Everton at West Ham: Projected XI

Everton head to West Ham tomorrow looking for revenge on the embarrassment that was the loss at Goodison Park earlier this season. The Hammers certainly have some talented pieces like Declan Rice and Felipe Anderson, but overall the Blues have more talent, and with the lineup we expect Marco Silva to field, have no reason not to win the match.

Tactics and Formation

All season, Marco Silva has been hesitant to break up a lineup that won in its previous match, and we don’t really see him straying from that after the victory against Chelsea.

Expect his lineup to look to apply pressure to a West Ham midfield that largely lacks athleticism — and to use forced turnovers to go directly at goal as quickly as possible against a West Ham defense that gave up two goals to Cardiff City and three goals to Huddersfield Town before the international break.

Starters (likelihood of starting rated out of 10)

Jordan Pickford - 10/10

Lucas Digne - 10/10

Kurt Zouma - 10/10

Yerry Mina looked quite comfortable against Chelsea before the international break, and it seemed like the Colombian might finally be on his way to proving why Everton spent so much to add him this off-season.

He proceeded to pick up a muscle injury on international duty, and it’s hard not to think his Everton season might be over. That means Kurt Zouma once again gets the start this week, with questions over the future of the center-back position at Everton still looming.

Michael Keane - 10/10

The England defender has been solid this year, and he was quite deserving of the England recall he received over the break. It was a delight to see him score for his country — even if we wish he’d find that heading accuracy playing for his club!

Seamus Coleman - 9/10

Andre Gomes - 8/10

Gomes still looks to be preferred to Morgan Schneiderlin in the midfield, but it’s not a forgone conclusion that Silva will stick with the Barcelona man. Both players have been decent in recent weeks, giving the manager a good problem to have.

Idrissa Gueye - 10/10

Gylfi Sigurdsson - 10/10

Richarlison - 10/10

We think the Chelsea match was Richarlison’s best game of the season by some distance. Not only was he an attacking threat — scoring once and drawing the penalty that led to the second — but he also contributed substantially on defense against Eden Hazard. The questions about the Brazilian’s game have never been talent-related, but instead about his mentality.

If Richarlison can carry his Chelsea form through the rest of the season, it would go a long way toward putting some of those questions to bed.

Bernard - 8/10

Would we still prefer Ademola Lookman to get the start over Bernard? Yes.

Are we losing our minds over Bernard getting the start over Lookman? No, not really. The diminutive winger is certainly contributing, and his creativity serves as the yin to Richarlison’s goal-scoring yang.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin - 8/10

Cenk Tosun scored twice for Turkey during the international break, but there’s just no real reason to take Calvert-Lewin out of the lineup right now. Even when he hasn’t been scoring, his work rate, size, and strength contribute massively to the club’s attacking success.

Bench

Maarten Stekelenburg

Leighton Baines

Morgan Schneiderlin

Ademola Lookman

Cenk Tosun

Theo Walcott

Tom Davies

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Would you make any changes to what was a winning XI last time out? Let us know in the comments.