Everton vs Queens Park Rangers preview - Toffees duo back from bans
Posted Saturday, April 13, 2013 by PA
Everton midfielders Marouane Fellaini and Steven Pienaar both return from suspension to face QPR at Goodison Park.
Manager David Moyes reported a few unnamed players had niggles but nothing too serious.
Full-back Tony Hibbert made his first competitive outing after four months out with a calf problem for the under-21s this week.
Moyes admits the impending departure of veteran Phil Neville has highlighted what a considerable rebuilding job has to be done at the club.
The Toffees captain announced this week that he intends to leave when his contract expires at the end of the season in order to prolong his playing career.
Moyes began the rebuilding process last summer by allowing experienced midfielder Tim Cahill to leave but he knows further and more significant changes are necessary in order to maintain their competitiveness.
However, with less money available to them than most of their rivals the Scot accepts it will be a difficult task, and that consideration is partly behind his decision to delay deciding on whether to extend his own contract when it runs out in June.
"I do think there is a big rebuilding job to go on at Everton," said Moyes.
"With Phil going that is a big piece of the jigsaw which will leave and if we make Europe we are going to have to find a way of bringing in five or six players because of the way your squad is affected.
"We have a few players getting near the end, we have a little bit of an ageing team
"We have not invested an awful lot over the last five or six years so we have to now be looking to see how we do that, how we get the team moving forward and get some younger players in as well as developing our own.
"That is the hard bit. We have a few players in their 30s and we have to start looking to replace them but supporters also want us to continue playing at the top of the league.
"It is a tough act for us at the moment because we are trying to get that balance of keeping up at the top end of the league and obviously having to try to change over the age group of players we have.
"It happens at all clubs. It all comes to an end and teams continue to evolve."
QPR are missing striker Bobby Zamora due to suspension.
Zamora will begin his three-game ban as a result of being sent off against Wigan last weekend.
Shaun Wright-Phillips is out after undergoing ankle surgery, but manager Harry Redknapp has otherwise declared a clean bill of health at Loftus Road.
Rangers are seven points adrift of safety with six matches remaining and Redknapp is frustrated to have seen his strike partnership with Loic Remy dismantled once again.
"Bobby's sending off was a rash decision and missing him for three games is a big loss," Redknapp said.
"It was a crazy challenge and it's cost us dearly because we lost him for most of that game and for the next three matches. He should be disappointed.
"He's not 100 per cent fit, you can see that, but he's still a good player."
No team has ever escaped relegation from QPR's position, yet Redknapp clings on to a tiny glimmer of hope.
"It wasn't easy after the Wigan game, I felt low over the weekend for sure, but you just have to get on with it. We need to go again," he said.
"There's still some life in us. If we'd picked those three points up I'd have fancied us to stay up. The momentum would have been with us.
"There are still games to go, we just have to win as many as possible. It's going to be hard, but when there's a chance you have to keep believing.
"Getting the three points is massive. We certainly need to win four games and draw one to give ourselves any sort of chance."
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