Could it be possible that Everton aren’t as bad as many people perceive them to be?

It is certainly the case that the performance data has Everton as a top half Premier League side at the moment, despite results not quite matching up, there has been a noticeable uptick in performances in 2023/24.

It was a tight match against West Ham at the weekend, but picking up that vital away win in the league does relieve some of the pressure and could loosen up the team for this hit in the EFL Cup. There is no reason why Everton shouldn’t necessarily be in the shake-up for this piece of domestic silverware with their current level of performance.

There is also the narrative of Sean Dyche welcoming back his old club to Goodison. Whilst in public Dyche will give out the usual platitudes, it is hard to believe that, deep down inside, Dyche wouldn’t relish the opportunity to get one over Burnley and get Everton into the fifth round.

Burnley themselves are having something of a crisis of confidence in terms of how they should be approaching the Premier League. The style that got them up hasn’t worked, and the adaptations that Vincent Kompany is trying aren’t yet working either. The pressure is mounting on their Premier League status, and whilst this shouldn’t necessarily affect the EFL Cup, it may mean that the cup is more of a distraction than a relief.

Also, the inevitable rotation that will occur may mean that Burnley are using more of their young talents, that, although clearly have ability, are not tried and tested at the level. Everton don’t have the deepest squad, but could still boast some relatively senior players in their second string.

Liverpool just seem to keep rolling in goal-laden games. Their form is really impressive from that perspective and it doesn’t seem to matter who is initially selected in the XI, because either that XI performs and scores goals as they did on Sunday, or the replacements are able to come on and trigger an improvement.

We are aware that rotation policy in the EFL Cup is really important, and Liverpool probably have the greatest depth of forwards in the competition.

Bournemouth got their first victory under Andoni Iraola at the weekend and the performance was good. However, if Iraola does decide to rotate then that could mean that the team strength would drop off significantly with the comparative lack of depth compared to Liverpool.

Also, Iraola’s philosophy and mindset won’t change, regardless of the competition or personnel. This means that the Spaniard wants to play an expansive game, with high pressing, high degrees of rotation and a positive mindset. The Liverpool tacticians should be able to study the Bournemouth philosophy and produce a coherent game plan to take advantage of the openness of Iraola’s methods.

Liverpool just seem to be on a roll right now and no matter who Jurgen Klopp selects, they’ll be feeling confident and ready to attack and score goals. They should have their eye on this trophy and should win this match to get themselves closer to another Wembley trip.