Everton vs. Liverpool || Battle for Mersey

Everton are playing much more entertaining football under Martinez than they have ever had under Gollum. They have a powerful targetman in Lukaku, a player who has put us to the torch the last two times he's played against us. Agger and Skrtel both struggled against his sort of STs and it begs the question if we should bring in our monster CB Sakho after his incredible performance to carry France to the WC. Everton's defense is pretty susceptible with Jagielka and Distin at CB and Baines and Coleman and hopefully we'll have both Suarez and Sturridge fit and ready to take advantage. Their midfield of Barry and McCarthy with Barkley right in front of them is decent but nothing our guys in the middle can't handle.

I'm guessing they'll line up something like so


We might see Osman starting instead of McCarthy and there are rumors that Deulofeu will be given the start, so it should be interesting.

As for us, we don't have any injury concerns except Sturridge, who even though wasn't 100%, the c*nt Woy played him 90 mins in the most meaningless friendly of all time.

I hope we play the same formation we did against Fulham with Enrique coming in for Cissokho. And possibly Sakho replacing Skrtel. I think Agger's ball playing ability will come in very handy this match and Sakho's physicality is much needed against Lukaku, but Martin has looked a changed man from last season so it wouldn't be the end of the world to go with the same pairing.


Prediction, 0-2 to us. If Suarez scores one he'll score both, otherwise Gerrard on the score sheet with one of Coutinho/Hendo/Sturridge.

Also this is my first match thread this season, if we lose you can all blame me for it

Also as far as form goes, I spoke with an Everton acquaintance (I struggle to call any toffee a friend) of mine and he says they have been playing like shit the past two weeks or so.

Sakho and Suarez up front

We wont need Sakho's boots to score goals, i think we will score a couple, we just need to defend and not concede the first one. I can already see Lukaku in Skrtel's pocket if he starts, BR will give Skrtel a master plan about how to handle Lukaku

Sturridge isn't 100% fit, and derby games are always rough. I'd have him on the bench for this one and put him on around the 60th minute mark to make an impact.

Henderson to play as the right winger defensive role to nullify Baines.

Gerrard to go back to playing as the number 10 for one game as he's boss and Everton fear him.

Skrtel and Sakho to be the defensive pair as we don't need footballers at Goodison. It's going to be a physical game up top with Lukaku, and Skrtel / Sakho should be able to defend against him.

Allen in as I'm back on the bandwagon.

McAgger wrote:Also as far as form goes, I spoke with an Everton acquaintance (I struggle to call any toffee a friend) of mine and he says they have been playing like shit the past two weeks or so.

To be fair, form goes out the windows with derby games.

Can't see Martinez reverting to Moyes-tactics for the derby, to be honest. I expect him to ask his team to play football.

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if we make it a "Moyes" type game and play negative football to frustrate them.

A lot will depend on how our players have fared (in terms of fatigue & injury) in last two weeks. If all is well, I expect this as starting XI: Mignolet, Johnson, Enrique, Skrtel, Agger, Lucas, Gerrard, Henderson, Coutinho, Suarez & Sturridge.

Enrique is out for majority of the season, sadly.

just as it looked as if everyone is back from injury, we lose one imp player... Miralles has all the wing to himself now with shat Cissokho there

Kelly's back fit again though. Johnson's presence and movement on the right shouldn't be underestimated but his crossing has been far from impressive, as he prefers to dribble and pass inside or cut inside and shoot himself... perhaps our best option (until January at least) would be to move Johnson back to the left and bring in Kelly on the right?

Well looks like we might just be needing a left back in January if the Enrique rumors are true. I'm dreading the fact that Cissokho might be our only LB for the majority of the season.

I guess we can live with him during this match though.

We'll have to play away at Everton, Spurs, City, and Chelsea without Enrique.

Kelly is nowhere near match-fit either and looks sloppy. I'd have Agger at LB ahead of Cissokho there any time

Natalie Portman wrote:Enrique is out for majority of the season, sadly.

:-O. What happened! He played in the last match, didn't he! And wasn't in NT.

My gwad, Cissoko is our only LB! Can we bring Aurelio back!!!

Yeah... Cissokho is pretty awful. Lyon fans were dancing on all their message boards when they heard Liverpool bought him.

Liverpool haven't bought him... yet.

And given that Enrique is out for 2 or more months I doubt Kelly's current lack of match fitness will rule him out for the entire period of time.

@Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

@iftikhar wrote:

Natalie Portman wrote:Enrique is out for majority of the season, sadly.

:-O. What happened! He played in the last match, didn't he! And wasn't in NT.

My gwad, Cissoko is our only LB! Can we bring Aurelio back!!!

You can have Santon for the weekend if you give us Sturridge for the weekend

hot or the cold one

@Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

@iftikhar wrote:

Natalie Portman wrote:Enrique is out for majority of the season, sadly.

:-O. What happened! He played in the last match, didn't he! And wasn't in NT.

My gwad, Cissoko is our only LB! Can we bring Aurelio back!!!

You can have Santon for the weekend if you give us Sturridge for the weekend

Seems unlikely that Sturridge will be fit to start this weekend [after playing 90 minutes with a knock for England] so that may be an issue for you.

From what Rodgers said in his presser, looks like Enrique will miss about 2 months. So should be back around Jan/Feb. I would rather Kelly at RB and Johnson at LB then having Cissokho anywhere on the field.

Ifthi, I would absolutely love Aurelio right now But I think he's currently injured as always

@Robespierre wrote:i can't wait for this match . i think it will be spectacular
Lukaku has already scored 2 goals against Liverpool last year with WBA...

Welcome to the forum mate

And yeah Lukaku has torched us the last two times he played against us which is why we're a bit afraid of having Skrtel and Agger as our CBs because last season their main weakness was facing big poweful guys like Lukaku. It'll be interesting to see if Rodgers opts with Sakho or with our winning partnership from last match.

Sturridge doesnt seem like he'll make it, We might just play Moses i think, While Suarez leading alone.

I'd play:

Hendo will support Kelly on the right side against Baines. Sterling can track back and support Johnson on the left. Coutinho in a free role behind Suarez. Need to score the first goal.