Everton’s pre-match press conferences seem to have become a largely monotonous opportunity for David Moyes to tell us how well he is doing managing Everton against a tsunami of headwinds that are all making his job that much more difficult than it should be.
All the while, maintaining a veil of secrecy over the real state of his paltry squad of just 18 outfield players — incredibly further reduced by a “club decision” to sack off Jack Grealish for apparently being himself. Perhaps he’ll be off the naughty step by tomorrow…
But strangely this weekend, we seem to have been spared a sensible pre-match press conference for tomorrow night’s massive Part 2 of the double-header against Newcastle Utd. Instead, Moyes’s post-match presser on Thursday night, immediately after the great win in the Carabao Cup 4th Round, was bizarrely repackaged as the pre-match presser for Monday’s game:
There was no way he could tell us anything meaningful about Monday since he would not know how his players were until they got back to Finch Farm on Saturday. Regardless, Moyes appears to have been talking to The Echo over the weekend.
“It’s a different ballgame go to St James’s Park on a Monday evening and you know, they’ve got a great crowd up there. So, you always know you’re up against it.
“But we’ll go with confidence. We’ve played Newcastle a couple times this year and done well, so we have to try and continue it.
“Newcastle have got some really, really good players. Players you need to concern yourself about.
“Newcastle brought a fantastic support down here and I’ve got no doubt the Everton supporters will do the same. It’s a tough game, Monday night games are never easy as well, but looking forward to it now.”
Not much to get one’s teeth into there… but elsewhere on the Everton website, it appears that Jarrad Branthwaite should be fit for selection after being excluded from consideration for the last two matches due to concussion protocols following his clash with the Chelsea goalkeeper weeks ago.
We’ll have our own pre-match preview up later today but we won’t know who’s actually lined up to play until 6:45 pm tomorrow night, when we will put up the definitive team news.
In the meantime, as our new Dixie60: ToffeeWeb’s free Premier League prediction game gets launched, perhaps we should have an Everton-themed element focused on predicting the team selection for Monday night?