Everton v Manchester City Review: five talking points

With players cup tied changes will be made for the Boreham Wood cup tie

5. What line up can we expect on Thursday in the FA Cup

Everton go from playing the number one side in England at the weekend to playing the 95th ranked in the FA Cup 5th Round tie on Thursday night. Boreham Wood will come to Goodison Park in a proper David and Goliath fifth round cup tie which is live on British terrestrial television.

Changes to the Everton line up will have to be made as Van De Beek, Dele Alli and Anwar El Ghazi are all cup tied and played some part of the game against City on Saturday.

With Calvert-Lewin also ruled out with injury it will offer Lampard a chance to play a couple of the youngsters if not from the start they will certainly fill most of the bench up.

At the back I would expect Asmir Begovic to get a chance in goal with both full back positions offering chances to Nathan Patterson and Mykolenko to show what they can do. For Patterson it would give him his first opportunity in the first team and most Evertonians will relish the chance to see him finally at Goodison Park.

At centre back Jarrad Branthwaite should get an another opportunity to show Lampard what he can do after a nervy and erratic display when he replaced Yerry Mina at Newcastle last month.

Who he will line up with will be a question of who to keep in, one of Keane or Holgate will keep their place with Godfrey not quite ready to comeback and Mina still out.

In midfield it is likely Allan and Doucoure will keep there places, Gomes was not even on the bench on Saturday so it will be interesting to see if he will feature but if available he could start in place of Van De Beek. Otherwise Lampard may ask Andros Townsend to play a more inside role which he has done before.

Depending on the central midfield set up, Lampard will go 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. Townsend and Gray out wide in a four man midfield with Richarlison and Solomon Rondon up top.

If he goes with the three man midfield then Townsend could be in that which would open up a role for Gordon, who might be rested due to his workload since the start of the year, or Lewis Dobbin who continues to impress at under-23 level.

Certainly on the bench we would expect to see come up from the under-23 set up are Tyler Onyango, Reece Welch, Dobbin and possibly Stanley Mills who has been the most impressive youngster not to appear in the first team squad yet.

Everton under-23’s take on their Chelsea counterparts tonight so it will be interesting to see who lines up, although they could play then and still make the bench on Thursday. Some will believe a good performance tonight will give them a big opportunity to get on the bench against Boreham Wood.

Certainly Everton will be looking to have a comfortable passage through to the Quarter-Finals against the National Conference side from Hertfordshire, but Evertonians will also be looking at seeing some of the new signings have more impact and a youngster or two being given a chance to impress.