The following won’t happen, because it isn’t in the Engineer’s DNA to do it but, for this game only, I would play Garcia, Yaya and Fernandinho. Nobody will ever get VfaB to accept that Garcia is anything other than a waste of space but, increasingly, his value in a disciplined role protecting the centre halves is being appreciated elsewhere. He allows Fernandinho, a man with pace and energy to spare, more freedom to roam and Yaya the opportunity to get forward without exposing the defence to the counter to a degree that has become ‘usual’and heart stopping at times.

My reasoning for this is pretty much based on the form of the much malighed pair of Garcia and Demichelis. Since his high profile cockup aganst Messi, Martin Demichelis has been excellent, shackling the likes of Suarez and giving none of his opponents much of a kick. I don’t think he will be troubled by Lukaku and, whilst they have other outlets, Lukaku is the greatest danger. Demichelis also carries the ball out of defence beautifully, has great vision and always seems to be able to find a pass. Garcia plays the sweeping role in a competent, efficient manner and almost without exception finds a blue shirt. He doesn’t try to be a genius playmaker, he just passes the ball along to one of the ones that is, and improves the general defensive demeanour and mindset. Play these two and you almost guarantee a clean sheet, and today a clean sheet will almost certainly see us finish with 3 points.

………..Hart………..
Zaba..Vince..Demic..Clichy
……Garcia..Fernie……
…Nasri..Yaya..Silva…..
……..Aguerooooo……..

We’re much more likely to see VfaB’s team selection though, and that is a very fine side.

Everton 1 v 2 City

Alph