Eddie Howe shares what he thinks Everton are really good at ahead of tomorrow’s match

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Eddie Howe has been speaking about Everton’s strengths ahead of Newcastle United’s fixture against the Toffees on Thursday night.

Everton sit in the bottom three of the Premier League but their performances have actually greatly improved this season under Sean Dyche.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Eddie Howe confirmed that he will not be underestimating his opponents and has identified what makes them such a tough team to beat.

Howe says that Everton’s physicality will be difficult to face

If there’s one thing you can count on a Sean Dyche team to do it’s to be physical, to work hard and to make themselves tough to beat every time they step onto the pitch.

It may not have been the most attractive football, but we saw how determined his Burnley side were for years in the Premier League before a lack of quality finally caught up to them and led to their relegation.

Ahead of Newcastle’s trip to Everton, Howe has made his team aware of the threat that the Toffees pose and has revealed that his side will have to ‘compete’ with them physically if they want to win.

Lewis Miley has already excelled technically against teams like PSG, Chelsea and Man United, but this is a completely different kind of opposition and it will be interesting to see how the 17-year-old copes.

In his press-conference, Howe said: “They have made big strides as a team, the biggest challenge for us is that we compete as they do. They are a very strong, physical team. They will pose questions for us defensively which we will have to answer, we are going to have to respond to those questions. It is a big game for us. We know our away form has to improve.”

Everton’s league position doesn’t tell the full story

With their points deduction and some of the unlucky defeats that they have suffered in the last few months, Everton look like a very weak and feeble side on paper.

However, this team should not be underestimated and they actually look a lot better than they did last season when it felt like relegation was almost inevitable at points.

Adding back on their 10 points which were deducted for breaking FFP, Everton would be in 13th with 17 points and looking like a much tougher opposition.

That said, Howe will not be taking Everton lightly and expecting an easy victory for Newcastle, especially after that poor defeat away to Bournemouth last month. They may have won 4-1 back in April, but Newcastle are prepared for a real battle on Thursday.