Everton have full respect for injury-hit Manchester City says assistant boss Neligan | OneFootball

Everton’s assistant manager Stephen Neligan says that the club have great respect for latest opponents Manchester City.

The Toffees travel to The Joie Stadium to face The Cityzens in their latest Barclays Women’s Super League fixture on Sunday afternoon.

Manchester City are in a difficult period of the season. They have a lengthy injury list and have little but pride left to play for. After last weekend’s Adobe Women’s FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester United, The Cityzens could be seen as vulnerable but Everton’s assistant boss Neligan says that his side won’t be taking their latest opponents lightly.

“We will approach the game in the same way that we approach every game,” Neligan said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “We believe that we can get points off whoever we face.

“With regard to City and the season that they’ve had, I still think Manchester City are an absolute quality team, so we will be taking nothing for granted. If you look across the board, they have their injuries but they have starting players from top national teams throughout their team.

“It’s definitely not a game where we are thinking of anything other than we are going to have to be at our best to get something.”

Everton are no strangers to an injury crisis. The Toffees have juggled limited squad availability themselves in the last couple of seasons and Neligan has sympathy for Manchester City given the situation that they find themselves in.

He said “We understand the situation that they’re in, it’s never good to see any player injured. When it starts to accumulate across the board and it starts to impact your ability to put squads out, we definitely sympathise with that because it’s a situation that we have found ourselves in during the last couple of seasons.

“We have empathy there but I still think they have quality players across the board. They’ve had such a tough run of games that I don’t think it shows the true quality that is in that squad. They went to Brighton a few weeks’ ago and they are the only team to have beaten Brighton away this season, so there’s still a lot of quality there and we know what to expect.”

With four games remaining, Everton could yet gatecrash the top half of the Barclays Women’s Super League table. Neligan says that the target is to win every game.

He said “If you look at our last four fixtures, they’re against teams that are around us. I think the goal is to win every game and see where that takes us in the table.”

Everton’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Manchester City kicks-off at 1pm on Sunday afternoon.