True, but Carlo needs to be open minded about his squad. PL teams are quick to work out other teams so we need options and formations which keeps the other teams thinking.
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I think bernard will be off in January.
Always difficult to predict Carlo’s plans, but if he’s planning to rest DCL moving Richarlison up front and Gordon on the wing with Iwobi could be there .... but then there’s James to come back. But young Anthony is a very good bench option , capable of running at a tiring defence and willing to do the back tracking required defensively.
mightymoyes
Player Valuation: £70m
with the new larger numbers allowed to be named as subs i expect him on the bench at least, the rest of the season.
Paul Rideout
Player Valuation: £40m
He came on and imo became our natural outlet to relieve pressure (aside from limping it up the pitch which, for the record, I was also all for at the time).
I genuinely cannot see how he’s not one of the first subs Carlo writes down.
I genuinely cannot see how he’s not one of the first subs Carlo writes down.
Ring master
Player Valuation: £90m
That is what i am expecting if and when it happens with more games so quick,but like you say Carlo loves to surprise people with something unexpected
Saint Domingo
Player Valuation: £90m
19 year old lad spends a few games out of the squad after breakthrough into first team. What an absolute shocking disgrace this is.
My take on Carlo‘s surprises is to watch the training clips that are released , study the positions the players are in and Carlo’s team will be the opposite! He doesn’t let clips be released if they show his plans, good example was Nkounkou/ Small covering left back in last week training, Godfrey playing in the middle in the clips released.
....I suspect he’ll play a significant part in the remainder of the season.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
What makes you think that eggs?
Saint Domingo
Player Valuation: £90m
Me too. He’ll be needed over the festive period no doubt and in this season injuries are always going to play a part.
I don’t understand the reaction to his handling though. Too often in the past we’ve played young lads who have shone brightly at first but then regressed in form massively but not only have we had to keep playing them but they’ve actually had to carry huge responsibility in the team.
Barkley in 14/15 basically tasked with the entire team’s creativity, similarly Stones becoming the leader of the defence. As soon as bad form hit there was nowhere to turn to apart from two 20 year olds with one season of senior football under their belt. Fast forward to Davies DCL and Holgate coming into the team, by the 17/18 season they were pretty much the spine of a team now battling relegation even though they were only 19 and 20 year olds.
Im not saying these players weren’t good players or didn’t deserve to play, but senior experienced internationals who let the whole team down were let off the hook and given a free pass whilst our youngsters were in the pressure cooker of having to get results for Everton even when they weren’t in form themselves.
Ancelotti seems to be challenging these senior players now. He’s not given Iwobi a free pass, or Bernard, he’s looked at it and gone ‘that 19 year old lad isn’t looking too sharp in training, time for other players to finally step up whilst he gets back to some form away from the limelight’.
That’s a far far better position to be in than the position we’ve been in over the last few seasons. Gordon could have played against Newcastle and Southampton and might have looked utterly abysmal and then the fans are on top of him and his confidence is shot. Sometimes the manager just has to be trusted.
Re your “ don’t understand the reaction to his handling” I think with any group of fans you get outliers who seem to actively dislike us playing young players, outliers who think every young player should play for the first team sooner rather than later, and a group of sensible fans who take a balanced approach. The last group I think contain the silent majority , the first two groups are more likely to contain opinionated people who post regularly. So i think theres often an imbalance in the post we see , particularly if a player is not getting game time and we’re watching a poor team performance, older players underperforming, etc., people get frustrated and unrealistic in their expectations. Fans eh.
I’ve followed Gordon from his stick thin schoolboy days playing for the u18s, I think he’s developing fine , he’s not the eye catching talent of say a Sancho, but he’s being developed into an attacking player who will work hard, track back etc. Though I’m likely to have a moan if he doesn’t get more game time this year. Fortunately Thierry Small is coming along to take over the “ he should be starting in the first team “ mantle for the unrealistic brigade. Fans eh !
Lloydystark
Player Valuation: £35m
Best off going back in the under 23 squad might actually get some decent game time there
Osamabindiesel
Player Valuation: £60m
I hope we loan him. He needs to be playing
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