Everton manager, David Moyes, is under pressure ahead of the Europa Football League encounter with Benfica later today. Moyes has a long injury list in front of him that is making his task of picking a good standard eleven a difficult one in a match the club need to win.

Moyes is one of the more experienced managers in the league but this is no substitute when physical circumstances leave you with a lot of problems on your plate. Everton have been struggling with inconsistency in recent times and need to work out any way to win a match.

Moyes said: “We don’t have any extra players at the moment and I don’t have any extra options — we are optioned-out. The players we have will have to cope with the situation. It will be a case of putting them out and letting them cope.”

“It is going to take it out of them. It is going to be tough but we have always tried to put out the best team we can. If we had all of our squad fit we could perhaps rotate one or two players in our squad, but at the moment all we are doing is adding to our injury list. It is disappointing for us.”

“We take all competitions seriously and we certainly will this one. We are fortunate that we have two good results under our belt, which puts us into a good position.”

“There are parts of the game where we will need to stifle Benfica because their attacking prowess is excellent. But we will also have opportunities to have a go at them — so it will be a case of striking a balance between trying to stifle and trying to score. They are a really good attacking side and they will be a big threat to us.”

The club will need to raise their game hugely from some mediocre displays that have been appearing in the Premier League. Sides such as Benfica are very good and will be taking the competiton as a vital importance, if Everton give them any room for opportunity then they will not think twice about taking advantage of it.

They need to get their main players fit again very quickly and make sure that they stay fit. This game may have come just a little too quickly for them and it will be a test of their calibre to see if they can make it through. The only aim of the game seems to be damage limitation.