‘Still mediocre’ – Charlie Nicholas predicts scoreline in Everton clash v Southampton
Charlie Nicholas has predicted that Everton and Southampton will play out a draw on Thursday evening when they meet at Goodison Park.
The Sky Sports pundit claimed that Carlo Ancelotti has enjoyed a decent start to life in Merseyside, but still has many questions to answer.
Southampton come into this one on the back of a mightly impressive 1-0 win against Manchester City over the weekend.
Nicholas predicted that it will finish 1-1 at Goodison Park, with both teams in relatively decent form.
“Carlo Ancelotti has done a decent job, especially with the amount of players he is getting a response from,” he wrote in his Sky Sports prediction blog.
“Jordan Pickford looks like he has too many mistakes in him, while Lucas Digne has been consistent. Michael Keane is improving slowly, and I am still not sure about Mason Holgate’s best position.
“I am sure Ancelotti is confused too, but what is there to change currently? They have to get full-backs higher up and feed Calvert-Lewin with more chances, and even get Sigurdsson closer up to him – if they do not, Everton’s season will just dwindle out. They are still mediocre, but I do not see a lot in this game.”
Everton need to be much better than they were on Monday against Spurs when they laboured to a 1-0 defeat without putting up much of a fight in North London.
The Toffees kept less possession, had fewer shots on goal and completed 29 fewer passes on an evening where they never looked like scoring [WhoScored].
Ancelotti needs his team to be much, much better against the Saints or it could very well end up with the same result as Monday.
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