Story byjohn howardFri, January 9, 2026 at 5:52 PM UTC·3 min readBrian Sorensen believes his Everton Women team need to focus on themselves if they are to have a chance against Manchester City this weekend, as the Blues kick-off 2026 with a trip to Joie Stadium against the FA WSL leaders. The Toffees have a number of absentees and will be without Rion Ishikawa, who is out for the weekend with sickness, while Hikaru Kitagawa is being assessed after feeling her hamstring during training. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementElise Stenevik, Megan Finnigan and Lucy Hope are all still unavailable. The versatile Katie Robinson will also not feature in Royal Blue this weekend after the 23-year-old returned to Aston Villa following her loan spell at Goodison, in which she made 12 appearances for the Blues. Speaking in his press conference, Sorensen discussed the January transfer window and insisted that while the club will look to do business it won’t be a major turnover, with the Dane purely focused on a ‘extremely hard’ game against Andrée Jeglertz’s table-topping side“They [Manchester City] have a very good team and we have to put a performance in. We have the confidence to know that we can do it if we get it right.“But, it is going to be extremely hard. We have to be right in the defensive department.“We know how good they are.