How Everton could line-up against Man United with Gueye ‘unlikely’ to feature

Everton manager Sean Dyche has confirmed that midfielder Idrissa Gueye is unlikely to travel north with the rest of the squad to face Manchester United this weekend.

The 34-year-old didn’t feature in last week’s 3-1 defeat to West Ham United at Goodison Park due to a groin injury and faces a race against time to be fit for the trip to Old Trafford.

Gueye has been a staple in the Everton midfield this season, featuring 22 times across all competitions while chipping in with a goal, but could sit out this weekend’s contest.

Arnaut Danjuma is also out with a ligament problem, but Dyche told reporters in his pre-match press conference that the rest of his squad have been handed a clean bill of health ahead of Saturday’s crunch encounter.

Match Preview

Everton head into the Man United clash having failed to win any of their last ten Premier League games (D5, L5) while finding the back of the net has also been problematic for the Toffees.

In that wretched run of form, Dyche’s side have only netted seven goals while shipping in 17, including three from their most recent defeat at home to West Ham.

Despite seeing their ten-point hit reduced to six, the Toffees are still looking nervously over their shoulders, with just five points separating them 17th placed Luton Town, who also have a game in hand.

Their appalling winless streak has hit double figures, and there’s a chance it could be extended further at Old Trafford when they take on a Man United side keen to bounce back from consecutive league defeats.

Everton suffered a comprehensive 3-0 defeat in the reverse fixture against Man United, and Dyche must come up with a plan to avoid a similar occurrence in Manchester.

Team News

With only Danjuma and Gueye missing from the squad, Dyche could be tempted to field the same squad that lost to West Ham.

Andre Gomes and Lewis Dobbin returned from respective injury lay-offs to make substitute appearances last time out, and the pair are in contention to feature against Man United.

However, a midfield combination of Amadou Onana, Abdoulaye Doucoure and ex-Man United man James Garner is set to remain intact.

Ashley Young, another former Man United employee, will battle with Ben Godfrey and Nathan Patterson for a start at right-back, but Beto should start ahead of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who has not scored a Premier League goal since October 29.

Everton potential starting line-up:

(4-4-1-1): Jordan Pickford; Ben Godfrey, James Tarkowski, Jarrad Branthwaite, Vitaly Mykolenko; Jack Harrison, James Garner, Amadou Onana, Dwight McNeil; Abdoulaye Doucoure; Dominic Calvert-Lewin.