Marco Silva has defended his changes for Everton’s Carabao Cup exit to Southampton.
The Blues bowed out at the third round stage on Tuesday in a penalty shoot-out defeat after the tie had ended 1-1 in normal time.
Despite hinting at a largely settled line-up, Silva made seven changes as Bernard, Ademola Lookman and Kieran Dowell were all handed starts in midfield.
For some, those changes proved to be Everton’s undoing with supporters questioning why the Portuguese coach elected to alter his starting XI.
But Silva dismissed those casting doubts over his selections and explained why his decision to change as not the cause of the defeat to the South Coast side.
He said: “I don’t have doubts when I prepared the match. If I did, I wouldn’t make them.
“We played on Saturday and now on Tuesday and the Saturday again. I tried to keep some consistency when I started with three of the backline from our last game.
“Leighton Baines has played many times in this competition, that’s normal. It’s normal to change the goalkeeper in this competition.
“We kept Tom (Davies), Morgan (Schneiderlin) is a player in our starting 11. Cenk (Tosun) is a starting 11 player. The only change was behind the striker, Kieran (Dowell) and the two wingers.
“Everyone will agree with me that the wingers did well and Kieran tried. He gave good things for us, he needs more. At the end if you see we repeat the same 11 more or less for our next match.
“I understand the question at the end it will be six or seven changes but Cenk, Morgan are starting 11 players. The only changes are the three behind the striker. This is my opinion.”