Everton FC v Lille: three key questionsThe big talking points before the Blues’ Europa League clash at Goodison
How will Roberto reshuffle his attack?Swansea City ‘parked the team bus’ at Goodison on Saturday - and from what we know about Lille, the Blues can expect to face plenty of French resistance on Thursday.
After failing to break down the Swans, a formula must be found to unlock a stubborn defence which held out well at State Pierre-Mauroy a fortnight ago.
Lille will try to stifle and suppress, rather fight fire with fire.
So Roberto Martinez must choose his attacking line-up wisely. But with an important Premier League game against Sunderland looming on Sunday, expect more rotation. The guessing game begins…
Everton’s leading attacking lights this season have been Romelu Lukaku and Steven Naismith (joint-leading scorers with four goals apiece), followed closely by Samuel Eto’o (a player whose European experience makes him an obvious choice for such assignments). Ross Barkley is also now back from injury and surely desperate to play his first European game under the Goodison lights.
But will all four start against Lille? Unlikely.
Space could be found for all four in a 4-3-3 set-up (with Barkley in midfield) or a 4-2-3-1 (with either Lukaku or Eto’ as the spearhead), but Martinez is likely to want to keep one or two members of that quartet in reserve for Sunderland.
Steven Pienaar, Leon Osman and Christian Atsu (the latter pair both unused subs against Swansea) come into the mix for Lille, while of course Aiden McGeady - the player who (twice) came closest to scoring against the Ligue 1 side in France - is another option.
Even with Kevin Mirallas out injured, the Blues have attacking options aplenty. How Martinez deploys his match-winners is a decision only he can make.
Will Sylvain Distin return?With John Stones and Antolin Alcaraz out injured, you’d expect the answer to be a straightforward ‘yes’ as Everton have only two fully fit senior centre-backs on their books.
But the Frenchman has not started a league game since the defeat to Crystal Palace in late September and was not even in the squad for the draw with Swansea, meaning Gareth Barry had to drop back and partner Phil Jagielka once Antolin Alcaraz was injured.
Will Distin win a recall on Thursday? You’d expect him to.
Last month, Martinez publicly dismissed rumours of a fall-out with the 36-year-old and explained that the defender’s absence from the side following the 3-0 Capital One Cup loss to Swansea was for his own good.
“Sometimes he is such a professional he works too hard,” said the Everton boss. “He is someone who is not just happy with what he does with the team, he has his individual programmes and he works too much.”
Everton shipped 13 goals in the four league games Jagielka and Distin have started together this term, but the pair worked well in tandem in the 0-0 draw with Lille last month, Distin’s only first-team outing in the last six weeks.
He is surely the leading contender to step in on Thursday.
Barry has can be an effective stop-gap centre-back but, when he plays there, Everton lose his influence and authority in midfield. Youngsters Tyias Browning (20) and Brendan Galloway (18) have been name checked by Martinez, but the boss will surely go with experience against Lille.
Step forward, Sylvain.
Source: Echo
