Marco Silva has said Everton’s Carabao Cup tie against Watford is “not the moment for us to hide”, with the competition a priority for the club this season.
The Everton manager faces his former club on Tuesday in need of further respite at Goodison Park following a demoralising defeat at Brighton in the Premier League. Pressure eased on Silva in the aftermath of a dreadful loss at Burnley thanks to a convincing home win over West Ham but having fallen to a sixth league defeat of the campaign on Saturday, albeit in unfortunate circumstances, he can ill-afford another setback against the division’s bottom-placed club.
Silva, who lost the winger Bernard to a knee ligament injury at Brighton, said: “Our goal and our ambition in the competition is clear and this is not the moment for us to hide. We want to reach the end of the competition, the final. What I expect from our team is the same desire we showed in the last two [cup] games we won. If we can do the same performance that we did against West Ham, we will be really close to winning the game.”
Everton are enduring the longest trophy drought in the club’s history – it would be 25 years since their last piece of silverware by the end of this season – and Silva’s strong selections in the previous rounds, at Lincoln City and Sheffield Wednesday, have underlined the Carabao Cup’s importance.
He explained: “When you are working at Everton, playing at Everton, each game has to be a must-win game. We have been really serious looking to the Carabao Cup even if we play against League One and Championship clubs. We played both games away and were really serious because of that ambition. I know how the fans look to this competition and since the beginning of the season we share the same ambition as them.”
Yerry Mina, their Colombian centre-back, could soon be back in contention after missing out at Brighton with a minor knee problem.