After resuming their Premier League season with an away win against Fulham on Sunday, Everton are back at Goodison Park and will be defending their turf against Leeds at the weekend.

 

The showdown on Merseyside will pit two vastly experienced managers in Carlo Ancelotti and Marcelo Bielsa against each other, with both tacticians keen on continuing leading their teams back to top form after a poor run of results prior to November’s international break.

 

 

Ball is of the view that Leeds’ ability to play on the counter-attack is the biggest threat that the Yorkshire giants bring to the table and urged Ancelotti to come up with a solution to nullify his team being caught on the break by the visitors.

 

The ex-Toffees star feels Everton have not been at their best while defending counter-attacking scenarios, but is confident the home team can cause the Whites problems, provided Ancelotti irons out his team’s issues and sets them up to play to their strengths.

 

 

Ball wrote in his Liverpool Echo column: “We’ve got to be able to find a solution to stop them counter-attacking, which hasn’t been the best side of our game.

 

“We’ve been too nice at times and let teams break us down far too easily, so we’ve got to be very compact and make sure there are no spaces in the centre of that pitch.

 

 

“Their manager is very clever, he’s a student of the game who studies his opposition – too closely sometimes as we saw with the Derby situation!

 

“But he’s going to know where he can hurt Everton.

 

“If we play to our strengths, we can cause them problems as well. But better decisions in certain situations is what we’ve got to work on.

 

“The little moments in games make a massive difference.

 

“Leeds are pushing everyone to the limit, so we’ve got to be at the top of our game to get three points.”

 

While Everton will be looking to string together another winning run in the top flight with a strong display at the weekend after registering wins in their first four league games of the campaign, Leeds will be desperate to get back in the win column following settling for a goalless draw against Arsenal in their last outing.