Swansea V Everton at Liberty Stadium : Match Preview

22 September 2014 22:01
Swansea V Everton - view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live.


Monk relishes Martinez meeting

Swansea boss Garry Monk has often said that his former manager Roberto Martinez is always at the other end of a telephone if he ever wants a catch-up or chat about the pitfalls of management.

But rookie manager Monk admits there has been no time to talk this week ahead of Everton's visit to the Liberty Stadium in the third round of the Capital One Cup on Tuesday night.

Everton's busy schedule of domestic and European commitments, Monk says, has put paid to the usual conversations between two men who shared the same remarkable journey as Swansea rose through the divisions of English football.

"I've not had any contact with Roberto this week as he has been very busy with lots of games," Monk said ahead of their third reunion since the 35-year-old took over at Swansea last February.

"It's always great to see him. I know him very well and I know he will want to win the game like I will want to win the game.

"It will be a good cup tie - it will be an interesting one.

"We are at home, I am sure the fans will be right up for it and hopefully we can get the right result."

The two men were team-mates when Monk joined Swansea in 2004 and three years later the centre-back was Martinez's captain when the Spaniard took his first steps in management in south Wales.

Martinez later moved on to Wigan and then Everton, where he has enjoyed notable success by taking the Merseyside club back into Europe following last season's fifth-placed finish in the Barclays Premier League.

He also managed two Goodison Park victories over Monk last season while his friend was in caretaker control at Swansea, 3-1 in a fifth-round FA Cup tie in February and 3-2 in a Premier League game the following month.

Monk would love to redress the balance on Tuesday and admits he would also enjoy another cup run after Swansea won the Capital One Cup two seasons ago.

"The cup always ranks high and it would be nice to go on a run," Monk said.

"We also want to bounce back because we lost to Southampton on Saturday and it would be nice to try to make sure we don't lose the next one."

Swansea have actually never beaten Everton in their history, a total of 20 games which have brought 15 wins for the Toffees and five draws.

"We know how Roberto sets up and he knows how we set up," said Swansea defender Neil Taylor.

"We have played against them a lot of times now and they will always be good games, but hopefully we can come out on top this time because their record here is something we need to put right.

"Everton are a good footballing side but we won the League Cup a couple of years ago and know how good it can be."

Everton full-back Bryan Oviedo is set to put eight months of injury frustration behind him on Tuesday with a return to first-team action.

The Costa Rica international featured for the Toffees Under-21 side recently as he stepped up his rehabilitation from the broken leg he suffered in January which ruled him out of the summer's World Cup, where his country performed so impressively.

And Toffees boss Roberto Martinez has confirmed Oviedo will be back in Everton's matchday squad for Tuesday's third-round tie at the Liberty Stadium.

The Spaniard also said another long-term absentee, forward Arouna Kone, could be involved for the first time since sustaining a serious knee problem just under a year ago.

Kone featured in the same Under-21s contest as Oviedo, although Martinez is not yet certain the Ivory Coast player is ready for a full comeback.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Monday, the manager - who indicated he would be making changes for the meeting with his old club Swansea - said: "We have really good news, with Bryan Oviedo being in the squad for the first time since his broken leg.

"Arouna Kone could make his return as well. He is available for selection, but we need to be a little bit cautious.

"He is in a situation where he has been training with the group now for a while and I do think he is ready for 11-a-side - he played the game with the Under-21s.

"But I need to take a little bit of a decision tomorrow morning on Arouna."

Everton are looking to bounce back from Sunday's 3-2 home Barclays Premier League defeat to Crystal Palace.

The result means that, ahead of Saturday's derby trip to Liverpool, the Toffees have conceded 13 goals in the opening five games of their league campaign, the worst defensive record in the division.

But Martinez insists there is no problem with his players' attitude towards defending.

"We had two very good performances defensively (a 4-1 Europa League home victory over Wolfsburg and 2-0 Premier League win at West Brom) previous to that (the Palace match), so it is not that there is a problem that has been developing," Martinez said.

"I do think that the performance and clean sheet against West Brom brought our defensive intensity back to our play.

"I think it was back against Wolfsburg as well, and yesterday was just a bit different.

"Unfortunately we made a couple of bad decisions and errors which cost us goals. But I don't think it's the case of a lack of a defensive attitude of the team.

"It was a very rare game. The spooky side of it was that we replicated against Crystal Palace the performance we had in April, with the same scoreline. But we will learn from it."

Everton will once again be without full-back Seamus Coleman (head), winger Steven Pienaar (hamstring) and midfielder Ross Barkley (knee) on Tuesday.


Source: PA