Toffees will kick back at Deeney

MARCO SILVA claims Everton are fired up by Troy Deeney’s vow to “kick the s*** out of them” ahead of his controversial return to Watford today.

Silva revealed his players noted Deeney’s comments made at a fans’ forum in midweek without any prompting from him.

The Everton boss says Deeney has helped their game plan ahead of his first return to Vicarage Road since Watford sacked him and accused Everton of tapping him up.

“I know some of the players already saw it,” said Silva. “They’re aware of it. Let’s see what we lose or not from the situation.

“You can use many things and each club can have their own strategy. Watford chose this strategy during the week. We have ours, let’s see on the pitch what will be the best strategy. When they saw something like that, it’s not good to listen to. I know the players talked.”

Silva feels Deeney was playing to Watford’s fans and says he has a good relationship with his ex-striker. He said: “You have to

WATFORD EVERTON

Vunderstand, even if it’s not normal, where he said it. He’s there with the fans and it’s what they want to hear.”

Watford boss Javi Gracia, meanwhile, will bear no grudges against Richarlison when Everton’s £45million winger also returns.

The Brazilian, who followed Silva to Everton last summer, failed to score in 15 Hornets outings under Gracia. But Gracia saw the funny side when Richarlison opened the scoring in the 2-2 draw at Goodison Park in December, joking with him afterwards: “Nice to see you found the net again.”

And where Silva can expect a hostile reception from Watford fans, who believe he was fluttering his eyelids at Everton long before he was sacked in January last year, there should be no ill-feeling towards Richarlison.

Gracia said: “I’ve the same point of view as last season – he is a very good player and a very good person as well.” SLIP-UP: West Ham equalise Liverpool dropped two points for the second successive game.

He claimed Friend favoured the Hammers after the break because he realised Sadio Mane’s opener should have been ruled out for offside in the build-up.

It led to accusations Klopp has lost his nerve but he said: “I did not see what people say they could see in our faces. When I talked to the referee after the game they said, ‘Now he is nervous’. I cannot change it but I am not nervous.”

But there is concern among Liverpool fans. The tension was clear at Anfield during the 1-1 draw with Leicester last week.

Klopp has urged his side to fight back and stop talk that they are about to blow their hopes of ending a 29-year wait for a title.

He said: “We are very critical. To the outside world, we can never use any real explanations, because it’s always used as being an excuse.

“But internally, we have to talk about why these last two games were a bit more difficult. We still could have performed better,