We face Burnley in the final Friday Night Football encounter of the Premier League season tonight, and the Liverpool Echo’s predicted line-ups for the Toffees see Marco Silva ushering in one new face from the side who drew at Crystal Palace.
From the three suggested XI’s, one did feature the same eleven men who featured in South London, with the Echo’s Chris Beesley favouring continuity as we chase the final potential Europa League spot.
He notes that the boss must go strong with his selection and with his tactics, so that we can draw our home campaign to a close with three vital points that would move us ahead of Leicester City, who face Manchester City on Monday.
Beesley does predict a slight change in set-up, though, as he tips Silva to favour a 4-3-3 formation over the 4-2-3-1 seen at Selhurst Park, which we have utilised on 28 occasions in the league this season – a strict three-man midfield and attack has yet to be recorded by WhoScored.
Unlike Beesley, David Prentice and Adam Jones do favour a slight change in line-up, with the pair predicting that Morgan Schneiderlin misses out on a 15th appearance of the term (13th in the league).
Both feel that Tom Davies should come in for the visit of Burnley and take the place of the £13.5million-rated anchor, who has kick-started his career on Merseyside in 2019.
Prentice notes that his decision to bench Schneiderlin over Davies comes as the Toffees should be celebrating the academy graduate’s new contract, and offer him his 20th appearance of the campaign across all competitions.
Jones echoed that sentiment in his defence of dropping Schneiderlin, claiming: “Davies picking up a new deal this week is fantastic news. Not just for the club, but for the player as well.
“This has been a bit of a strange campaign for the midfielder, the transition between being named captain and being asked to watch from the sidelines must have been frustrating. But, his reward should come this weekend.”
If the 12-cap England U21 international were to start tonight and be handed the captain’s armband, it would be the seventh time Silva has done so.