Everton at Liverpool: Projected XI

Everton head into this weekend’s match in good spirits, with Marco and Marcel’s men in some of their best form of the season. There’s just one problem - it’s an Anfield derby. Could Marco Silva make any lineup changes to help get a result?

Tactics and Formation

There are a few changes to the established lineup that we wish Marco Silva would make, and frankly we think are probably on Silva’s mind already. But we seriously doubt he makes any major changes ahead of such a tough match, especially with the team able to grab results even when not at their best.

That said, the starting XI we’ve come to expect tends to look a little different when Everton plays a deep line, as we expect Silva will against Liverpool. Rather than display the formation in the attack-minded 4-3-3 we’re accustomed to, we’ve instead depicted the more defensive 4-4-1-1 we think we’ll see for long stretches in this one.

Starters (likelihood of starting rated out of 10)

Jordan Pickford - 10/10

Lucas Digne - 10/10

Michael Keane - 10/10

Yerry Mina - 9/10

It’s continued tough luck for Kurt Zouma, who remains stuck behind Everton’s favorite Colombian. Mina has yet to give Silva a reason to take him out of the lineup.

Seamus Coleman - 10/10

Idrissa Gueye - 10/10

Andre Gomes - 10/10

Gylfi Sigurdsson - 10/10

Theo Walcott - 8/10

We think recent performances have pushed Silva closer and closer to a shuffle with his front three — one that might see Walcott go to the bench. But a trip to Anfield feels like a bad time to try something new, so Theo keeps his place.

Bernard - 8/10

The same goes for Bernard who we think could soon lose his place to Richarlison moving back to the wing. But Silva hasn’t messed with success all season, so we expect Bernard to start too.

Richarlison - 10/10

We’re very much over the Richarlison at striker experiment, as Adam pointed out in his analysis after the Cardiff match. But, we don’t think Silva is quite in the same place that we are on that — and even if Silva does move the Brazilian from striker, he’s still sure to start somewhere.

Bench

Maarten Stekelenburg

Kurt Zouma

Leighton Baines

Tom Davies

Cenk Tosun -

Ademola Lookman - It’s hard to argue that Lookman hasn’t made a case to start at this point, and it seems most likely that he’ll get his chance Wednesday against Newcastle. But, he could yet play an important role in this one as well — his pace and guile, late in the game against Joe Gomez or Dejan Lovren, after both players featured in a hard-fought match in Paris mid-week? Sounds good!

Dominic Calvert-Lewin

Is a win tomorrow after all these years probable? No, not really. Is it possible? Yes. Let’s just do it and be legends, man.