The Opposition – Reading
Reading have enjoyed a solid start to the season, sitting just inside the playoff positions on 12 points. A thumping 5-1 home victory against Ipswich Town highlights they’re a handy outfit, but with promotion very much the priority, it remains to be seen how seriously they take the League Cup. Manager Steve Clarke has already stated he will rotate the side.
Nick Blackman leads the scoring charts for the Royals, with 6 goals so far this campaign.
There’s a chance Roberto Martinez may come up against his former Wigan goalkeeper, Ali Al-Habsi, after the Oman international joined Reading in the summer.
What the managers say
Roberto Martinez – “We want to enjoy a good cup run. It is always difficult to go away from home and we respect Reading but we look forward to the tie.
“At Barnsley we had to be at our best [in the 2nd half] and show a fantastic reaction. We will have to be at our best again tomorrow.”
Steve Clarke – “I’ve got a lot of squad players who need to play so there will be a significant amount of changes.
“A lot of people have played a lot of football but you have to remember that we brought in 11 new players over the summer.
“As a manager I thought it was important to find a consistency with my selection quite quickly. We’ve managed to do that and that’s important.
“But now, as the games mount up, there can be a change here and there.
“For the Capital One Cup there will probably be more than one or two changes. There could be a number of changes for that game. But the team we put on the pitch will be more than competitive.”
Team News
Kevin Mirallas starts his 3 game suspension.
Seamus Coleman, Muhamed Besic and Bryan Oviedo are all facing late fitness tests, but Darron Gibson and Leon Osman are likely to be involved after playing for the u21’s last week.
New Uruguayan striker Leandro Rodriguez is in the squad and could be set to make his senior Blues debut.
Previous Meetings
Everton’s last visit to the Madejski Stadium in 2012 was a forgettable one. Steven Naismith put the Blues ahead but the home side turned it round to win 2-1.
The blues got their revenge at Goodison later that season though, as Marouane Fellaini, Steven Pienaar and Kevin Mirallas scored to give Everton a 3-1 victory in March 2013.
Expected Starting XI 4-2-3-1 – Joel; Browning, Jagielka, Funes Mori, Oviedo; Gibson, McCarthy; Lennon, Osman, Deulofeu; Lukaku
