Rafa Benitez hopes Everton can find “solutions” in the January window as he heads into a challenging run of fixtures with a mounting injury list. Benitez hopes the Blues can pick up “some points” between now and the New Year, get some players fit again and then use the January window to bolster a thin squad.
Rafa Benitez said: “The offensive players, they could be a threat [v Man City]. To lose Demarai Gray, he was training really well and in form, meant we had more problems in the counter-attack. We will see how long he is [out for]. We have to deal with that. Injuries are a problem for us at the moment Hopefully we can bring some players back, go to January with some points and then start thinking about solutions. In terms of the number of injuries, little by little we are getting better. The problem we have is some of the injuries are long-term. Tom Davies was unlucky with his knee, the metatarsal of Doucoure is the same. We can’t control this. The worst was Dominic because it takes too long and now we are trying to change a little bit how we approach the injuries. At the same time, when you have players injured you overload the other players and they run the risk.”
Everton looked to be heading into the break level with City only for Raheem Sterling to break the deadlock just before half-time. The hosts went on to add two more goals in a game they dominated.
Rafa Benitez added: “I think you have to be disappointed at the end. But in terms of the performance of the team, we were well organised and defended with intensity but we were not a threat on the counter attack like we were expecting. We had two or three situations in the first-half and we didn’t do enough. We changed that late goal in the first half and that changed everything. We conceded the second goal, even worse.”
