Everton manager David Moyes will be without his star winger Jack Grealishplaceholder image
Everton manager David Moyes will be without his star winger Jack Grealish | AFP via Getty Images
Everton will have a long break between Premier League fixtures but what shape is the squad in for the clash with Man United?
Everton have had the weekend off and still have another full week to prepare before Man United visit the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
David Moyes was clearly frustrated after the home defeat to Bournemouth in which a failure to take their chances saw the Toffees pegged back from a winning position. Thierno Barry was particularly wasteful although the team as a whole could have done better with an expected goals rating of over double that of the visitors. The Everton boss will be hoping that the big striker finds his shooting boots for the run-in and the race for European football.
Early injury news for Everton vs Man United
What Moyes will be happy about is that, barring any training miss-haps, his squad is in decent shape. The absence of Jack Grealish is a sore one that has seen opportunities handed to other players and the gap between fixtures should help for a few players who have not long returned to first-team training to add a bit of sharpness.
Moyes said before the visit of Bournemouth that they are still "nursing one or two" players who have recently overcome injury - but the likes of Kiernan Dewsbury Hall, Jarrad Branthwaite and Charly Alcaraz are all good to go, via Everton’s website.
The Blues manager added: "When I think how I felt end of December or beginning of January I was trying to work out how it can be so severely bad. It's good we have everybody back and raring to go."
Who will be missing for Everton vs Man United?
Who Moyes will have to do without is Jake O’Brien who was sent off against Bournemouth which should open the door for Nathan Patterson to return to the starting XI. The Scotland international has performed admirably when called upon recently and he should be trusted to fill in at right-back again rather than putting a square peg into a round hole.
When asked about the red card, Moyes said: "I've not got a view. The referee has made his decision and he has chosen to give him a red card. We probably put more pressure on with 10 men than we did with 11. It's the referee's decision, he makes them.
On whether it is a disappointing result: "No, the players here are doing fantastically well but we are disappointed because it is a game that we could have won and we didn't. We had a couple of opportunities to make it 2-0 or 3-0 at one point and we didn't take them so you get punished when you don't do that."
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