Brighton at Everton: Projected XI

Everton return home from Turf Moor with wounded pride. They attacked well enough to beat Burnley last week, but a few ridiculous mistakes pissed away three points. Will Sam Allardyce react by changing his lineup?

Tactics and Formation

As we saw with the lineup last week, Big Sam hasn’t exactly hesitated to make lineup changes after a loss. We suspect that trend will continue this week against Brighton — though we’re admittedly unsure exactly how that will manifest itself.

Here’s our best guess.

Starters (likelihood of starting rated out of 10)

Jordan Pickford - 10/10

Seamus Coleman - 9/10

The Irish full-back looked to be at full fitness against Burnley, and he should be ready to play again this week.

Ramiro Funes Mori - 8/10

Big Sam confirmed that Ramiro is finally ready for a return to the first team, and with the Toffees conceding twice to offensively challenged Burnley last week, we expect changes at the back.

Phil Jagielka - 8/10

Allardyce also confirmed that the skipper is available for selection...which is strange given that there was never any indication he was injured. We imagine that Sam wouldn’t have made that claim unless he’s going to re-insert him to the lineup this week.

For the record, we don’t think Michael Keane was bad against Burnley — instead let down by Jordan Pickford on the first Burnley goal and Ashley Williams on the second. But, we also don’t think Big Sam is a man capable of nuanced views on, well, anything — so Keane will quickly find the bench.

Leighton Baines - 9/10

The English left-back should be back as well, per Allardyce’s Thursday presser.

Morgan Schneiderlin - 7/10

We’re pretty confident in how the backline will look on Saturday, but once you get to the midfield, things get muddle quickly. Schneiderlin has been on the outside for awhile now, but results haven’t really improved in his absence.

We think he gets a start over Tom Davies in this one, but anything could happen.

Idrissa Gueye - 9/10

We don’t see why Gana wouldn’t play this weekend, but who really knows what Big Sam is thinking?

Wayne Rooney - 8/10

We think the attack looked fine against Burnley without Rooney — that is, at least when the Toffees actually tried to attack. But, Big Sam loves him some Wayne Rooney, and we can’t see him staying on the bench again after a loss.

Gylfi Sigurdsson - 9/10

In all likelihood, it’ll be back to the left wing for Sigurdsson, maddeningly enough.

Theo Walcott - 10/10

Cenk Tosun - 8/10

He didn’t have a ton of chances to make plays, but he left no doubt on his best chance of the Burnley match, not to mention a few fine passes. He’s got more technical skill than Oumar Niasse or Dominic Calvert-Lewin at this stage, and he should be the go-to striker the rest of the way.

Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images

Bench

• Joel Robles
• Cuco Martina
• Michael Keane
• Tom Davies
• Yannick Bolasie
• Dominic Calvert-Lewin
• Oumar Niasse

---

The chances that Everton can get literally anything out of this godforsaken season are rapidly disappearing. Goodison Park has been a bit of a cure-all this year - can this group of players make an impact despite their oafish manager?