Scout Report: Everton - Will the Black Cats get their teeth stuck into the Toffees?

The story so far

Everton have been in competitive action since late July thanks to the Europa League, and because of that their game against Sunderland will be their 11th of the season.

The Toffees are currently on a run of five games without victory, however their fixture list has been arguably the hardest any team has faced this season with three of their last four being away and against difficult opposition - Man City, Chelsea, Spurs and Man Utd.

Everton have not scored in four games, and their attempts to replace Romelu Lukaku appears to be struggling. But Koeman will want time to bed in his new players, maybe Wednesday night could give his team a chance to gel against lesser opposition?

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Last time out

Everton were largely disappointing in their last outing against Manchester United on Sunday. The Merseysiders lost 4-0 at Old Trafford, and for large periods of the game looked second best. Antonio Valencia opened the scoring with one of the goals of the season in the fourth minute, and after that Everton never really looked like scoring.

Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images

United then ran away with the game in the last 10 minutes with goals from Mkhitaryan, Lukaku and Martial.

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Injuries

Everton have four first team players currently out injured, and according to their official website, those players include: Ross Barkley, Ramiro Funes Mori, Yannick Bolasie & Seamus Coleman. All four of those players generally play in the first team, but they are long term absentees so Koeman doesn’t really have any surprise injuries going into the game on Wednesday.

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Dangerman

It is hard to know exactly what sort of team Koeman will put out on Wednesday, but he has said to the official club website of Everton that he plans on building some momentum to win their next four home games before the next international break. However, on the premise that Koeman goes with some of his fringe players on Wednesday - Kevin Mirallas will cause us umpteen amount of problems.

Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

The Belgian attacker is pacey, skillful, and will undoubtedly rip to shreds whoever Sunderland put up against him out wide. Mirallas is currently flirting with the Everton first eleven, so he will know that he needs to perform on Wednesday to get back into that team.

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Referee - Oliver Langford

Langford will be taking charge of his second Sunderland game of the season - with his first being the home game with Derby at the start of the season. Langford was largely inconsistent in that game - but did give the Lads a penalty for a handball late in the first half.

He has never taken charge of an Everton game - and is refereeing in the Carabao Cup third round for the first time ever.

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Manager - Ronald Koeman

54 year old Ronald Koeman has been managing in England since 2014 - where he took the Southampton job and guided them to a successful few seasons. He then moved to Everton last summer - guiding the club to a 7th place finish and impressing with his entertaining style of football.

Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Koeman had a illustrious playing career, playing for Ajax, Barcelona and over 70 times for his country. He scored a free kick in the Champions League final for Barcelona at Wembley in 1992 - the only goal of the game.

Everton are Koeman’s ninth management job, he began his career in coaching assisting the Netherlands and Barcelona before taking his first job at Vitesse in 2000. He then landed the Ajax job a year later before leaving in 2005 with two league titles under his belt. He has also managed Benfica, Valencia and PSV in his long managerial career.

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Statistical analysis

Obviously it is a bit difficult to analyse Everton and Sunderland since they are both in different divisions. Everton should come out on top in almost every department and Sunderland will probably keep the game compact and try to hit them on the counter.

According to whoscored.com Everton are very good at winning the ball back from the opposition and play with good width in games. Playing with width does not bode well for Sunderland who have really struggled to deal with wide players this season - and we have not faced ones with the quality Everton have.

Everton will create scoring chances, so hopefully whoever is in nets for Sunderland is on their A-game because if they aren't then this could be a cricket score. Everton are likely to be ruthless with their manager under pressure after some poor results of late.

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Predicted lineup

I took a total stab at this Everton team, apparently Lookman, Mirallas and Jonjoe Kenny are all likely to start. And Oumar Niasse is likely to feature at some point too.