summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
Carlo Ancelotti has a plan for ending Everton's 24-year trophy drought: beat Liverpool, win FA Cup
Carlo Ancelotti has immediately set his sights on ending Everton’s 24 year wait for silverware by winning the FA Cup - and dealing another defeat to Liverpool.
www.telegraph.co.uk
Carlo Ancelotti has a plan for ending Everton's 24-year trophy drought: beat Liverpool, win FA Cup.
Carlo Ancelotti has immediately set his sights on ending Everton’s 24 year wait for silverware by winning the FA Cup - and dealing another defeat to Liverpool.
Ancelotti, who was formally unveiled as Everton’s new manager on Monday, is the only person to inflict defeat on Jurgen Klopp this season after beating Liverpool 2-0 with Napoli in the Champions League in September.
The Italian has won seven of his 12 games against Liverpool and wants to claim an eighth victory in the FA Cup third round on January 5th when the Merseyside rivals meet at Anfield in a game Ancelotti hopes will kickstart a triumphant run to Wembley.
Ancelotti hopes to turn Everton into a top-four club in time but believes a first trophy since the 1995 FA Cup could be a catalyst.
He hopes his impressive personal record against Liverpool - whom he defeated in the 2007 Champions League final with AC Milan two years after a dramatic penalty shoot-out defeat in Istanbul - continues next month.
Carlo Ancelotti, then head coach of Napoli, versus Liverpool in September Credit: Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
“For a top club, victory is to win trophies, to win the league,” Ancelotti said. “For other clubs, the victory ... for example, the goal for Everton in this period is to try to be as close as possible to the top of the table in this period. This can be a victory. We can also fight for the FA Cup. Why not? We don’t have an easy game, but against Liverpool, the Evertonians know my score against Liverpool. I think they will be happy for this. We [Napoli] beat Liverpool this season. They are a big rival but this is a good motivation for us. They are not used to losing.
“It was a good day for me [with Napoli] and I know how Everton supporters are when they beat Liverpool. We don’t have to wait long. We have the game on 5th January. Nothing is impossible.”
Ancelotti, who plans to live in Liverpool, spent part of Sunday walking around the city being greeted by both Everton and Liverpool fans. Asked what the reaction was from Liverpool supporters, Ancelotti joked: “They are afraid. They are worried to see me because I beat them a lot of times!
“I am going to live in the city, of course. I don’t know the people really well [yet] but most of them are generous, really kind with me. Yesterday I was walking in the city, everyone was kind, a lot of pictures. Liverpool is a football city. You can smell there is football everywhere here.”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with whom Ancelotti worked at Paris St-Germain, is believed to be open to a reunion with the Italian at Everton after 18 months playing for Los Angeles Galaxy in the US. But Ancelotti played down the prospect of teaming up with the 38-year-old Swede .
"Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a good friend of mine,” he said. “Fortunately I have trained a lot of good players. He has finished his career in the USA and I don’t know what his idea is. I have to call him. If he wants to come to Liverpool to enjoy, he can come. But not to play.”
Ancelotti said he had sought no assurances about the size of transfer budget he will have in next month’s transfer window beyond being satisfied that the club “wants to be competitive in the Premier League” and that his priority was to unlock the squad’s potential.
Ancelotti said he met with Duncan Ferguson - who had been in interim charge since Marco Silva’s sacking at the start of the month - and was pleased to include the Scot on his backroom staff.
“I am used to working with an assistant from the club,” he said. “I had [Claude] Makelele at PSG, [Zinedine] Zidane at Real Madrid, [Willy] Sagnol at Bayern Munich. He [Ferguson] knows really well the characteristics of the players, the atmosphere at the training ground.”