OPINION
Everton secured what would have surely been a morale boosting win over Cardiff on Tuesday, so they will no doubt be looking towards the Merseyside derby on Sunday with a sense of optimism.
The Toffees beat Cardiff 3-0 thanks to a brace from Gylfi Sigurdsson and a goal from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, a victory which now means that they are ninth in the Premier League.
However, despite the positive result, boss Marco Silva must make two changes to the side to take on Liverpool this weekend.
In goal, Jordan Pickford must start as normal.
The defence was pretty solid on the whole on Tuesday, but you could tell that it was Phil Jagielka’s first game in a long while. He was rather woeful, and he was shaky and made a few errors – so the £50,000-a-week [Spotrac] player must be axed in favour of Yerry Mina, who was sitting on the bench against Cardiff.
In the midfield, fans got to see Morgan Schneiderlin make his first start in a long while too, but he did not show any signs of rustiness in the slightest, so he must keep his spot in the starting XI alongside Idrissa Gueye.
However, it was the same old story for Theo Walcott, whose contribution started to fade more and more as the game progressed. He must be dropped in order for Bernard to come into the side, as he revitalised the team when he appeared on Tuesday.
This means that Richarlison would have to switch to the right in order to accommodate him, with Gylfi Sigurdsson – who redeemed himself by scoring two goals – playing between them and Dominic Calvert-Lewin leading the line once again after a promising display.
If Silva makes the right team calls on Sunday, then there is no doubt that his team would be able to defy the odds against Liverpool.
