Can we make it a win or a loss? Sean Dyche makes interesting comments as the blues prepare for fulham

Can we make it a win or a loss? Sean Dyche makes interesting comments as the blues prepare for fulham

Everton will look to make it back-to-back victories and five Premier League games unbeaten this evening when they welcome Fulham to Goodison Park (5.30pm). But to do that they will have to end a curious hex.

For so long a visit of the Cottagers to L4 was the closest thing Everton could get to a home banker. Fulham lost 22 consecutive league games at Goodison before they finally ended that run with a 2-0 triumph in February 2021.

But now they cannot stop winning at the home of the Blues with their painful penalty shootout success in December – look away now Amadou Onana – being their fourth consecutive victory at the ground.

However, after a run of four matches without defeat, which culminated in a comfortable and impressive 2-0 triumph at Ipswich Town last weekend, means that Sean Dyche’s side will be confident of ending that Cottagers sequence.

I would bring Jarrad Branthwaite into the starting line-up if, as seems to be the case, it is only match fitness that he is now missing.

I have fought Michael Keane’s corner this season and have been pleased to see him produce the important performances of recent weeks. I hope they have rebuilt some faith in him from some of his critics and they have been a reminder that, as he showed at times last season, this is a player who can still hold value for Everton.

While Keane could count himself unfortunate to fall to my bench, Young would remain in the starting line-up. He too has been very good recently and I think, particularly with the injury issues of Nathan Patterson and Seamus Coleman, maintaining consistency in that area is worthwhile and I think the upside to replacing him with a player who has not featured in weeks in Coleman’s case, or six months in Patterson’s, would not be big enough to take an unnecessary risk.

Elsewhere, while Everton lacked control at times last week, the performance at Portman Road was generally pretty strong and so I would keep it the same, with the exception of moving Dwight McNeil to the left and allowing Iliman Ndiaye to operate from the middle. I still feel that would be the most effective approach, though it is fair to say Sean Dyche is adamant his belief – against that of some of those around him – that Ndiaye can be used as a winger has been vindicated.

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