Compared with Everton's usual lofty high standards they are having a bad season, don't worry here come Norwich! El Ghazi has just joined The Toffees on loan from Aston Villa and they have only one confirmed injury with Tom Davis out with a hamstring. Norwich are looking for their first victory since about 1482 and have Mathias Normann, Billy Gilmour, Lukas Rupp and Andrew Omobamidele all out. Norwich Last beat Everton in 2019, but last at home back in 2013. In total Norwich have won 18 times, there have been 18 draws and Everton have won 26 times. A repeat of this would be nice! No more content to follow
To my surprise, I'm feeling a it more confident about Everton and the season as a whole because of Idah's performance against West Ham. That he can play so effectively (7.4 on WhoScored) against a top team gives me hope for the future even if we're relegated this season. If Adam can build on that and start scoring goals it could make a big difference and I'm looking forward to seeing how he does tomorrow.
Yes, I agree with you about Idah. He seemed to play with new found confidence, prepared to take players on and showing good close control. A vast improvement on previous shows , just hope it is not a one off that he will really kick on from here.
Great thread. I applaud the optimism, but not quite feeling it myself. Burnley are coming in for a lot of criticism and suspicion about all their cancelled fixtures... And Hassenhuttl complaining that Wood should not be allowed to play for Newcastle in any rescheduled fixture where he would not have been at the club had it gone ahead.
LAWRO'S PREDICTION Most of the teams down the bottom have problems keeping goals out, but Norwich can't score them either - they have drawn a blank in their past six league games. I don't see that changing on Saturday. Everton are hardly in great form themselves but they have been busy this month in the transfer market and you can see what their manager Rafael Benitez is trying to do at both ends of the pitch. After shipping Lucas Digne out he has signed two defenders, and has brought in another winger, Anwar El Ghazi, on loan from Aston Villa. With Dominic Calvert-Lewin fit again, Everton should not be lacking in firepower anymore. Prediction: 0-2
Interesting that Liam Gibbs, Tom Dickson-Peters and Jonathan Rowe were all left out of the U23s 3-2 loss at Forest tonight. On the bench tomorrow?
He's ill. Like the lineup which seems to be reasonably balanced as Rashica and Sargent can drop back into a low block of two rows of four when the ball is lost. Hope Idah can carry on from his performance against West Ham.