Tomorrow Everton host Leeds United in a match that has become even more significant for the season after Tuesday night’s abject surrender at Newcastle.
We’ve had countless ‘must-win’ matches over the last few years and this is but the latest one as Everton face the Yorkshire club desperate for any chink of light in a campaign that is fast threatening to become impossible to salvage.
The Toffees are in very serious trouble and somehow have to find a way to arrest the terrible form and run of results that has seen this side nosedive into the relegation fight.
Perspective is hard to maintain at the moment but it is worth pointing out that this weekend’s game won’t decide the Blues fate. It is though a massive match nonetheless. Defeat will plunge this club and it’s new manager into further crisis.
League games at Goodison Park are becoming absolutely crucial given this team’s total inability to go away from home and fight for points without the home crowd behind them.
The defeat at St Jamess’ Park was in many ways an even more depressing and worrying one than the succession of losses that charaterised the last few months of Rafa Benitez’s ill-fated tenure.
After apparently getting a new manager bounce against Brentford last Saturday, it lasted only one match before the players returned to their usual ways.
We might have hoped for a more sustained response and a newly energised team for at least a few games. Is that too much to ask of these excuses for professional footballers?
And, to cap it all off once again there were more injuries leaving Frank Lampard with some serious selection headaches for tomorrow.
Yerry Mina and Demarai Gray joined Ben Godfrey and Abdoulaye Doucoure on the injured list. All of these players are critical to Everton’s hopes of survival and now they are all probably absent for a massive set of fixtures over the next month or so.
I wrote that I thought injuries could well decide the outcome of the season and given the unbelievable problems this club has with players getting hurt, that may very well be the case.
In this position, a team needs a bit of good luck and it seems that’s one thing you can be sure this Blues side won’t get.
Given that unfortunately he has no choice but to pick one of Mason Holgate or Micheal Keane, if I was Lampard I would revert to a 4-3-3 with a defence of Nathan Patterson at right-back with Keane alongside Jarrad Branthwaite in the middle and assuming he’s available again, Vitalii Mykoloenko at left-back.
I think it’s time to take some calculated risks and give young Patterson a chance. Although he’s not yet had a game in the Premier League he’s played international football for Scotland and he would offer some much-needed lack of fear, energy and natural attacking width.
Anyway, the alternative is an ageing Seamus Coleman who has played twice in four days or Jonjo Kenny who has never convinced.
In midfield I would consider bringing in Donny van de Beek alongside Allan and Andros Townsend who despite his limitations, will I think at least give a bit more defensive effort and cover than Andre Gomes and can suppport Mykolenko on that flank.
Then up front it would be Richarlison and Anthony Gordon (the only real bright spot on Tuesday) split either side of Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Marcela Bielsa’s Leeds are about the last team you would want to face with an injury-depleted backline and a squad without any confidence, fight or self-belief.
Their energy, workrate and desire to press and harrass the opposition make them a nightmare of an opponent when you’re in Everton’s situation.
Of course, I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. I am though feeling a sense of dread about the game as I suspect many Evertonians are.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Toffees do win such is the infuriatingly nature of this team. A rocking afternoon at the Grand Old Lady might well be enough to push them to victory.
Equally though, especially if the atmosphere is subdued as it could be after Tuesday and they suffer some early setbacks, they might well fold again such is the lack of fight and pride in this group of players.