Everton will be minus Idrissa Gueye, Iliman Ndiaye, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Jarrad Branthwaite, Seamus Coleman, and Carlos Alcaraz for the visit of Wolves at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Wednesday evening.
David Moyes reinserted Michael Keane into the lineup pushing Jake O’Brien out to right back in the game against Brentford with the Blues then proceeding to be outplayed horribly by the visitors in a 4-2 hammering. The Bees took advantage of the Toffees’ imbalanced side and made hay given the glacial
pace of defenders James Tarkowski and Keane when paired together in central defence.
The manager can be pretty stubborn about making changes, but appears to have noticed how off the pace the squad looked despite having more rest than Brentford in that loss. The question is though whether he will make the changes needed, including giving youngster Harrison Armstrong a first Premier League start.
Wolves meanwhile remain at the foot of the table but recorded their first win of the campaign against West Ham and will be looking to continue their recent revival. Games against the Toffees have tended to be back-and-forth affairs, and Wolves dumed a heavily-rotated Toffees side out of the League Cup earlier this season.
Rob Edwards will be without Toti Gomes, Marshall Munetsi, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, Rodrigo Gomes, Daniel Bentley and Leon Chiwome all out injured with Emmanuel Agbadou away at AFCON. Key players Joao Gomes and Hee-Chan Hwang will have late fitness tests after being taken off in the win over West Ham.
Who’s Out?
Seamus Coleman (hamstring), Jarrad Branthwaite (hamstring), Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (hamstring) and Carlos Alcaraz (unknown) are all confirmed out. Idrissa Gueye and Iliman Ndiaye are at AFCON.
Everton squad available vs Wolves
Goalkeepers: Pickford, Travers, King
Defenders: Keane, Branthwaite (INJURED), Tarkowski, O’Brien, Mykolenko, Coleman (INJURED), Patterson, Aznou
Midfielders: Gueye (AFCON), Garner, Iroegbunam, Dewsbury-Hall (INJURED), Röhl
Wingers: McNeil, Ndiaye (AFCON), Grealish, Dibling, Alcaraz (INJURED)
Strikers: Beto, Barry
Tactics and Formation
Everton will likely stick to the 4-2-3-1 they’ve used so far, with the 4-4-2 only deployed in case of emergency.
Starters (likelihood of starting rated out of 10)
Jordan Pickford – 9/10
Vitaliy Mykolenko – 8/10
Jake O’Brien – 8/10 O’Brien has been excellent in both games he was at left-sided centrehalf.
James Tarkowski – 8/10
Nathan Patterson – 5/10 Patto did fine in his first league start of the season against Forest.
James Garner – 9/10
Harrison Armstrong – 7/10 Has looked calm and composed in every one of his appearances.
Jack Grealish – 8/10
Dwight McNeil – 6/10 Was mostly anonymous after the first fifteen minutes, but what choices do the Blues have?
Tyler Dibling – 6/10 Was mostly anonymous apart from a few touches here and there, but what choices do the Blues have?
Thierno Barry – 8/10 That’s three goals in six games now.
Bench
Mark Travers
Tom King
Nathan Patterson
Adam Aznou
Merlin Rohl – Continues to be a turnover machine.
Tim Iroegbunam – Simply does not provide anything going forward
Beto
Reece Welch
Elijah Campbell
