Everton face Sunderland today in their final game of the season at Hill Dickinson Stadium – and Regis Le Bris has given his verdict.
It has been an up and down campaign for Everton at their new home, which was perhaps to be expected.
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Everton started well, but then had a tricky period at the start of the calendar year.
So far, the Toffees’ record reads six wins, five draws and seven losses in the Premier League, for a haul of 23 points.
Today provides a great chance to finish with 26, but Sunderland will not make it easy as they push for a top 10 finish and try to leapfrog Everton in the table.
Ahead of the game, Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris spoke about Everton and their new ground.
Regis Le Bris sure Everton have found ‘a good solution’ with Hill Dickinson Stadium
The Hill Dickinson Stadium is a magnificent feat of engineering, but the Toffees are still finding their feet there.
There have been some great results – with the win against Chelsea perhaps the standout. The atmosphere was particularly electric that day.
Everton came just seconds away from beating Manchester City as well.
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Certainly, as the season has gone on, the atmosphere has got better and better – and Le Bris acknowledged that, and the challenge of keeping an identity when moving grounds, ahead of the game.
He said in his pre-match press conference: “They are a good team. Intense, direct, good in transition, well organised, with strong experience in the Premier League.
“The atmosphere is really good at the stadium. So we are looking forward to the game because it’s going to be a big game once again. And I think it’s really positive to conclude this season with a new challenge at that level.
“It’s a good stadium. New stadium, but still with this atmosphere and it’s not always easy to keep the identity of the club with a new stadium. And I think they found a good solution here.”
Everton must improve Hill Dickinson form next season
Le Bris will manage at Hill Dickinson for the second time today, having felt its power when he took his side there in January for the FA Cup clash.
Sunderland won via penalties that day, but hopefully we’ll see the atmosphere carry Everton to a great performance and victory this time around.
It’s been a mixed first season at HDS, so next term it will be about finding that consistency.
The players will hopefully feel more comfortable there next term, and the objective needs to be to turn it into a fortress
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