Everton at Huddersfield Town: Projected XI

Are you tired? We’re tired. Tired of hearing the same old tropes from Everton’s leadership. Tired of seeing the same old aimless performances from the players every week. Tired of seeing the same lineup week in, week out, with precious little alterations.

We don’t have high hopes for many changes.

Tactics and Formation

Huddersfield Town might be the worst team in the Premier League era to stay in the top flight for consecutive seasons. As you might expect, then, Jan Siewert’s team relies on whipping in tons of crosses and creating chances on set pieces.

Of Huddersfield’s 13 goals this season, only five have come from open play — and the club’s 22 crosses per match are joint-second in the league, behind only **checks notes** oh it’s Everton isn’t it dammit yeah it is.

It should make for interesting viewing then, given that neither of these teams actually want to have the ball in the central channel.

Starters (likelihood of starting rated out of 10)

Jordan Pickford - 10/10

Lucas Digne - 10/10

Kurt Zouma - 9/10

Yerry Mina’s performance in the first half against Millwall was nothing out of the ordinary — in a good or bad sense. He didn’t do anything to change the perception that he’s third in the pecking order behind Zouma and Michael Keane, and the injury that forced him out for the second half almost assures it’ll be a return to the regular pairing on Tuesday.

Michael Keane - 9/10

Seamus Coleman - 10/10

Andre Gomes - 9/10

After a few matches where Andre looked like his legs were made of lead, his performance in the FA Cup this weekend was fine. Naturally, he wasn’t asked to cover as much ground as he is when playing a Premier League side, but it was still encouraging that he no longer looked as if he might be overcome by cardiac arrest at any moment.

Idrissa Gueye - 9/10

Consider this our weekly reminder that £21 million isn’t enough for one of the best ball-winning midfielders in the world, PSG.

Gylfi Sigurdsson - 10/10

Ademola Lookman - 8/10

Everton’s closing minutes collapse coincided with Ademola Lookman’s removal from the match. Based on the past three weeks of matches, Lookman should be the first name on the team sheet. We think he’ll start again, but we also think Marco Silva has more or less lost his mind, so we can’t rule anything out.

Bernard - 7/10

Speaking of Silva losing his mind, who’s excited to watch Bernard toil to no end product for 60 minutes before a predictable substitution?! We do not want to see Bernard in the starting lineup, but Silva seem overly trusting of the Brazilian, and with the heat firmly on him, we suspect he’ll go to the players he’s most comfortable with.

Richarlison - 10/10

And of course, that means everyone’s favorite not-striker striker as well. Cenk Tosun and Dominic Calvert-Lewin are both available, but who needs legitimate strikers when you can just run a converted winger into gigantic, muscular center-backs for 90 minutes and then wonder why you can’t generate any attack?

Bench

Maarten Stekelenburg

Leighton Baines

Yerry Mina

Tom Davies

Dominic Calvert-Lewin

Theo Walcott

Cenk Tosun

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The reality is that it’s probably time for Marco Silva to give the club a jolt. Jonjoe Kenny, Tom Davies, James McCarthy and others all deserve to play over some of the sad excuses for professionals that have been out there the last few weeks. Will we get those changes? Doubtful.