Match Preview: Fleetwood Town v Everton

The games keep coming and Everton now travel to Lancashire to take on Fleetwood Town in the third round of the Carabao Cup tomorrow night.

Everton need to maintain their fine start to the season, which has seen them win all three games so far scoring nine goals in the process.

It would also be a very good outcome for the Toffees to make it to Wembley and win something. The club’s last winning visit to the hallowed ground was when claiming an unlikely 1-0 FA Cup final win over Manchester United way back in 1995.

The Blues also haven’t ever won this competition either so it would be a perfect start to the Ancelotti era proper, if the club could claim a first ever League Cup.

It will be interesting to see how many new faces Ancelotti adds to his team from the side that demolished West Brom last Saturday.

Last week he made ten changes after the season opener with only Michael Keane remaining in the team that lined up against Salford City.

I wouldn’t expect quite as many changes as Fleetwood are a better opponent and the competition is one I think Everton will want to go far in. At any rate Ancelotti has plenty of decisions to make.

Fleetwood have had an inconsistent start to the new season. They are a side whose strengths centre on their attacking play. They are weak though defensively and vulnerable.

So alongside the youth and various squad players, there will also probably be several of the new players who have so impressed us all since joining the Blues, in the match day squad.

And there other intriguing questions. Will he continue with Jordan Pickford or give young goalkeeper Joao Virginia another run-out as he did last week? Virginia did fine in the last round, although he didn’t have much to do in truth.

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I imagine both full-backs will be the same as a week ago. Jonjo Kenny didn’t exactly grasp his opportunity last week.

And with yet more transfer rumours linking the Blues with a new right-back, he surely needs to give a strong performance if he wants to have any future at Goodison Park.

On the other side, Niels Nkounkou certainly took his chance against Salford.

He did more than enough to deserve to start again and will I’m sure deliver another excellent, dynamic contribution, both in defence and attack.

Ancelotti is facing a crisis over fit centre-backs so it’s likely both Keane and Yerry Mina will have to play. Let’s hope and pray no more central defenders get hurt tomorrow!

Tomorrow’s match then is an important cup tie. It also represents a good chance again for a number of Toffees players on the fringes of the first-team who are presumably available for sale, such as Jonjo Kenny, Alex Iwobi, Bernard and Moise Kean to try again to make a mark.