Another blow for Everton v Leeds United with Mykolenko also ruled out
Vitaly Mykolenko has been ruled out of action for Everton when they welcome Leeds United to Goodison Park on Saturday, according to Patrick Boyland.
Writing via his personal Twitter account on Friday [11 February], The Athletic journalist reported that Mykolenko, 22, is “unavailable” for the game against Leeds, presumably will the same illness that ruled him out of the defeat to Newcastle on Tuesday.
Before Boyland shared that tweet, Frank Lampard confirmed in a pre-match press conference, via YouTube, that he’ll be without Yerry Mina and Demarai Gray when Leeds are in town after they suffered injuries at St James’ Park.
Yet another blow
While Mykolenko hasn’t lit up the Premier League since joining Everton from Dinamo Kiev in January, we’re desperately short of options at left-back.
Lampard started Andros Townsend as a left wing-back at Newcastle and that experiment really didn’t work well.
With Ben Godfrey also unlikely to be available against Leeds on Saturday, there are two options for Lampard and they aren’t great unless he sticks with Townsend in that position.
Jonjoe Kenny is one of them. Although he’s naturally a right-back, he can play at left-back. Jarrad Branthwaite is another as the left-footed centre-back can play there if Lampard opts for a flat back-four.
If that’s the case and we go for a 4-2-3-1, it could make sense to have Branthwaite there at left-back as he’s more defensively solid and Richarlison, who could start on the left-wing, is unlikely to offer much support going back.
It’s a tough week for Lampard to decide his team due to all of these injuries and illness issues.
We’re glad it’s not Vitor Pereira making the decisions, at least.
In other Everton news, four changes and two players could be axed in for the game against Leeds in our predicted line-up.