Listen to the full chat via the Off The Ball Football Show podcast.
"I love the derby games. They're hard to watch. This is a big game for a local!"
Former Liverpool defender Phil Thompson was on Off The Ball tonight to look ahead to Saturday's first Merseyside derby of the season.
"Everton have done very well this season even though Roberto Martinez got a lot of criticism at first. He's done very, very well and there's been a couple of astute signings right on deadline day," said Thommo.
"Moyes didn't do well in this fixture and hopefully Martinez doesn't either for my sake! I think he realizes the importance of this fixture. He seems to have got the buzz. For Liverpool, there's no Jamie Carragher so there's even more of an emphasis on Steven Gerrard's shoulders to make sure the rest of the lads know the importance of this fixture. Ice in the brain, fire in the belly. That's what you need!"
He also expects Luis Suarez to start at "full pelt" even though he was playing for Uruguay in Montevideo on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, one of the major developments on Merseyside this week is Liverpool's decision to sack Academy Director Frank McParland and Academy Technical Director Rodolfo Borrell who previously worked at Barcelona when Lionel Messi was coming through.
"The Academy has grown a lot and they have invested in a lot of young lads. It's not just local lads. Lots of foreign lads have been coming in. Some have come in, not made the grade and left under the radar," said Thompson before continuing:
"I suppose one of the big things is that not enough local lads have even had a chance to come through anymore. People are looking at that. But I can't see why that's being leveled at Frank or Rodolfo. I know both very well, they're good friends of mine and are conscientious about what they do."
But he does feel that very few academy products have established themselves in the first team.
"There's been massive finance thrown at the Academy system but what return has come from it? Suso, Jordan Ibe and Raheem Sterling came in last season, but none of the them have nailed down a position. There's even talk of Raheem going on loan and Suso is already on loan.
