OPINION
Everton suffered a rather disappointing 2-0 defeat at the hands of already relegated Fulham last weekend, and they will no doubt be wanting to avenge that when they take on Manchester United this Sunday.
Boss Marco Silva will be without midfielder Andre Gomes, who will serve the first game of his three match ban after retrospective action was taken after an incident with Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic.
In order to have the best possible chance of beating United on Sunday, Silva will have to make three changes to the side that endured that terrible defeat.
In goal, Jordan Pickford must start as normal, despite his distribution being rather shaky last time out.
The first change must come to the back four, with Phil Jagielka really struggling against the Cottagers. The veteran centre-back never looked comfortable throughout the 90 minutes, so Silva really needs to axe the woeful £50,000-a-week [Spotrac] player for Sunday so that he can be replaced by Michael Keane, who sat out the recent loss.
Kurt Zouma was not at his best either, but then again, neither were Seamus Coleman and Lucas Digne. However, those three must start in order to redeem themselves.
With Gomes suspended for the next few weeks, Silva now has a headache on his hands with the competition now rife to take his spot. Morgan Schneiderlin should win that battle after having a decent run after he came back into the team.
Gylfi Sigurdsson was a complete shadow of himself last weekend, and despite initial injury fears, Silva has said – as relayed by the Liverpool Echo – that he will be fit enough to play. However, he was terrible that day, so Ademola Lookman must come in to take his place.
Richarlison must retain his spot despite a dodgy afternoon, while Dominic Calvert-Lewin must lead the line once again.
If Silva makes the right calls with his starting line up, then there is no doubt that his team would be able to defy the odds against United on Sunday
