• 8 months ago
George Priestman reports from Everton's training ground.
Transcript
00:00 This is George Priest from Fort Liverpool World on a lovely day at Finch Farm after
00:03 Sean Diger just spoke to the media ahead of his side's game against Burnley this weekend
00:07 in the Premier League.
00:08 Starting off with team news, there were no new injury concerns after the draw against
00:12 Newcastle during the week but Lewis Dobbin who is missing out due to an ankle injury
00:17 at the moment is progressing well but won't be available for this game's weekend.
00:20 On out Dan Juma who has a similar issue with an ankle, he is also not available for the
00:25 weekend despite being back in training and of course Dele Alli is still the long term
00:30 absentee with a groin injury.
00:32 In terms of the press conference I asked him about Andre Gomes and whether he can make
00:35 a huge impact at the weekend in midfield.
00:38 Of course he came off the bench against Newcastle and looked very assured.
00:41 He completed 86% of his passes, made one key pass in just half an hour and he clearly has
00:46 a high level technical ability that isn't currently available in Everton's midfield.
00:50 The issue for him as it's always been this season has been his injury concerns and his
00:54 fitness issues.
00:55 Dice confirmed that he is trying to get him more minutes, trying to find him a chance
00:59 to get him to start but he is still building up to full match fitness so it's unlikely
01:02 that we'll see him from the start this weekend but he will feature again most likely off
01:06 the bench as he has done over the past four games.
01:09 Here's a little clip of what Dice said about Gomes.
01:12 Keeping him fit has been a challenge and he's been very frustrated by that and then once
01:16 he's been fit kind of pushing hard enough to get him truly fit whilst not breaking him
01:21 of course, that's been important.
01:24 And I think he's getting there.
01:25 I spoke to him just last week about wanting to get him more minutes, wanting to get him
01:28 playing, possibly starting as well and he feels good about himself.
01:31 He said "Yeah, I feel like I'm in a good place."
01:33 So that's another person who we think can be very effective because he's a very good
01:37 player.
01:38 The funniest moment of the press comments was Dice reacting to the viral video of Dominic
01:43 Havert-Lewin and more specifically the commentary of that game which was from an international
01:50 channel which went huge on social media of a commentator singing after Dominic Havert-Lewin
01:55 scored from the spot later on to give Everton that crucial point.
02:00 It was a very funny video but Dice claimed he hadn't seen it and he said he doesn't do
02:04 social media but it'll be something he'll look up after the press conference.
02:08 In terms of the game at the weekend, Burnley of course struggled all season long.
02:12 They've only won four games and are rooted in 19th place while Everton sat in 16th but
02:17 they'd love three points here in what is a very winnable game for them and they'd love
02:21 to break that horrible streak now that has lasted for over 13 games where they haven't
02:26 won a game in the Premier League.
02:28 With Everton posting a mostly fully fit squad they should feel confident of getting a win
02:33 here against a Burnley side who, like I said, have only won four games all season.
02:36 It's a huge game at the weekend and Everton would love to take three points from one of
02:40 their most winnable games across their final eight in the league.

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