2019/20 Carlo Ancelotti

[toffeeblue9]

The issues are completely with horrendous recruitment.

Unless that is addressed, the same demons will continue to haunt us.

It's not on Carlo, but a statement win, under difficult circumstances, would have been really nice.

I thought two things after the game;

1) I actually had genuine sympathy for Marco Silva. A relatively novice manager having to deal with a squad this limited.

2) Two years of transfers under Marcel Brands. The results? The weakest midfield I've seen in almost 40 years in supporting Everton and a team by and large that continues to look afraid of its own shadow against opponents like Spurs.

Brands will continue, but if we have anything like the summer this year we had last then Ancelotti is also finished before he started. Brands will slay a lot of managers here if he can't buck up his ideas considerably.

Fair points, but I think the Brands thing is a tiny bit unfair - it isn't reasonable to expect every signing to be a good one. You'll always get players who don't come good, for whatever reason.

It probably belongs in the Brands thread, but if you look at his signings, there aren't many you'd label a "total" flop

Sidibe on loan - Meh, some good some very bad, but a loan makes it a pass
Zouma on loan - Worked out well at the time
Lossl - Was only ever going to be a back up keeper, hard to judge
Digne - sound
Mina - Decent
Gomes - Very inconsistent, but capable of being class
Gbamin - Hard to say anything other than we've been incredibly unlucky with his injuries
Delph - Low fee and it hasn't really worked out so far, but if he could get himself fit he walks into this midfield as things stand
Bernard - Even though he was a free, I think this is his worst signing so far given his high wages
Iwobi - Young enough to improve, but you'd have to say the signs aren't great
Kean - Very raw but there is definitely talent there which needs to be nurtured

Also worth remembering that Brands signed all of these players with Silva's system in mind. There's a few there I'd happily move on, but at the same time there's still hope for a number of them IMO

 

[KaiserEFC]

I’d probably stop the 442 thing. Our midfielders are crap but with 3 of them at least we’re not being overrun every single game.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

Anyone remember when Moyes put Neville and Jagielka into centre mid and played 442 because Cahill and Arteta were injured? Start of the 2007/2008 season. As you'd expect there was no control or quality in midfield.

Its like that currently, but we apparently we have top level midfielders available. Actually feel sorry for Carlo.

 

[Paulie]

Feel for Ancelotti trying to get a tune out of that midfield. It's like a bag of scrabble with all of the vowels being taken out, no combination will work.

For now I'd go with Gordon on the left, Gomes, Adeniran, Beni and Richarlison on the right with DCL and Kean sharing the forward role. Beni and Adeniran can sit. I haven't seen Adeniran much by the way, I'm going off the assumption that Davies and Gylfi are poor and he can't be much worse.

 

[marcus]

Ancelotti now must face the biggest test of his management career...

Last nights dismal display was confirmation as if we didn't know, that we are not very good our midfield & forward play must be one of the weakest in the premiership...

He must make changes & new signings must be of good quality we have made too many bad ones of late....

 

[Jim Hopper]

Ancelotti now must face the biggest test of his management career...

Last nights dismal display was confirmation as if we didn't know, that we are not very good our midfield & forward play must be one of the weakest in the premiership...

He must make changes & new signings must be of good quality we have made too many bad ones of late....

Having to chose between Tom Davies and Gylfi Sigurdsson is probably the toughest challenge he’s faced as a football manager, imagine the horrors of that? I feel for him massively.

 

[marcus]

Having to chose between Tom Davies and Gylfi Sigurdsson is probably the toughest challenge he’s faced as a football manager, imagine the horrors of that? I feel for him massively.

No comparison, a young Tom Davies over an ageing & sluggish player is a relatively easy decision to make...

However other decisions to make...

Delph crock...
Sigurdsson slow & uphill for him now...
Iwobi.....injury prone....
Walcott... Injury prone....
Gbamin.....always been injured.....

 

[Jim Hopper]

No comparison, a young Tom Davies over an ageing & sluggish player is a relatively easy decision to make...

However other decisions to make...

Delph crock...
Sigurdsson slow & uphill for him now...
Iwobi.....injury prone....
Walcott... Injury prone....
Gbamin.....always been injured.....

“A young Tom Davies“, literally the only way to describe him because he has no outstanding abilities as a Premier League footballer.

 

[Furey1878]

He's got the back 4 and the players up top doing their jobs.

I would criticize him for not moving to 3 in midfield but all our midfielders are terrible.

The sooner he get's his hand on a good CM and wideman to work with the better.

 

[GwladysBlue]

“A young Tom Davies“, literally the only way to describe him because he has no outstanding abilities as a Premier League footballer.

All Tom Davies talks about is wanting to ‘learn the game’.

He’s 22 with 100 Premier League appearances, ffs.

He talks like a 16 year old kid.

 

[Hickson9]

Ancelotti now must face the biggest test of his management career...

Last nights dismal display was confirmation as if we didn't know, that we are not very good our midfield & forward play must be one of the weakest in the premiership...

He must make changes & new signings must be of good quality we have made too many bad ones of late....

The evidence shows that we aren't bad at threatening the opposition's goal, despite our poor season.

We are 6th for shots on goal, 7th for shots on target, 9th for shots inside the box and 10th for goals scored.

The issue this season has been also our ability to retain the ball and control matches, which can translate to poor forward play in certain matches when going more direct or crossing from wide isn't working.

This is why central midfield is so key in the transfer window.

 

[billyblue80]

I’d probably stop the 442 thing. Our midfielders are crap but with 3 of them at least we’re not being overrun every single game.

But we started with a 433 last night. Truth is none of them are good enough that's the issue.

 

[KaiserEFC]

But we started with a 433 last night. Truth is none of them are good enough that's the issue.

It was a poorly set up 433 though. We do need yet another total overhaul though I admit

 

[kenada_blue]

If we Neville sees it and we all know then he certainly does but it’s a big job , the lack of application and ability yesterday was shocking , well it would be if we didn’t all expect as much

Carlo said it in his post match interview. Basically second balls, tackling etc we didn't do. We were organised to still be in the game enough (as spurs were equally as poor). It was that next step. And certain players didn't do it.

 

[kenada_blue]

The evidence shows that we aren't bad at threatening the opposition's goal, despite our poor season.

We are 6th for shots on goal, 7th for shots on target, 9th for shots inside the box and 10th for goals scored.

The issue this season has been also our ability to retain the ball and control matches, which can translate to poor forward play in certain matches when going more direct or crossing from wide isn't working.

This is why central midfield is so key in the transfer window.

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