Jordan Pickford made another major error as Everton drew with Leicester City, and Carlo Ancelotti is undecided as to whether the England goalkeeper will play against Newcastle United.
After a run of dreadful mistakes earlier in the season, Pickford had gone several matches without an error as Everton corrected their form to put themselves in contention for a Champions League place.
However, he failed to keep out a rather tame Youri Tielemans strike as in-form Leicester fought back to cancel out James Rodriguez's stunner on Wednesday.
Next up for Everton are Newcastle – a side which boyhood Sunderland fan Pickford has previously made errors against.
Pickford was dropped for Robin Olsen for Everton's defeat at St James' Park earlier in the campaign, and Ancelotti is willing to rotate his goalkeepers again.
"Pickford didn't play last time against Newcastle because of normal rotation, which I am used to doing in this period because we have a lot of games," he said. "We have to play (Saturday), we have to play on Wednesday, so Jordan will be rotated like the other players.
"He made a mistake. We can say this, but it doesn't change for me, his team-mates, the confidence we have in him. He made fantastic saves in the past and if the team is solid it is solid also because Pickford was better in the last period than he was before. There is absolutely no problem or doubt on his quality or motivation."
Everton have taken 16 points from the last 21 on offer in the league, but Newcastle have lost nine of their last 11 games in all competitions.
"I wouldn't expect to be bulletproof, no," said Steve Bruce. "I haven't (had any assurances). "We're in the Premier League, and we're judged on results – they haven't been good enough at the moment."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Everton – James Rodriguez
After missing the majority of December due to injury, James has returned in fine form. He created two goals and crafted eight chances in total in Everton's 3-0 FA Cup win over Sheffield Wednesday, before scoring a sublime opener in the 1-1 draw with Leicester.
Newcastle United – Miguel Almiron
Newcastle came out of the blocks in the second half against Leeds United on Tuesday, with Almiron equalising before Jack Harrison settled the contest in the Whites' favour. The Paraguayan attacker looked dangerous and will be determined to continue that form.
KEY OPTA FACTS
• Everton have lost just one of their last 16 home Premier League matches against Newcastle (W10 D5), a 1-0 defeat in September 2010.
• Newcastle have lost their last five Premier League away games, failing to score in any of the last four. They last lost six in a row in April 2016 (a run of 9), while they last lost five in a row without scoring in May 2015 – both runs included 0-3 defeats at Everton.
• Everton's Dominic Calvert-Lewin has scored in each of his last four Premier League appearances against Newcastle, netting five goals. The last player to score in five consecutive appearances against the Magpies was Sergio Agüero between 2013 and 2016.
• Newcastle had 22 shots (five on target) in their 1-2 defeat against Leeds last time out, their most in a Premier League game this season. Indeed, it was more than the Magpies had managed in their previous three league games combined (18).
• No Premier League side is on a longer current run without a win than Newcastle (nine), while the Magpies' run of five consecutive defeats in the competition is also the current longest in the division.
Author
Hi, Its me Hafeez. A webdesigner, blogspot developer and UI/UX Designer. I am a certified Themeforest top Author and Front-End Developer. I'am business speaker, marketer, Blogger and Javascript Programmer.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment