Liverpool’s trip to Everton for the first Merseyside derby at the Hill Dickinson Stadium is tough to predict – but one Blues fan feels whoever deals with the nerves will prevail.
The Reds now only have a top-five finish to play for in the Premier League, and their local rivals are breathing down their necks!
Just four points separate Liverpool and Everton, who are fifth and eighth, respectively, and defeat doesn’t bear thinking about for Arne Slot.
With the anticipation building, we spoke to Blues supporter and writer Sam Whyte (@samwhyte) to preview a massive afternoon for both sides.
How would you rate Everton’s season out of 10? And why?
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, September 20, 2025: Everton's manager David Moyes exclaiming at the the fourth official Robert Madley during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Everton FC at Anfield. The 247th Merseyside Derby. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Be warned that this score isn’t the popular consensus, but you asked me, so I’m giving *my* answer, which is 8/10.
One point off for not recruiting a full-back, one point off for poor home form.
There are many who’ll think I exhibit a tragic lack of ambition, but I’m still enjoying not having to endure constant relegation scraps.
Before the takeover and return of David Moyes, the football was poor, for sure, but, worse than that, there was no model or ideal for being better, let alone a plan for making it happen.
Now, here we are, within spitting distance of the Champions League – many would say a striker away from being a European certainty.
A lot of commentators said the return of Moyes showed a lack of creative ambition when, in fact, it was the return to stability we desperately needed.
You cannot progress creatively whilst constantly firefighting.
Which three players have impressed most for Everton? Anyone flopped?
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, September 20, 2025: Liverpool's Conor Bradley is challenging Everton's Thierno Barry during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Everton FC at Anfield. The 247th Merseyside Derby. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
It would be cruel to say anyone’s “flopped” as such, but Vitalii Mykolenko has found it tough as a lone left-back in the squad.
The same could be said of Beto and Thierno Barry alternating as lone strikers. They have worked phenomenally hard and both batted way above their average.
There’s a rare sense of solidarity with the struggling players because they’re not “underachieving” as such; they’re being asked to take on more than their natural abilities can accommodate.
Ilman Ndiaye, a player whose name I still struggle to spell, is a revelation; deft, nippy, incisive. For all our recruitment woes, he was an incredible bag.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, September 20, 2025: Everton's Jack Grealish during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Everton FC at Anfield. The 247th Merseyside Derby. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
It’s so lovely watching Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall going from strength to strength, and in such a short space of time.
So Everton being a platform for Ndiaye to thrive, KDH to progress at a remarkable speed and Jack Grealish to flourish in late-career as more than a cog in a Pep machine, has been wonderful.
I’m not clear whether the injury means there’s no chance of a permanent move for Grealish, which would be a terrible shame.
What are your thoughts on the new stadium?
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, August 24, 2025: A general view before the FA Premier League match between Everton FC and Brighton and Hove Albion FC at Bramley-Moore Dock. Hill Dickinson Stadium. Everton won 2-0. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
The Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium is beautiful.
There will have been pressure to build an unfeasibly big stadium – to put gate receipts ahead of atmosphere, and I’m delighted that’s been swerved.
An enclosed, purpose-built football stadium is what everyone wanted, and the location on the docks is a bold statement.
As you’ll be only too aware, the travel to L4 can be a pain unless you live hyper-locally, so the transition to hopping off the train and ambling down through town has been extremely pleasant.
I can only think of two definitive negatives.
One, the Dock location really augments bad weather – we will simply have to become inured to the wind-whipping horizontal October rain against the contours of our faces and drenching all but the most heavy-duty waterproofed clothing.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, November 8, 2025: A general view of the new Everton stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock before the FA Premier League match between Everton FC and Fulham FC. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Secondly, I strongly disapprove of the membership system, which demands patrons pay a membership fee simply to have a ticket transferred to them.
This excludes the most financially marginalised fans, who might only ever visit the stadium on a mate’s spare ticket, for what must be a pretty paltry dribble of income for the club.
There are people in my family who planned to go maybe three times a season who simply couldn’t justify adding the cost of a membership to that.
So, two negatives; one we’ll get used to, and the other is resolvable should we choose to be sufficiently vocal about it.
Overall, are you happy to have left Goodison Park?
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Wednesday, January 15, 2025: An aerial view of Goodison Park ahead of the FA Premier League match between Everton FC and Aston Villa FC. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
I don’t think anyone is ever “happy” to leave a long-term home.
Even if you were leaving your house for a much bigger and more beautiful one that would never eclipse the innumerable memories entwined with it, nor the innumerable hours of your life you spent in its company.
When we left, it occurred to me that I had spent more of my childhood at Goodison than almost anywhere else – the only exceptions being home, school and my best mate’s house.
So happy is not the word. Calmly reconciled to it being the right thing to do and hopeful for what leaving might bring is more the vibe.
I’m very glad it’s staying put for now, too.
How do you rate Liverpool’s season? Would you keep Arne Slot?
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, April 11, 2026: Liverpool's head coach Arne Slot before the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Fulham FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
It’s such a complex one. I guess you have to divide Liverpool’s season into before and after Christmas.
Before January, everyone was still presumably processing waves of shock and grief over Diogo Jota.
That’s not a linear path and cannot be expected to follow a managerial plan and regimen, even if Arne Slot had tried to impose one (and I gather he was emotionally literate in this regard and gave the essential time and space to those struggling).
As January rattled on, you might expect things to start reverting to the mean, but it still seems quite chaotic.
I never know which Liverpool I am about to watch, and I suppose that, in attacking terms at least, football is a momentum game, so a good and consistent half-season is pretty difficult to achieve.
I’m also unclear to what extent last season’s title-winning team were simply a Jurgen Klopp project under a highly qualified “supply teacher.”
My inkling is always to give new managers who’ve shown flashes of promise a summer to prove themselves – a second in this case in light of last year’s tragedy – but should the rumours prove true and there’s a club legend waiting in the wings, it would seem crazy to turn that down.
Where do you predict both teams will finish this season?
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, April 11, 2026: Liverpool's head coach Arne Slot acknowledges the supporters after the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Fulham FC at Anfield. The game ended 2-0. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Fifth and seventh. You know which is which.
Looking ahead to Sunday’s game, where will the key battles take place?
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - Saturday, April 4, 2026: Liverpool's Florian Wirtz during the FA Cup Quarter Final match between Manchester City FC and Liverpool FC at the City of Manchester Stadium. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Sadly, gone are the days when derbies were won or lost on fighting spirit.
The contentious, scrappy, blood-drawing derbies of old must be no more than implausible folklore to Gen Z fans. And, as far as I’m aware, tactically astute, competently executed derbies never even existed.
So what are we left with? What else can conceivably win or lose a football match? The answer is, of course, nerves.
This derby, as all have been for some time, will rest on managing the weighty and pervasive sense of occasion, the fierce expectation, the knot in individual players’ guts, and all whilst shoving down the natural urge to play cautiously.
If nerves are the foundation, hopefully, they will be punctuated by moments of brilliance from some very gifted, skilled and, let’s not be coy about it, extremely expensive players.
A little Florian Wirtz magic here, a Dewsbury-Hall screamer there.
Both nets contain immense talent and improbable levels of composure, with the occasional rick in there for jeopardy and giggles.
Let’s just hope the jitters settle early and we land a fun one.
Finally, what’s your prediction?
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, April 11, 2026: Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk applauds the supporters after the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Fulham FC at Anfield. The game ended 2-0. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Everton 1-1 Liverpool.