Sean Dyche confirms six out for Everton trip to his former club

The Blues boss has been giving an injury update before his current team travel the short distance to northern Lancashire to face his old club Burnley in Saturday's Premier League evening clash.
Burnley v Everton - Premier League
Burnley v Everton - Premier League / Visionhaus/GettyImages
facebooktwitterreddit

Dyche confirmed that Seamus Coleman and Ashley Young are out with injury while Idrissa Gueye and Jarrad Branthwaite are also missing due to suspension.

Branthwaite's absence is the most worrying for Everton of course. The England Under-21 international has been in superb form since he came into the side a few weeks into the season.

Losing such a stand-put performer, who I would argue one of the best defenders in the league right now, is a big blow.

The manager also confirmed that Micheal Keane would almost certainly be the player who will replace Branthwaite in the centre of defence.

That is very concerning for Toffees supporters and Keane's likely return alongside James Tarkowski to the heart of the defence does not bode well given all his past extremely costly errors.

We can only hope that Keane manages to avoid making any of those catastrophic mistakes if indeed he does start at Turf Moor. Fingers crossed then.

It will be a strange moment too for Burnley fans who will be very familar with those two players lining up together at centre-back, which they did so often when they both played for the Clarets. This time though they will be in the opposition team.

As for the other absentees, Dyche has several options. With both Coleman and Young unavailable then clearly Nathan Patterson will start at right-back.

In midfield the recent return of Amadou Onana means he starts in centre of midfield in place of veteran Gueye.

Everton go into tomorrow's game on a good run of form having won their last three matches scoring six goals without conceding one.

The Blues' away performances have been the highlight of the campaign so far with four victories on the road while they have only managed two at Goodison Park.

Their opponents have inevitably found it tough on their return to the top flight but recently results have improved and they scored five against fellow strugglers Sheffield United and then forced a draw at Brighton.

Scoring goals has been a critical problem and they have also shipped plenty too. However, recently they have tightened up at the back and one or two players have started scoring as well.

I don't forsee a high-scoring game tomorrow evening but hopefully Everton can keep that fine recent form going and secure another big three points as they look to climb away from the relegation dogfight.