GK - Jordan Pickford
It seems like Koeman has stopped chopping and changing the man in the sticks at least, so that’s a plus.
CB - Michael Keane
We haven’t got a varied selection of centre-backs, at least with Ramiro Funes Mori still injured for the foreseeable future, so the usual suspects return.
CB - Ashley Williams
Speaking of returns, this is nothing to suggest that Jagielka should be dropped because of form, but more to protect the man after coming back from an injury. Two games in a week might be a bit much at this stage.
I doubt Williams is going to get a hero’s welcome, however.
CB - Mason Holgate
Holgate has been increasingly solid for the last few weeks, and has done nothing to harm his standing in Koeman’s plans.
RM - Aaron Lennon
It’s time to re-introduce Lennon to the first team, as we’re desperately in need of a shakeup not just with the coaching staff but also in and around the first XI.
Lennon’s game is simple but effective, everything Everton are not.
CM - Idrissa Gana Gueye
With an attacking formation, we need someone to fill in the gaps when pushing forward, and while Gueye hasn’t been at it all season, he still has the ability in his locker.
That, and he’s still better than Schneiderlin.
CM - Tom Davies
Tom Davies should be in the starting XI every game.
He is our most talented midfielder and since Barkley’s expulsion/injury, he is the only direct, attacking midfielder that we have.
LM - Kevin Mirallas
Well nothing else is working, is it?
A ‘shakeup’ means just that, the system has to change. It’s been a while for Mirallas and he deserves another chance, especially after an encouraging period at the weekend.
We know what he can do, I’ve waxed lyrical enough about him over the past year, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop believing that he still has the ability that we all saw a few years back, the same ability that made him such a fan-favourite in the first place.
Come on Kev.
RW - Nikola Vlašić
Another who has bags of ability is our live-wire, Niko Vlašić.
He has shown his incredible attacking prowess at every chance that he’s been given and Koeman seems to be beginning to notice, with increased opportunity in the side.
He was arguably our best player yet again on Sunday afternoon, and he deserves his slot in the side.
LW - Ademola Lookman
”3-4-3 , and Lookman must start.”
They were my initial thoughts after the game on Sunday, besides anger, depression, sadness and misery (but that’s a regular weekend with the Blue Boys) and I still stand by them.
A change of system is still needed, and a narrow version of a 3-5-2 did nothing to change our fortunes, and we do have immensely talented, eager young wingers so it’s time to try a more progressive, wide formation.
Nothing is coming from Sigurdsson, Klaassen or Schneiderlin, so we must shift the creative focus out wide, where we’ve seen evidence of playmaking ability in both Lookman and Vlašić, and we all know what Aaron Lennon can do.
Lookman has been very unfairly treated, and if the rumours are to be believed, he’s off in January.
Let’s try to give him a reason to stay.
ST - Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Niasse isn’t in the squad and Sandro is a lost cause, probably.
Calvert-Lewin is almost the perfect package, he just needs to start adding goals to his repertoire and there would be no more fitting time than in a crucial tie in Europe.
Let’s hope he delivers, for both his own sake and our increasingly weary collective mental state.
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