Gueye sidelined by 'muscle tear'

Playing Rooney in the middle with Davies is about as much as we can do with Bolasie and Walcott our wide with maybe Niasse supporting Tosun is my way to go, we got to give Man City and Liverpool something to worry about not just sit there with umpteenth central crab-like midfielders that don't move forward.

Man City and Liverpool coaching preparation will consist of the players watching videos of teams with five-man defences who managed to strife both of these teams play getting a result. May show the last Merseyside derby. That's if Big Sam doesn't decide to rest his players for the winnable game after these two fixtures. It depends how sure he is of getting a contract extension. This is a good way of assessing how negotiations are going,

The current First Team, under Big Sam, are used to swimming in the shallow end of the Premier League; once they go to the deep end, they sink. Things are this bad.

Although I see Schneiderlin being the change.

My team for Man City:

Pickford
Coleman Jagielka (c) Keane Baines
Rooney Baningime Klaassen
Walcott Tosun Calvert-Lewin

Subs: Robles, Funes Mori, Kenny, Schneiderlin, Davies, Bolasie, Niasse

I think Davies needs a break & Klaassen deserves a chance, he will work so hard and that's what we need. 3 in midfield to congest that area, Rooney playing deep & looking for the outlet pass to the wings or into Tosun. Klaassen box-to-box. Walcott and Calvert-Lewin stretching them coming back on defense. Calvert-Lewin also gives us a much better chance of winning headers and creating chances from second balls. Tosun holding the ball up so that we can move up the pitch and distributing to the wingers.

We can also easily shift to a 3 at the back with the introduction of Funes Mori. Davies to add a box-to-box or Schneiderlin to solidify (we hope) the midfield. Bolasie and Niasse, explosive and workrate off the bench too.

I'd have no hesitation playing Beni; even if he has a pair of shockers, he will learn from it – all part of his development. I doubt he would though.

How will anyone know if Baningime is good enough if he remains untried? How did Rooney, Sterling, Ali, Kane and lots of others come through?We all know what Schneiderlin brings to the table and Klaassen has also had chances to shine. Vlasic is another who has not had a fair shake in my opinion.

Alardyce is opting for experience over youth in his first team selections and we all know that our midfield lacks pace and cannot cope with fast moving attacks who just run past them. We are doing okay to retain survival and that is all Big Sam really needs to justify his job.

In the longer term, all Evertonians want the chance of success at least and no-one will know how well our kids are developing if they are never to be tested. With Gueye injured and the 40 points secured, then it should be time to see what our youngsters are made of.

Is he really as good as Unsy and ToffeeWebbers think and what aspects of his game are the strongest?

Defensive midfield is not a position you normally expect a very young player to break through in and apart from needing another stick to beat Allardyce with, I am really interested to get more of an understanding of what qualities he can bring to the team.

Man City's (and Spurs') massive asset is their full backs joining the attack, pressing and keeping the other full-backs guessing. By playing wingers or 3 midfielders, we play into their hands as they will continually double up on our full backs, allowing their wingers to drift inside causing confusion and mayhem for the centre-backs.

I think we need to counter this by playing two defensively disciplined wide midfielders who are capable of swinging early, quality deliveries into the depths of Man City's half, then trying to pounce on a flick-on. It will be a lonely thankless task for the striker given the nod, and will need a central midfielder with the legs and eagerness to break forward every time the ball is with a wide player, while getting back just as quickly. Ideally this would be Sigurdsson.

So...

Pickford

Coleman, Jagielka, Keane, Baines

Right Midfield: Rooney – he has played disciplined games before and has shown in the derby how effective a ball he has got from these areas.

Left Midfield: Garbutt – he has one hell of a delivery and will be defensively minded enough to help Baines. Plus at left midfield, he is not that accountable last line of defense, so will release pressure on him.

Central Midfield: Schneiderlin – all I'm thinking is experience.

Central Midfield: Baningime – he will tackle everything in sight, while leaving Schneiderlin to mop up behind him.

Central Midfield: Davies – I don't see anyone else to play the role of surging forward and getting back equally as quick, unless we take a punt on Klaassen.

Centre-Forward: Calvert-Lewin – causes far more problems than Tosun (without the goal threat) and Man City will have bad memories of him from the first match.

We still have Walcott, Bolasie and Tosun to throw on if it goes wrong.

Must be another one due seeing as we are playing those twats!!! I wonder if Klopp has chosen the ref yet?

Forget Schneiderlin, he opted out ages back. Other than that, keep the same team. Only make enforced changes.

There is one change we should make before the next game:

Allardyce Out!

Fact.

Not content with so much poor form, we finally get some injured players back and now Gylfi, Holgate and Gana are all out.

What a disaster it has been and could only have been surpassed if they had been relegated.

Somebody at Goodison angered the gods!!

He should have stayed back home surely.

The club are required to release the player if his country insists on it. That is to prevent clubs doing what many used to do – withdrawing players from international squads on spurious grounds.