Carabao Cup Preview
Everton have their sights on a fifth successive win and a place in the last four of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday evening as they take on Fulham under the lights at Goodison Park.
It will be the second visit to L4 of the season for Marco Silva and his men, with the Cottagers having already recorded a victory over the Blues on the opening day of the season, albeit against a team lacking any focal point up front and which didn’t have the likes of Jarrad Branthwaite in defence.
The towering young centre-back is expected to return to the starting XI after serving a one-match ban against Burnley on Saturday while, up front, Dominic Calvert-Lewin will provide the robust target that was lacking the last time the two clubs met.
Calvert-Lewin was injured at the start of the season and Beto had not yet been signed but both are likely to play a role in this quarter-final and both looking to increase their respective goal tallies in the competition. Beto scored his first Everton goal in the second round against Doncaster Rovers while Calvert-Lewin has an impressive scoring record in the League Cup overall.
In midfield, Idrissa Gueye is eligible again after he, too, was suspended for the win at Turf Moor but the fitness of the vital attacking cog Abdoulaye Doucouré and in-form left-back Vitalii Mykolenko is a concern after the Frenchman was forced off against Burnley feeling a tight hamstring and the Ukrainian failed a fitness test on a groin strain.
With no natural replacement, Doucouré’s absence would pose a conundrum for Sean Dyche who pushed Jack Harrison up behind the striker against Newcastle when Amadou Onana and James Garner were missing and he may opt for the same strategy against Fulham.
Arnaut Danjuma is another option in that role but the Dutchman appears to have fallen out favour recently and it may be that Lewis Dobbin is again preferred to him in any changed attacking formation.
At the back, much depends on whether Mykolenko will be risked. Dyche described his situation as “touch-and-go” after Saturday’s game but should he miss out and assuming Michael Keane felt no ill-effects from his goalscoring return to Turf Moor, it could be a case of same again at the back with Branthwaite coming in for Ben Godfrey in a back five.
Fulham will be without striker Raul Jimenez following his red card at St James’s Park over the weekend but Alex Iwobi would be eligible to face his former team-mates given that he did not feature in the second round before his move to Craven Cottage.
Kick-off: 7:45pm, Tuesday 19 December 2023
Last Time: Everton have not played Fulham (H) in the League Cup before
Predicted Line-up: Pickford, Keane, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Patterson, McNeil, Onana, Garner, Harrison, Dobbin, Calvert-Lewin