Oh god, it’s time of year again…
I don’t know one Blue that enjoys these games and the reasons are fairly straightforward as I’m sure you know.
The RS have been in pretty dreadful form including a dour 1-1 draw against Sion last night apparently (you don’t expect me to watch them do you??) but they had their reserves out and decided to give players such as Sturridge a complete rest. His return to goals last weekend was a concern obviously.
In terms of the mighty Everton, well, Monday was fun wasn;t it? I mean, not for an hour or so, but once we went 2-0 down and Ged and Lukaku got their act together we looked great. Hopefully Martinez will keep his nerve and keep Ged on the wing as that was as good a performance out there as I’ve seen in a long time. Yes, even better than one of Aiden McGeady’s.
We seem to have some issues in defence though. Coleman and Stones have still not been confirmed as being available as yet and it could be that the Jags and Fune Mori partnership needs to be called upon again for this match. They did quite well on Monday apart from one brain-melt from Fune Mori that had us screaming at our telly, but that was a number of people being at fault as opposed to one person for me.
Brendan Galloway will be needed at left back in place of Baines, whilst Ty Browning did pretty well at right-back. Let’s face it folks – if we can keep them and Stones together in defence for a couple more years the future really would look bright!
I do hope that Ross Barkley can come back into form this weekend too. He was utterly hopeless against West Brom and was lucky not to get dragged off. Kone possibly deserves his chance too ahead of Naismith, who should just be wrapped up in cotton wool for the next Chelsea match. Kone’s movement caused a number of issues and the combo between him and Big Rom looked lively.
In terms of predictions? Come on, we’ve not beaten the RS for years, and not at all since Martinez has been in charge of us. He went balls out for the game at Anfield where we were 4-0 down at half time and since then has packed the midfield and hidden behind his fingers, hoping we don’t get beaten. Get some steel in the middle and some flair on the flanks. Should be good enough for a draw I guess…
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