Ancelotti confirms Everton trio will miss clash v Chelsea
Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed James Rodriguez, Fabian Delph and Seamus Coleman will be missing for Everton when they play Chelsea at Goodison Park on Saturday night.
Rodriguez, 29, suffered a setback in the 1-1 draw against Burnley last week while Delph, 31, will miss the Chelsea game after being forced off early at Turf Moor.
Coleman, 32, is also ruled out of the fourth Premier League game running while long-term absentees Lucas Digne and Jean-Philippe Gbamin are also unable to play against Frank Lampard’s side.
“We have three players not available, one is Coleman,” said Ancelotti in his pre-match press conference on Friday, as quoted by the Liverpool Echo.
“He started this week to train with the team, he’s quite good but I think that he will be available for the next game against Leicester on Wednesday.
“We have Delph out, who suffered an injury against Burnley.
“We have James out, who had a little problem in the game against Burnley. He was not able to train this week, I think he will start to train next week.
“For this game, we don’t want to take a risk.”
Rodriguez news could be worse
Ancelotti’s describes Rodriguez’s setback as a “little problem” and adds that the former Real Madrid attacker should be back in training at Finch Farm next week.
While it’s good that he won’t be out for long, there’s no doubting that we will miss the Colombia international when Chelsea arrive on Merseyside this weekend.
Rodriguez has scored three goals and supplied three assists in his 10 Premier League appearances this season [transfermarkt] while stats by WyScout show the South American ranks 12th in the Premier League for deep completions per 90 minutes [2.22] and 18th for key passes [0.81].
Rodriguez hit the ground running upon his arrival at Goodison but it would be fair to say he’s been quieter as of late and not quite as influential in the Everton attack.
While we would only be speculating, it could be possible that he’s had a niggling injury issue for a few weeks as that would explain why his form has dipped a bit and also why he’s not being risked against Chelsea this weekend.
Either way, we hope that the Toffees can make do without their playmaker against Lampard’s high-flying Chelsea and also that Rodriguez is able to return to training with no issues in the coming days.
In other Everton news, Kevin Campbell has delivered his thoughts on Jordan Pickford’s form at Goodison.