Everton To Shuffle Lineup As Grealish Denied Chance To Face Man City

Having signed for Everton on loan from Manchester City in the summer, Jack Grealish has made an impressive start to his time on Merseyside, becoming a key part of the team that is looking to ensure the club’s first season in its new stadium is a positive one.

The terms of the loan deal, however, mean Grealish is not available to face his parent club when Everton travels to Manchester to face City on Saturday.

Grealish has not only been one of Everton’s standout players, but also one of the best players in the entire Premier League in the early stages of the 2025/26 season.

He leads the league’s assists chart with four alongside Tottenham Hotspur’s Mohammed Kudus, and also has a goal to his name.

This means he will be a big miss for David Moyes’ side at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, and the Toffees boss now faces the decision of who to add the his starting XI in place of Grealish.

The Ndiaye Rejig

In a pre-Grealish pre-new stadium world, Everton’s star of the show in 2024/25, often a lone star, was Iliman Ndiaye.

Even during Everton’s difficult period in their final season at Goodison Park, the Senegalese remained a standout player and often worth the price of admission on his own.

However, until Moyes’ return at the start of the year, Everton’s results didn’t match Ndiaye’s performances.

This season, Ndiaye has been joined by Grealish as well as other new signings such as Tyler Dibling and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, which has eased some of the burden on him, but he remains a key player in the Everton setup.

With Grealish out, Ndiaye will likely move to the left of the attacking three in possession, or midfield four in defense, a position in which he operated last season.

Grealish’s arrival has seen Ndiaye move into different positions, mostly on the right flank, but he remains a versatile attacking midfielder who can solve problems when other players are missing.

Dibling In

If Ndiaye returns to the left, the obvious player to come in on the right would be Tyler Dibling.

This, after all, is the position the 19-year-old played in at his previous club, Southampton, and his performances there persuaded Everton to pay $54 million for the teenager.

Dibling’s Everton appearances have been sporadic so far, limited mostly to a few minutes off the bench and a start in the League Cup defeat to Wolves.

His one league start came on the right wing against Crystal Palace in the previous game.

Moyes perhaps had the City match in mind when choosing this lineup, as Ndiaye moved into the No. 10 spot behind the striker, but the main reason for the switch was Dewsbury-Hall’s unavailability for that game due to suspension.

Other Considerations

At the time of writing, Everton central defender Michael Keane is still a doubt with a knock.

Were Keane to miss the game, and given first-choice left-sided center-back Jarrad Branthwaite is still out injured, Jake O’Brien would likely shift from right back into the center of defense, with midfielder James Garner filling in at right-back as he has done previously to good effect.

This would leave a gap in midfield, which could be filled by Dewsbury-Hall dropping from the advanced midfield role to a deeper one, which would then mean a space for Charly Alcaraz to come into the side as the No. 10.

The alternative in the scenario where Keane is unavailable would be Moyes to apply the same shift in defense but turn to Tim Iroegbunam as the replacement for Garner in midfield, leaving Dewsbury-Hall to operate as the 10.

Everton’s possible lineup versus Manchester City

Pickford; O’Brien, Tarkowski, Keane, Mykolenko; Dibling, Gueye, Garner, Ndiaye; Dewsbury-Hall; Barry.

The simple solution to replacing Grealish for one game is the introduction of Dibling and the switch of Ndiaye from one wing to another.

It remains to be seen if Moyes has decisions to make elsewhere in the team that could affect this.