Here we go again, another attempt at being a budget version of @chicoazul with some words and pictures. I've taken some time to reflect on the first preview and the very cutting remarks made by @The Legend of Southall above, after an in depth consultation period I've decided to leave it as 'vs' in the hope of causing him an aneurysm.
I've wiped the Villa game from my memory so it's straight on with a look at this fixture with Lincoln in the terribly named Carabao Cup. They gave us a bit of a scare last season when we squeezed through 2-1 in the FA Cup and I'd settle for a win of any sort tomorrow. It's been confirmed that Gbamin isn't likely to be available for at least 8 weeks so we might see Delph come in for his first competitive game, with Silva having indicated that he's ready. I suspect we'll probably see him limp off soon after the whistle goes but it'll be nice to see him nonetheless.
Ademola Lookman celebrates after scoring the early opener in last seasons FA Cup game
It seems an ideal opportunity to give players like Kean and Iwobi their first starts, I think they'll both make a decent impact as the season progresses so it'd be good to give them minutes, I'd also like us to win a trophy and I'm not fussy which so hopefully there won't be huge changes otherwise I can see us getting embarrassed. I think Baines can still do a decent job against opposition like this so maybe give Digne the afternoon off after his recent injury and give Sidibe 45 minutes in place of Coleman if it's going well, but I don't see any sense in splitting the CB partnership. Richarlison has been poor for me so far this season with a couple of glaring misses against Watford and going missing completely against Villa, but I'd keep him in and hopefully he picks up form and smashes a couple in.
As for our opponents, they knocked out Huddersfield in the last round but have suffered a couple of league defeats recently, although we all know if you're on a bad run there's no better team to play than Everton as we're quite capable of making League 1 teams look like 1970's Brazil. I can't say I've ever heard of a single Lincoln player sadly, mostly because I'm ignorant to anything football related outside of Everton. I did briefly recognise Neil Eardley's name and then realised I'd confused him with the former Wimbledon player Neil Ardley, who now manages Notts County for anyone remotely interested.
If we can get an early goal and we aren't playing too weakened a team then I think we'll come through this comfortably, however I've realised I'm discussing Everton again here and I suspect our lack of goals will result in a slow turgid tight game with us making it difficult to tell which is the League 1 team. I appreciate that's a fairly negative view of us, I'm hoping for a bit of reverse psychology and a thumping victory but I know better than to allow myself those thoughts.
