards and a launch percentage (passes longer than 40 yards) of 69.8% with only Mats Sels ahead of him on that one.

His back-ups are former Town loanee Asmir Begovic, who, after a decent season as first choice at QPR last year, has moved into a support role this season, and Joao Virginia, who has only made seven appearances in his five seasons with the club. He’s still only 24 years old and has had loans at Reading, Sporting Lisbon and SC Cambuur.

Defenders

Everton have already fielded three different right-backs this season. Thirty-nine-year-old Ashley Young, 35-year-old Seamus Coleman and 19-year-old Roman Dixon.

That’s the shape of their current squad. Young and Coleman both come with plenty of experience but will be lacking the fitness aspect which has already been shown with Coleman’s injury on Republic of Ireland duty. Dixon is the other end of that scale, making his Everton debut and first senior appearance in the 4-0 defeat to Tottenham.

With highly-rated talent Jarrad Branthwaite out with a long-term injury, it’s been the two 31-year-olds James Tarkowski and Michael Keane paired together in the centre of defence. Between them they have 517 Premier League appearances and both players have been capped for England.

The pair have played for Dyche before at Burnley and are old school defenders. Tarkowski has already won 11 tackles, made nine interceptions, 31 clearances and 12 blocks. Keane has fewer tackles but a similar number of interceptions and clearances.

Branthwaite has played one game but picked up another minor niggle but could be set to come back in against Town which will be a big boost for the Toffees as he is one of the brightest centre-half prospects in the game.

The only natural left-back in the squad is Vitaly Mykolenko. The 25-year-old has 44 caps for Ukraine and has been a regular in that spot since signing from Dynamo Kyiv in January 2022. He struggled a bit last season with injuries and that could well continue into this year as he limped off against Aston Villa and hasn’t been fit since then. He’s another who looks to be fit enough to at least be included in the squad for this one.

The only other defensive options in the Toffees squad are Nathan Paterson, who is another long-term injury absentee and new signing from Lyon, Jake O’Brien.

The 23-year-old Irishman was a regular in Ligue 1 last season, making 27 starts and scoring four goals for the French side. He’s impressed in his Carabao Cup starts so far and will be breathing down the neck of the experienced centre-back pairing.

Midfielders

Everton’s midfield double pivot of Tim Iroegbunam and Idrissa Gueye was consistent at the start of the season but has now been switched up. Thirty-four-year-old Gueye is back for his second spell at Everton following a brief sabbatical at PSG. He has 113 caps for Senegal and will provide a ton of experience and knowhow of the defensive midfield role that he’ll be able to pass on to the young Iroegbunam.

Iroegbunam joined Everton in a move that saw Amadou Onana go the other way. The 21-year-old is rawer than Onana with only one year's experience of senior football, with QPR in the Championship in the 2022/23 season, and has had a mixed start, looking out of his depth against Tottenham but putting in an impressive display against Doncaster in the Carabao Cup.

Other options in that area are Orel Mangala, who is in his second loan spell away from Lyon in the Premier League having spent last season at Nottingham Forest, and the versatile James Garner, who played across the full breadth of the midfield last season and filled in at right-back following Mykolenko’s injury against Aston Villa.

Mangala has forced his way into the starting line up in recent weeks playing alongside Abdoulaye Doucoure who started the season as a number ten but has been dropped back in recent weeks and has rewarded boss Dyche with much better performances in that area of the pitch.

Attackers

There’s been quite a lot of rotation in Everton’s frontline as Sean Dyche looks to land on the winning formula. The man who is always involved is Dwight McNeil. He’s featured on the left and as the ten and has been one of Everton’s few stand-outs.

He kicked off the season with a goal against Doncaster in the Carabao Cup and followed that up with an assist against Bournemouth and one of each against Aston Villa. He scored a brace against Crystal Palace and will be the main danger man that Town will have to watch closely.


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Jack Harrison is into his second season on loan from Leeds United but hasn’t quite found the same goalscoring form as his time at Elland Road. He’s yet to score and has averaged fewer than 30 touches per game so far during this season's struggles.

Harrison is the senior head amongst the wingers with Iliman Ndiaye and Jesper Lindstrom both 24 years old. Lindstrom is on loan from Napoli. He was largely used as a sub in Seria A last season so will be hoping for more starts at Goodison and was given a full debut against Leicester City a few weeks ago.

Ndiaye impressed the last time he was in England, playing a part in Sheffield United’s 2022/23 promotion with 22 goals in 88 appearances for the club.

He didn’t take on the challenge of attempting to stay in the Premier League with the club and instead move to France with Marseille. That didn’t work out too well with only three goals in 30 appearances and he’s back on English shores ready to show that his quick feet and aggressive dribbling can shine in the Premier League.

Ndiaye picked up an injury on international duty with Senegal in the break but it only looks minor, so he’s likely to still be fit for this one.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin was at the peak of his powers in the 2020/21 season scoring 16 goals in 33 appearances. An England debut and a further ten appearances were also in the period before a serious injury hampered his form.

He’s worked his way back from that and scored a respectable seven in 32 last season. He’s an old school number nine, excellent with his head, can lead the line well and he creates plenty of chances for himself.

The difference between Calvert-Lewin now and him at his peak is his finishing. He underperformed his expected goals by almost six goals last season and with Everton likely to be involved in another relegation battle that could be the difference between them staying up or going down.

The Teams

This Ipswich team is now becoming hard to predict. Aro Muric will definitely be in goal but who knows what the rest will look like. Ben Johnson had an absolute stinker against West Ham and I have seen nothing to suggest he can claim that right-back spot as his own but Kieran McKenna may have more faith.

My personal choice would be to move Dara O’Shea into that position, he played there for Ireland in the international break and looked comfortable. His pace is also not necessarily needed for this one with Calvert Lewin being a more physical forward rather than a pacy one.

That would allow Luke Woolfenden to come back in alongside Jacob Greaves in the middle with Leif Davis continuing at left-back.

Midfield options are thin on the ground with Jens Cajuste and Massimo Luongo both nursing injuries, so it’s likely to be a continuation of the Sam Morsy and Kalvin Phillips pairing there.

Liam Delap is in excellent form, impressing for the England U21s on international duty, and will continue to lead the line. Could this be the game that Omari Hutchinson plays on the right, especially given Everton’s injury problems? I’d love to see him one on one against Garner.

A lot of people have been calling for Sammie Szmodics to go through the middle but that doesn’t fit into what McKenna wants from a number ten. Szmodics runs off the shoulder and presses high. He’s not one that drops deep to collect the ball and find pockets of space.

If Hutchinson does move to the right then that could open the door for Conor Chaplin in that role.

On the left, I thought Jack Clarke excelled against Aston Villa but was one of the worst players on the pitch against West Ham, not looking comfortable at all. I still think he’ll start here but I also wouldn’t rule out the curveball of Nathan Broadhead getting some minutes.

For Everton, Pickford will be in goal and the rest is likely to be dictated by injuries. I can see too many changes given the Toffees' recent form. Mykolenko and Branthwaite could both make returns from injuries and Lindstrom could replace Harrison in attack.

Prediction

It’s too early for must-win games, but this one feels important. Performances have largely been good, particularly at Portman Road and some valuable points have been picked up but that win needs to come sooner rather than later.

My only concern is that Everton will be very direct. They rank bottom of the league for possession and short passes but second in the league for long balls. That caused the Town defence a lot of problems against West Ham. Despite that I think this could be the time. A 3-2 victory for Town.




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