Everton travel to the Liberty Stadium tomorrow looking to avoid a third straight Premier League defeat when they meet Brendan Rodgers’ stylish Swansea City.
Things haven’t gone quite as expected for David Moyes in the last ten days. His plan to ensure smooth passage to Wembley by not turning up for the derby backfired when his well-rested strongest XI could only manage a home draw with Sunderland, and after the somewhat unfortunate defeat to Arsenal in midweek he is now faced with the prospect of heading into Tuesday’s all-important FA Cup replay with a team bereft of form or confidence.
A win against Swansea would definitely provide a timely boost, but it’ll be no easy task on a ground where they’ve beaten the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City this season. The key to Swansea’s success has been the way their midfield trio of Joe Allen, Leon Britton and Gylfi Sigurdsson have retained possession and dictated the tempo of games, and Moyes will have to decide whether he’s going to try and match or bypass them.
Unlike the vast majority of newly promoted teams, Swansea haven’t panicked when results have been hard to come by, which has helped give them the air of an established Premier League team – something which shows in their play. They’re positive without being reckless, and while they’re far from a free-scoring side they do have midfielders in Sigurdsson and Scott Sinclair who are chipping in with goals to ease the burden on striker Danny Graham. It also helps that they have an excellent goalkeeper in Michel Vorm.
Only Manchester City have conceded fewer goals at home than Swansea, who have lost just two league games at the Liberty since being promoted (putting them on a par with Manchester United, Tottenham, Arsenal and Newcastle), but the fact remains that they gave arguably the worst showing of any of the season’s visiting sides at Goodison back in December, when a Leon Osman goal secured a comfortable 1-0 win.
With Jack Rodwell, Darron Gibson and Seamus Coleman all unlikely to play it seems as though Everton’s best strategy is to break down the flanks with Leighton Baines/Steven Pienaar and Royston Drenthe. That’s if Moyes sticks with the mercurial Drenthe, whose unwillingness to track back remains a major issue to the manager, especially away from home.
It’ll be interesting to see what sort of team Moyes picks for this one with the cup replay just three days after. He’s heaped a lot of pressure on himself and the players already by sending out a weakened team in the derby before the first Sunderland game, so whether or not he’ll risk essentially throwing away another three points in exchange for fresher legs on Tuesday is the big question.
I don’t think Moyes will disrupt the back four again after Jagielka’s horrendous showing at Anfield, but I imagine Phil Neville will be deployed in centre midfield, where he could perhaps distract Allen, Britton and Sigurdsson with his Hulk Hogan finger points and high-pitched screams. I also expect to see Victor Anichebe lumbering along the right wing and Denis Stracqualursi up front.
I reckon the starting XI will look something like this:
Howard; Hibbert, Heitinga, Distin, Baines; Anichebe, Fellaini, Neville, Pienaar, Osman; Stracqualursi
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