Watford vs Everton

This won't be an easy game but as has been mentioned with the right team selection and tactics not an impossible one either. I think not having played last Saturday or Sunday has given Carlo not only longer with the squad, but a chance for injured personnel to recover.

Midfield and good start is key. How long will take our team to get into the game?

I'll take 2-3, to us, Richarlison, to get a brace.

Yes, I see Richarlison listed but not the other two “key” men... though, in unrelated news, Sigurdsson and Iwobi are back.

Well, now you mention it, score more goals than the opposition, try not to let any goals in, and above all see any lead out to the bitter end!

Steady on; that's a bit revolutionary, isn't it?

The only problem is, he's less effective on the wing, but I don't think he has enough defensive presence to play centrally in a 4-4-2.

And Watford would be 3rd in the league I think on current form, they are storming on. This is not an easy game by any means.

?

Who would you have then?

Whether you like Ancelotti or not, he's here for the long term.

We can't keep changing managers.

Providing he's prepared to stay! Get behind him.

Pickford
Sidibe Mina Holgate Digne
Delph Schneiderlin Siggy
Richarlison Calvert-Lewin Kean

Subs: Lossl, Coleman, Keane, Davies, Iwobi, Bernard, Gordon.

That looks like a very strong team and substitutes bench on paper. 3-1 to the Blues, I reckon! (4 Englishmen, 3 French, 1 Columbian, 1 Brazilian, 1 Italian, 1 Icelander in my starting XI!)

This game will be a real battle; whoever scores first should win. Let's hope it's the Blues.

Subs: Lossl, Keane, Coleman, Sigurdsson, Iwobi, Walcott, Gordon

2-0 Blues, Richarlison and Kean to score.

I wouldn't have them in an over-50s walking football team – they'd slow it down!

I wouldn't even begin to criticise Ancelotti as his CV is unreal but no manager is beyond some questioning.

People say he has little to play with which is partly true but the subs against Newcastle, Brighton and the team selection for the FA Cup derby were all head scratchers for me.

In the derby why did we need three right sided players on the pitch?

At home to Brighton we went ultra defensive and almost suffered, same against Newcastle only we weren't so lucky.

Hopefully lessons have been learned in time for tomorrow.

I don't expect much other than a dull scrap to be honest.

It's set up for a Liverpool-Lite performance of balls over the top, putting our CBs under pressure running at our own net. Not our strength!

Keane can not play in this game. And we have to sit stupidly deep.

I think Carlo knows this. This will be a tough one.

If that was Silva that lost to Liverpool's kindergarten club and then made those substitutions against Newcastle, contributing to helping toss the game away, we'd have torn Marco a new one.

Carlo is a fantastic man, intelligent, and his record as a player and manager has been illuminated by endless successes.

No manager however, even the Laughing Cow across the park, should be exempt from questioning when it's laid bare in front of us.

I'm going to put it down to it being early doors for Carlo, maybe he's still getting to know limitations of players and where he can go with certain members of the squad.

Nobody is too old to learn though and I don't think he covered himself in glory with some of those selections and subs.

It's clearly not going to be pretty so let's win the fight against a strong, strapping Watford side and winning the game will follow.

When men were men...

This means no Michael Keane, no Gylfi Sigurdsson, no prefects or suck holes or altar boys or teacher's pets. Just big, massive kahunas on display and let's see what we are made of.

Onward Evertonians. Full support. 💙

Not sure how often Feeney has been with the first team but he's been on more than one video since Carlo came. Same with Gibson. Everton were paying Martina and Niasse but letting them train away from the first team, Carlo has them part of the first team squad. So he knows for himself now.

It'll be interesting to see what 11 days without a game has done for Carlo. He said he prefers a game every three days. But he's had ample time to really assess the squad and make proper alterations.

Ossie and Barks were the exceptions with players signed from lower league clubs showing a far better success rate than our 'own grown'.

A routine victory that we somehow conspire to throw away in the final minute? Because they started the last match and that was the outcome.

(all jokes aside, I have little interest in seeing either on the team sheet, particularly Schneiderlin, but they fared okay last week)

Take your point m8

I'd be tempted to play a lower block with Keane and Mina and Holgate playing in DMC. Sit back a touch, win the long balls and counter quickly with DCL, Kean and Richarlison. Could play Walcott on the right and Richie on the left but hoping Bernie continues his Newcastle form.

Pickford
Sidibe Keane Mina Digne
Richarlison Sigurdsson Holgate Bernard
Kean Calvert-Lewin

Today we need to be brave, but brave on the ball and use Keans pace to get in behind their back line. I think we are playing them at the right time because they have had the new manager bounce and now haven't won in their last 3 in all competitions.

Hopefully it was a change from the holiday camp it normally has been and we get a team biting at the bit to get at Watford. Mid field will be the deciding factor and I quite frankly haven't a clue who Ancelotti will play in it.

I hope that Ancelotti has further developed the positive forward passing tactics he was trying to instil on the Everton team before the break , rather than the negative possession style as previously. A residue from previous regimes.

Hopefully everyone will stay awake till the final whistle this time.

But keep Deulofeu and Deeney quiet and it will go along way to help us win the game.

So we need functional performances from the midfield pair. Who? Sigurdsson and Davies.

Richarlison on right and the rest unchanged. I think Holgate in midfield is a red herring. We lose more at not having at centre back than gain playing him in midfield. He's quicker than the others and allows us to play a higher line, ‘squeeze that midfield'. That's more effective than have him play out of position.

I think we will win, after their huge bounce, Watford have leveled out.

Not wishing to give RS any credit, I stick by my view that this is the weakest Premier EVER. So there !

Everyone should be in peak condition so we should learn Ancelotti's ‘go-to' starters, at least for this type of opposition, based on what he's learned about his players, subject to Gomes and Gbamin returning.

To my mind, Davies has to start because the other midfielders can't be in the club's long term plans. His partner/partners should be selected on the basis of who compliments him best.

For me I would be playing with a midfield three of Davies, Bernard and Delph or Sigurdsson, depending on the opposition.

Terry Venables has an adage which stands the test of time, and that was; if you can't beat them in midfield, outnumber them.

We've lost the quality and power from our midfield so we have to add numbers.

This formation suits a possession game and provides us triangles all over the pitch; Holgate, Sidibe, Davies out of the right, and Baines, Delph and Digne out of the left, allowing us to outnumber, win-back and build the play while we a) work the Digne/Sidibe overlap/crossing angle, which should be plan A for a team who scores as many headed goals as us; b) hit Bernard in transition, or c) release one of two runners in the channels/off the defender's shoulder.

Everton's failure to win anything of note for 25 years and not having won the league or indeed even competed for it for over 30 years hasn't helped our case. I'm certain that even if we did go on a run of success nothing much would change within the city centre.

Those tourists you speak about are a new breed that weren't around in the 1980s at least not in such numbers but nowadays a trip to the other place is akin to visiting the Albert Hall or similar type attraction - with a game of football an added bonus thrown-in.