Everton v West Ham United: Premier League – live! via The Guardian
1.15pm GMT
Jamie Redknapp says that in his experience, homegrown players have greater demands placed upon them by the crowd than foreign players – he’s talking about Ross Barkley. Graeme Souness says well if they can’t handle that they’re not going to make it – but really, is that the case? Obviously it helps if you’re tough, but I’m certain that plenty of successful types weren’t born that way.
1.09pm GMT
“He’s very clear,” says Gareth Barry of Ronaldo Koeman. “Everyone knows exactly what’s expected of them.”
Somewhere in Brussels, there’s a kindly, gentlemanly wince.
1.05pm GMT
1.04pm GMT
Email! “Glad to see Funes Mori back,” says Jegs McGregor. “He has Dixie Dean’s eyes.”
Ah Dixie, facilitator of the finest advertising tag of all-time: “Young footballers will have no cause to complain that smoking interferes with their general fitness … if they smoke Wix”.
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12.58pm GMT
While we wait, here’s some FA Cup semi-final action from 1980:
12.54pm GMT
Is Bilic the Premier League’s only tatted-up manager? Just as I was about to hilariously quip that surely José Mourinho has one of himself on his chest, a popular search engine revealed that he has the names of his wife and kids around his wrist. Handy memory aid, that.
12.51pm GMT
Sky interviewed Slaven Bilic during the week, and he says that pre-season, 70% of the questions were about Champions League. Subconsciously that made his players over-confident, he thinks.
12.47pm GMT
Is this what they call baby blue?
MATCHDAY
Here come the Hammers…
#EVEWHU #COYI pic.twitter.com/Rqk5TaCLvw
12.46pm GMT
So, Everton’s line-up has two surprises: Stekelenberg has a foot injury, while Jagielka is rested.West Ham retain the 3-4-3 and no striker formation that worked so well in midweek. I wonder, though, how that will go against Everton, who’ll outnumber them in midfield and perhaps out wide too.
12.43pm GMT
Everton (a relatively rigid 4-3-3): Joel; Coleman, Funes Mori, Williams, Oviedo; Gueye, Barry, Barkley; Bolasie, Lukaku, Mirallas.
Subs: Hewelt, Jagielka, Deulofeu, Cleverley, Lennon, Calvert-Lewin, Holgate.
12.04pm GMT
West Ham have had a terrible start to the season. Starting to win big games in their new ground, in the last eight of the League Cup and, if they win today, they’re in the top half of the table.
Of course, it’s not quite as glib as that: the off-the-pitch problems don’t look like going away, to reach the semi-finals they need to win at Old Trafford, and if they lose today, they’re still fifth-bottom.
Related:
Ronald Koeman needs Romelu Lukaku to get Everton back on track | Paul Wilson
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