Everton Faces Stuttgart in German Tour Friendly

At the MHPArena on the banks of the Neckar, Everton’s second game of their German tour arrives with a curious mix of spectacle and scrutiny.

The home side, VfB Stuttgart, have turned a pre-season friendly into a full production. Forty-five minutes before kick-off, the lights, music and pyrotechnics are already working overtime. Every member of the Stuttgart squad is introduced in full wrestling or boxing style, complete with their own song and fireworks. It all begins, naturally, with Fritzle – the club’s alligator mascot – paraded as if he were the star striker.

He even poses with a robot. Of course he does.

While the Bundesliga club leans into the theatre, Everton’s entrance is starkly different. As the Stuttgart MC continues his on-pitch interviews and hype work, the visiting players jog out to warm up with almost no fanfare at all. No fireworks, no booming soundtrack, just a few pockets of travelling Blues and the steady hum of a stadium still filling under the southern German sun.

The contrast is striking. The noise is all for Stuttgart, but the intrigue belongs to Everton’s team sheet.

Branthwaite–O’Brien: the partnership people wanted to see

The headline from the Everton XI is at the back. Jarrad Branthwaite and Jake O’Brien are paired together in central defence, a combination many around the club have been keen to see in action. Branthwaite starts on back-to-back weekends, a clear sign of his fitness building nicely, while O’Brien is finally stationed in his natural role at centre-back.

That clarity in the middle of the defence comes at a price out wide. With no new right-back signed since the Hamburg win, someone has to plug the gap again. Today it is Merlin Röhl who is asked to do the job, the latest “square peg in a round hole” solution on that flank.

It underlines the one glaring hole in Everton’s summer business. Christian Nørgaard has arrived since the Hamburg game to bolster options, but the right-back vacancy remains so obvious that even Prime Minister Andy Burnham has publicly weighed in on it.

Midfield questions and a chance for Dibling

The shape in midfield carries its own intrigue. With Iroegbunam, Armstrong and Hackney all named, the set-up looks more like a 4-3-3 than a 4-2-3-1. That tweak matters. It hints at a more compact, hard-running central trio, and offers another look at how Hackney’s fitness is progressing after his recent return.

There is encouragement too in the inclusion of Dibling from the start. This feels like a useful week for him – a chance to find rhythm, to turn flashes of promise into something more sustained before the competitive fixtures close in.

Up front, the job share continues. Beto and Thierno Barry again look set to alternate as the focal point of the attack, a rolling audition for who will lead the line when the real stuff begins.

Stuttgart’s show, Everton’s test

For Stuttgart, there is one notable absentee. Bilal El-Khannouss, fresh from his exploits with Morocco at the World Cup and recently given a hero’s welcome, is not in the squad. His absence strips a little stardust from the home side’s line-up, but the atmosphere hardly suffers. The stadium show rolls on, the MC still working the crowd as the clock ticks towards kick-off.

Inside the Everton dressing room, the scene is quieter but no less significant. This is only a pre-season friendly, yet it carries important markers: Branthwaite’s minutes, O’Brien’s partnership with him, the makeshift right-back solution, Dibling’s form, the evolving midfield balance.

Back in Liverpool, Goodison Park stirs into life for its own afternoon of football. While Everton are in Germany, Preston North End face Huddersfield Town in the Carabao Cup at 3pm, with senior men’s football returning to the “Grand Old Lady” for the first time since the Blues’ 2-0 win over Southampton on May 18 last year. Deepdale’s new pitch is still being bedded in, so Goodison steps back into the spotlight.

Here in Stuttgart, though, the focus is sharp. The MHPArena, a striking blend of old and new, bakes in the heat as supporters stream through the turnstiles. The Everton squad is already in the building, the warm-up looming, the noise rising.

The theatre belongs to Stuttgart. The questions belong to Everton. How many of today’s experiments will still be in place when the season starts?