Wayne Rooney is backing Everton to earn a positive result in Saturday’s Merseyside derby against Liverpool.
While Liverpool are heavy favourites—a status earned by their perfect start to their Premier League title defence—Everton head into the game in a confident mood after picking up seven points from their first four games, unbeaten since defeat to Leeds United on the opening day of the campaign.
Not since 1999 have Everton managed to beat Liverpool at Anfield, but Rooney insists it would not be a surprise to see that streak end this Saturday.
“I think obviously the new stadium has helped with [confidence] and I think the big thing is David Moyes coming back,” the former Everton striker told The Wayne Rooney Show.
“He’s come back. He knows the club. He knows the culture of the football club and then I think the signings have been really good. They look dangerous now, Everton, going forward with [Jack] Grealish and [Charly] Alcaraz, they look really dangerous going forward, Everton, and solid as well at the back.
“So yeah, I think Everton can go there and get something. They have to be at their best and defend as a unit and be hard to beat. But Moyes’s teams normally do do that. Hopefully we can get the three points. [I would] take a draw, [I would] take a draw.”
Rooney failed to win any of his seven derbies across his two spells with Everton, admitting the pressure of the game is unlike anything else he ever experienced.
“I hated it,” he confessed. “We didn’t win many, so when you do win them, you’ve got to make sure you enjoy it.
“The build-up to the game, the whole week was horrible. Being around the training ground and, as an Evertonian, getting ready and preparing for the game and all the staff around the training ground who are Evertonians. You feel sick because if you lose the game Liverpool rub it in your face.
“When I went back the second time to Everton, I had to make sure I had all the TVs turned off and there was nothing on the TVs about the game, the build-up to the game, just to try and forget about it that week. Go into the game not worrying too much about it.
“It’s a massive game, and if you win there’s no better feeling.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘Dangerous’—Wayne Rooney Offers Bold Prediction for Liverpool vs. Everton.