Everton's Pre-Season Showdown in Stuttgart: Key Insights

At the MHP Arena, where the Neckar bends and the heat hangs heavy over southern Germany, Everton’s second pre-season outing in the country arrives with a curious mix of spectacle and hard graft.

Stuttgart have turned a friendly into a full show. Forty-five minutes before kick-off, the lights, music and pyrotechnics are already working overtime as every member of the home squad gets a wrestling-style entrance. An alligator mascot, Fritzle, leads the parade, strutting out to his own fanfare and even posing with a robot. Fireworks crack, songs blare, each player steps into the limelight.

Everton’s entrance could not be more different. While Stuttgart’s MC conducts interviews on the pitch and the home players bask in their individual welcomes, the visitors jog out almost unnoticed, slipping into their warm-up without fuss or flourish. No fireworks, no walk-on music. Just a Premier League side trying to sharpen up.

On the pitch, though, there is plenty to examine.

Branthwaite and O’Brien finally paired

The headline from the Everton XI is at the back. Jarrad Branthwaite and Jake O’Brien start together in central defence, a combination many around the club have been keen to see. Branthwaite goes again on back-to-back weekends, a useful indicator of his fitness, while O’Brien is restored to his natural role in the middle rather than being shuffled around.

That decision has a knock-on effect. With O’Brien central, someone has to plug the gap at right-back, and today that task falls to Merlin Röhl, the latest to fill the “square peg in a round hole” brief on the flank. It is an experiment born of necessity as much as curiosity, with the club still without a new specialist right-back despite Christian Nørgaard’s arrival since the Hamburg win. The situation has dragged on long enough to draw comment from outside the usual football circles, with even Prime Minister Andy Burnham weighing in on the issue.

The shape behind them is worth a second look. With Iroegbunam, Armstrong and Hackney all named in midfield, Everton appear closer to a 4-3-3 than a 4-2-3-1, a subtle shift that could matter once the serious football starts. Hackney, like Branthwaite, gets another start and more valuable minutes in his legs.

Dibling’s chance and a shared No 9 role

There is encouragement further forward too. Dom Dibling makes the XI, a selection that feels timely. This week, with games stacking up and the season edging closer, offers a real window for him to find rhythm and confidence. A strong performance here would not go unnoticed.

Up front, the job share between Beto and Thierno Barry continues. The pair have been taking turns to lead the line, a deliberate rotation that keeps both involved and both under scrutiny. It is not a settled hierarchy yet, more an ongoing audition for the right to be first choice when the Premier League returns.

Behind all of this, the scene is classic pre-season. The MHP Arena – a striking blend of old concrete and new gloss – slowly fills as the sun beats down. It is sweltering, the sort of afternoon that saps legs and tests concentration. Joe Thomas checks in from the press box, watching Everton’s players drift onto the pitch, not yet into full warm-up mode, just going through their early routines as the noise builds around them.

Two venues, one afternoon

While Everton get ready in Stuttgart, there is another thread to the day back on Merseyside. Goodison Park, dormant for men’s senior football since that 2-0 win over Southampton on May 18 last year, stirs back into life. Preston North End face Huddersfield Town there in the Carabao Cup at 3pm, with Deepdale’s new pitch still being bedded in and unavailable. The “Grand Old Lady” hosts competitive action again, even if Everton themselves are thousands of miles away.

In Germany, the dressing room shots from Stuttgart offer a glimpse of the visitors’ base for the day. Shirts hung, boots lined, everything in its place. The only real question is which players seize this particular opportunity.

No Bilal El-Khannouss for Stuttgart after his World Cup exploits with Morocco, though he has already enjoyed his hero’s welcome. The home crowd has made sure of that. Their players are being treated like stars in a title fight.

Everton, by contrast, are here to work. To test combinations. To see whether Branthwaite and O’Brien can anchor a defence. To find out if Dibling can light up an afternoon like this. To edge closer to a settled shape before the real pressure starts.

The fireworks belong to Stuttgart. The answers Everton need will have to come without them.