Everton v Liverpool LIVE: Team news as Alexander Isak starts for injured Hugo Ekitike in historic Merseyside derby

It’s certainly an attacking line-up from Arne Slot today! Alexander Isak starts up tip but Mo Salah, Cody Gakpo and Florian Wirtz are all in the team as well.

It looks like Dominik Szoboszlai will be the fill-in right-back once more (although feasibly, Curtis Jones could slot in there) and Alisson is still not fit enough to return, so Giorgi Mamardashvili continues between the sticks.

Everton line up pretty much as expected, with Dwight McNeil, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Iliman Ndiaye providing the creative ingenuity behind Beto.

Everton XI: Pickford; O’Brien, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Garner; McNeil, Dewsbury-Hall, Ndiaye, Beto

Liverpool XI: Mamardashvili; Szoboszlai, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Jones; Salah, Wirtz, Gakpo; Isak

And here’s how Everton will line up. Beto leading the line for them

Here’s the Liverpool team for this afternoon. We’ll have full analysis shortly but Alexander Isak starts up top in place of Hugo Ekitike

We’re a couple of minutes away from today’s team news. The big question of course is who will start up top for Liverpool in place of the injured Hugo Ekitike.

After a season-ending achilles injury to Ekitike, Arne Slot must now weigh up the risk of starting Alexander Isak, who is not ready to play 90 minutes, or use Cody Gakpo from the outset.

It should be a cracking atmosphere for the first Merseyside derby at the Hill Dickinson Stadium today.

Fans are flooding the streets around the ground already and anticipation is rising

One of the more intriguing contests today could be the middle of the pitch, with in-form James Garner up against Dominic Szoboszlai.

Liverpool will hope to win in this key area to act as the platform for a derby victory.

Both men have great engines, but its their passing that could also prove decisive.

The Hungary international is third in the league on 2.0 key passes per game, whike Garner has 1.4 per game.

While the England international has 3.0 tackles per game on average, putting him joint-second.

With all the talk about Liverpool and qualifying for the Champions League again after their quarter-final exit midweek against PSG, could Everton suddenly find themselves in the hunt?

A win today against the Reds takes them within two points of their rivals in fifth. Here’s how their run-in looks:

• Liverpool (H)
• West Ham (A)
• Man City (H)
• Crystal Palace (A)
• Sunderland (H)
• Tottenham (A)

With a four-point gap to Chelsea in sixth, Liverpool only need 12 points to guarantee Champions League football next season.

And with six games remaining, four wins will be enough, though they do play Chelsea at Anfield, meaning they could only need two more wins outside that contest.

• Everton (A)
• Crystal Palace (H)
• Man United (A)
• Chelsea (H)
• Aston Villa (A)
• Brentford (H)

Former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler has claimed that Liverpool could be underdogs for this weekend’s Merseyside derby against Everton after the Reds were dumped out of the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain.

Slot’s men have six games left of the domestic season and the first one comes this weekend in a Merseyside derby, though Fowler and former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney think that the champions could be “underdogs” heading into that game at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

“Obviously the form in the last month, I know the Galatasaray [win was] a great result but I don’t think Galatasaray are great, so they’ve been turned over by Brighton, beat by Man City. I think Liverpool go into this game as probably underdogs,” said Fowler on Amazon Prime Video after the full-time whistle at Anfield.

“It’s the first time in a long time I’ve spoke to so of many friends who are Liverpool fans and they’re a little bit worried about the Merseyside derby,” explained Rooney.

“We’ve seen this Liverpool team all season not give as much as they can, I believe. And I think this derby game has come at the wrong time for Liverpool,” he added.

Beto is in fine form for the Toffees, with a surge of goals in 2026.

After a lean period to start the season, scoring just once in 19 games, the Brazilian has six goals in 13 games in 2026.

He’s now at an impressive 83 minutes per goal, up from 782 from August to December 2025.