Everton manager Brian Sørensen says that he will be without the services of several key players for this afternoon’s trip to West Ham United.
The Blue Girls travel to The Chigwell Construction Stadium to contest what is an important fixture in the bottom half of the Barclays Women’s Super League table.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Everton boss Sørensen confirmed that he will be without at least five players while others will only be available to play limited minutes this afternoon.
“It’s not good, we have a lot out unfortunately,” Sørensen said. “Lucy Hope and Elise Stenevik are out until after the Christmas break. Katrine Veje rolled her ankle in the Germany game and she is out until after Christmas. Justine Vanhaevermaet is also out with a foot injury and then Nathalie Björn and Karen Holmgaard are still not back to full fitness but hopefully, they can play a half each. That’s it but Martina [Piemonte] is still suspended.
“It is a significant amount of players that we don’t have. It is how it is, we have to deal with it.”
Sørensen’s biggest headache is at the back with Everton missing a number of defensive players and he was in no mood to hide his frustration at the lack of player availability.
He said “We have one defender basically, so it is frustrating. There’s nothing that we can do about it and we need to make up a game plan that works.
“Going into the Villa game was similar with Yaya [Aurora Galli] being out. She’s back but Justine is out now. They play a lot in the middle of the team for us.
“We will probably see a new formation, a 1-6-3 or something like that and see how that goes.”
Commenting on the challenge of West Ham United, Sørensen sees similarities between the two clubs. Both teams are balancing resources and he believes that togetherness could be key.
“I think they’ve had some really good performances,” Sørensen said. “They played really well against Brighton, had an even game against Aston Villa but lost in the last minute and limited a really good Arsenal team to few chances.
“It’s going to be a tough one. It’ll be like the Villa game where we need to perform well, be together as a team, take our chances and be defensively strong.
“I think they are probably in the same boat as we are; you lose really good players but it is hard to replace them then you get young players in and still have to get results. I have respect for that, they do a good job and it’ll be a tough game.”
Everton’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at West Ham United kicks-off at 3pm.
About The Author
