Everton’s Sørensen “buzzing and really looking forward” to season opener against Liverpool | OneFootball

Brian Sørensen was in high spirits in his press conference ahead of a trip to Anfield for the Merseyside Derby, revealing that he is “buzzing” ahead of the Barclays Women’s Super League season opener and “really looking forward to it”.

The Dane has every right to be too, after finishing the second half of the 2024/25 season on a high, and now he’s looking to take that momentum into the new season. Partnered with a successful transfer window, that will have the Toffees with high hopes going into the new campaign, as they look to build on two successive 8th-placed finishes in the league.

Everton are unbeaten in their last three meetings with Liverpool, winning two of those games, but Sørensen admitted that despite previous victories over their neighbours, the game on Sunday is a new game and it may be an unpredictable affair against a new-look Liverpool side under Gareth Taylor.

“It will always give you confidence but it’s water under the bridge, it’s history. Sunday is a new game, we have quite a new team, they have a new manager. I think they are doing some business last minute, so we don’t know maybe exactly what to expect. It’s a one-off and it’s a derby, so I think form goes a bit out of the window.”

Sørensen was asked about his summer window transfer activity, with Everton not being shy to bring new players in. After a successful takeover from the Friedkin Group at the start of the year, the 45-year-old has been backed in the transfer window and it’s made for a positive feeling around the group, after a difficult few years at the club in terms of transfers.

“It’s been the most busiest summer for sure. When I came in three years ago it was also a big turnover, 11 players out, 10 in something like that. It was needed that time, when in the last three years we haven’t been able to invest like that, that’s the honest truth. We have been scrambling by with what we could do, selling our sellable assets off to make sure we stayed alive, we stayed afloat. This season, we were excited in January when the new ownership came in to put in a plan in place, of how we could build the team from here.”

He went on to confirm: “I’m very happy with the window, I’m very happy with the backing that we have had. We’ve not spent a crazy amount of money like you see around in the league, we’re not that level, because we are spending on a new stadium.”

Sørensen gave an injury update on his squad. He started with new summer recruit, Ruby Mace, who signed this week from Leicester City. “She’s been training with us the last two days and looking good,” he revealed, “so she is definitely in contention. It’s a bit nicer to coach now and I actually have a headache in team selections because of the quality we have in our team. Hikaru Kitagawa came in with a hamstring injury and is working her way back, so she won’t be ready for this game. She’s back on the pitch which is positive.”

The Dane added that “Elise [Stenevik] is touch and go with a problem with her foot”

Inma Gabarro made the move to Everton last summer, but Sørensen admitted that she has struggled since coming in, moving away from Spain, so a loan move for the 22-year-old to Seville could be on the cards.

“Inma Gabarro, who has had such a great comeback after ACL, physically been looking outstanding, also here in pre-season, but I think it was a hard year for Inma moving away from Spain for the first time in all her career and all her youth in Sevilla and so on. I think she has been struggling here lately in terms of just getting over the injury, and mentally maybe not in the best place that she could be, so we are actually looking into if we could loan her back to Sevilla just for a season, so we can extent her contract, so we are working on that.”

Everton face Liverpool on Sunday at 12pm BST, as Sørensen looks to claim three points and get the season off to a flyer, but more importantly earning the bragging rights in the derby.