Greg O'Keeffe has claimed on the All Together Now podcast that Everton's first team will have likely played behind closed doors against the club's Under-23s.
With games cancelled at very short notice last weekend, players are perhaps in need of match sharpness, and may provide those on the comeback trail an extended chance to recover.
On the other hand, however, Frank Lampard may see it as a missed opportunity given the Toffees were on a high having gone five games unbeaten across all competitions and taken a point from city rivals Liverpool at Goodison Park, so the boss may well have wanted the games to have come as quickly as possible.
And amid the postponements in the Premier League, O'Keeffe doubts that they would have had no match practice given their clash against Arsenal was called off.
He said: "There's clearly a big difference between match fitness [and just being fit]. It wouldn't have surprised me if this weekend at Finch Farm, the first team played the Under-23s."
TIF Thoughts on Everton's work behind the scenes.
It would be a smart idea for Lampard to have arranged an intra-squad friendly for his players, because as things stand, there are no guarantees that this weekend's games will take place and then it's an international break which would mean his players would go almost a month without any match action.
While a friendly game against the under-23s would hardly be able to replicate the standard of a top-flight game or increase player's performances, it would at least keep fitness levels ticking over and as O'Keeffe spoke about, it could be some injured players such as Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
The England international is yet to kick a ball this season with the Blues, so perhaps having this extended period of no football taking place could well be the best thing to happen as he has can recover without the pressure of first-team games going on around him and without his presence being needed desperately within the side.
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