Next up: Wolves vs Everton in the Carabao Cup

Lots of noise today that Everton's manager, David Moyes, who has left millions of pounds of new talent on the bench while his players tire, will ring the changes tomorrow night, and may even spring a huge surprise in the shape of a senior debut for 15-year-old Jonathan Nsangou.

On Tuesday night, Everton take on woeful Wolves, who languish in an unenviable bottom place after five consecutive defeats in the first five rounds of Premier League fun and games. That should give Everton a boost, revisiting the site of their solitary away win so far this season… but it also screams "Banana Skin" to many an Evertonian who has sadly seen it all too often before. 

Convention has established that the Carabao Cup is an opportunity for managers like Moyes to rotate his squad and bring in the fringe players he's been largely ignoring so far this season as they languish on the substitutes bench, making up the numbers.

Players like Tyler Dibling, who Everton seemed to spend most of the summer pursuing, arguing with Southampton over just how manay tens of millions should be handed over to have him sign for the club,  only for Moyes to virtually ignore him, his 8-minute 'cameo' at the end of the Anfield derby showing exactly how much he has suffered from not getting match play. 

Making full use of his five subs allowed is not something David Moyes has indulged in very often during his second spell as Everton manager. Which kind of negates the concept of building a full squad under the 25-man limit that applies to all Premier League clubs, and utilising the resources available during games to freshen things up., change tactics, or just waste time. 

Well, that's unfair; he's good at making pointless substitutions towards the end of games, with the apparent main purpose of 'running the clock down'. And he did play a moderately strong team against mighty Mansfield Town, that was just about sufficient to get the job done in the end. 

But the idea that he will make seven or eight changes to the Premier League line-up, as some clickbait sites are suggesting, seems far-fetched and runs counter to what James Tarkowski has revealed ahead of Tuesday's game.  He said: “There’s definitely an emphasis on us doing well in the cups this season and, after winning the first round, we want to go again.

“I think we’ve all seen Crystal Palace and Newcastle last year, teams outside the Big Six, have won a domestic trophy, so there’s no reason why we can’t go and do it.

“As I said, there’s an emphasis on it as a club and as a team to go and win a trophy and go as far as we can in the competition, so the group is definitely ready to go.

“Every season there’s always an emphasis on the cup but I think it’s definitely been mentioned between the group of the players and staff that we want to go and win something.

“We’ve got a good squad now, a bigger squad probably than we’ve had in previous seasons of high-quality players and lads who need some minutes as well.

“I’m sure it will be a strong team going out on Tuesday night looking to win, hopefully progress to the next round and get as far as we can in the competition.”

It remains to be seen whether Jonathan Nsangou will be part of the squad after having trained with the first team, but he's only just been given his debut for the Under-21s, where he came on as a substitute at Middlesbrough. But he does seem to be highly rated, and looking at previous development pathways, the only way he will become a superstar is if he gets an early debut and is given enough time to make the most of it. 

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