Silva urges Everton to show no fear in Merseyside derby

Marco Silva insists his Everton side will show no fear against Liverpool despite their terrible recent record at Anfield.

The Toffees haven’t beaten Liverpool on their own turf since 1999 - a record Seamus Coleman admitted was “embarrassing” earlier this week.

Everton have contrived to lose in all sorts of wonderful ways in that time, but the one thing the team has been consistently accused of is meekly submitting to their near rivals the moment they cross Stanley Park. Bottling it in other words.

David Moyes in-particular was accused of being overly cautious, not just at Anfield but at the likes of Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge. Roberto Martinez was too far the other way, with his gung-ho approach and failure to adequately organise a defence resulting in two 4-0 thrashings in three years - the latter of which being one of the most embarrassingly one-sided derbies of recent times.

Things reached a whole new level under Sam Allardyce last season, with the side enjoying just 21% possession yet somehow escaping with a 1-1 draw.

Things seem much more balanced under Silva this year. The Portuguese knows the value of defending, but is also ready to go and attack teams, even if they are members of the so-called ‘big six’.

That has yet to yield a victory so far, with the Blues unlucky in defeat at the Emirates and Old Trafford before earning a credible draw at Chelsea.

Silva was asked whether his approach and mentality would be any different given the opposition on Sunday, to which he replied:

“I don’t look to one match. We will respect our opponents like we did against Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea. Fear is something that doesn’t come inside our dressing room. Respect, yes, but we don’t change anything in our way.

“We won’t change our ambition or style of play. It is important to enjoy the moment and be strong. We want to win the match and nothing more.

“What I want is to see our team to be ourselves. Nothing different from the big games we already played until now and that’s what our fans want to see - they want to see our team fight as well.

”It is a special game for our fans. They want to see us play to win. Nothing changes because we achieved sixth in the table or not.

”I want to see us compete but also respect our opponents.”

Liverpool are second in the table and yet to taste defeat in the Premier League this campaign, though they go into this game on something of a downer after losing to Paris St Germain in the Champions League in midweek.

Silva though isn’t reading too much into Liverpool’s struggles in Paris, insisting his focus is purely on his own team.

“We have to look at ourselves, then we analyse our opponent. What they did or not in the Champions League is not important for us.

“It is our way - we will keep focused on what we have to do.

”We will see where we can achieve something in their organisation but we work on ourselves on not just focus on our opposition.”