2020/21 Carlo Ancelotti

[Jim Hopper]

All very true and should be called out . I know we will be a much better team next season with few more Carlo's signings but il be very disappointed if Carlo doesn't sort the home form asap and we miss out on Europe. Getting out done tactical wise by the likes of Fulham, Newcastle and Burnley is not what id expect of a Carlo team. Its a worry

We didn’t get tactically out done against Fulham. They came here pressed us all game and outfought us in every single one on one battle. You can set a team up tactically as much as you want, when your squad is depleted and your relying on the same flumps that you know just simply aren’t good enough to carry out their jobs and put in the required level of performance then you’re always onto a losing battle.

 

[Brisan123]

Actually as skillful as they are at times you can add James and my favourite Gylfi Siggy to that list as well.

You can afford to carry one slow skillful player if his bits of magic win you games
You cannot afford to have 4 or 5 in the one team like we have
You need Pace, Power Physicality as well as technique to survive in this league at a high level
We lack this all over the place
Godfrey is a perfect example of what we need all over the pitch with the exception of James in the 10 role

 

[JMT]

The players are crap and they do take a portion of the blame but why are we ignoring that we have no style of play even with crap players? I do think a good RB will change this team a lot but why is our build up just passing it to Digne and him crossing it in every game? Look at Burnley in the first half they were all over us and how many of them would you want in this team? It would be McNeil only.

The way we play will never get us into Europe, It's a bad cocktail of having bad players and Ancelotti not implementing a way of playing from the get go.

 

[Brisan123]

Well yes, but gyfli wasn't signed by Brands so don't wanna include him in that sense.

James - that's the trade of. He's got more quality in his little toe on his left foot than half of our squad put together. He doesn't have that physicality, so you have to compensate. Issue is, our recruitment before last summer just didn't have enough players to make up for it.

Gbamin could've been one, but that's just unfortunate. Doucoure is literally all we have in that area in terms of actual power and stature.

If Gbamin turns out to be the player we hoped then him and Allan /Doucoure behind James ,Richarlison and 2 good wingers and we are nearly there with a decent RB

 

[BlueToff]

All very true and should be called out . I know we will be a much better team next season with few more Carlo's signings but il be very disappointed if Carlo doesn't sort the home form asap and we miss out on Europe. Getting out done tactical wise by the likes of Fulham, Newcastle and Burnley is not what id expect of a Carlo team. Its a worry

This is the thing.
I’m chuffed at the progress we’ve made in terms of points, and it’s a lot easier to formulate a winning team/playing style (that doesn’t mean being tied to one way of playing, btw) while you’re simultaneously picking up points without playing brilliantly

the issue is, there’s genuinely been no sign of a model at all. It’s become all about grinding out results, and that’s basing everything on very fine margins, which means that opposition teams know that if they can get the pendulum to swing in their favour for a part of the match, they’ll pretty much have it won

that’s my disappointment, and getting 0 points from games we should be, at the very least, not losing, is massively frustrating when you consider who we’ve beaten this year

It does balance itself out in terms of the points return, but we should have more - there’s no excuse

 

[GrandOldTeam]

If Gbamin turns out to be the player we hoped then him and Allan /Doucoure behind James ,Richarlison and 2 good wingers and we are nearly there with a decent RB

I think him returning to football at any level would be a success.

I don't think it's wise for us to expect him to come in, and improve a midfield aiming for top 6.

 

[Brisan123]

Totally agree, if we had a midfield of three Doucoure type athletes we would probably be a much better team. Gbamin was unfortunate. But Gomes, Bernard, Iwobi, Delph, et al are all too slow and not physical enough for this league. That should be the number one priority this summer pace and physicality. We have progressed despite the terrible home form there are reasons for that including no home crowd, injuries, set up. But if we want to be in Europe every season we need a much better squad. It's no coincidence we lose two key players and we are awful at home.

This
Reece James and C.H.O destroyed us when we played Chelsea last week

 

[BlueToff]

I blame them 99.9%.

The manager has shown he can give them belief to beat tough opponents and the manager has shown he can make us organised and tough to score against. The players clearly believe in the manager too. Unfortunately the manager cannot make them win their individual battles or be prepared to outrun opponents when the going gets tough. Our players don't want to go through adversity enough, and are happy to try and coast through matches. That doesn't work in this league.

But mate, it’s the same players that have ground out results in big games too

we can’t keep having It both ways with them

I know the majority aren’t good enough, but Carlo takes some of the blame too. And like when we do well, they share the credit

 

[Saint Domingo]

Again that’s because bar the Liverpool game we haven’t had all our best players available for the same game.

We are pretty much back to where we were last season only worse because we don’t even have a right side anymore.

That’s the problem, it’s basically the same team as last season now with a half fit Allan in midfield and Godfrey at the back instead of Mina. We’ve also lost Walcott and Kean from that equation (admittedly our fault).

I’m just fed up of this group of players. Every time we buy some new ones they just get injured and we fall back to the same wasters who have failed us over and over again.

In the summer id like to see a right back come in and two strong quick central midfielders. That combined with Docuoure and Gbamin coming back should be enough so that we don’t ever have to see Davies Gomes Siggurdson Coleman in combination.

I don’t think there’s much wrong with the rest of the team. The two up front are very good (although there’s no cover for them) and the lads at the back have shown they can defend well. The midfield has blighted us for about 5 years though since McCarthy got injured in 14/15. We just can’t put out a team with three quick midfielders in there. I think we did in the Koeman Goodison derby we had Gueye McCarthy and Barkley up against their team that was outrunning everyone at the time and for the first half we more than matched them and probably edged them. Then McCarthy got injured, Barry came on for the second half and we didn’t see the ball again. One slow player thrown into the mix meant we couldn’t press all over and we therefore had to sit deeper and deeper to stop the gaps from opening up. We eventually conceded of course right at the end.

This is the problem we have now except we don’t even have a starting three who can press. We have two Docuoure and Allan, and they can barely get on the pitch together. We need a clutch of 5 or 6 midfielders of that level and then we can go into all these sorts of games not worrying that one injury or one suspension will destroy our entire team. Davies Siggurdson Gomes are not premier league quality midfielders though.

 

[ToffeeTim]

But mate, it’s the same players that have ground out results in big games too

we can’t keep having It both ways with them

I know the majority aren’t good enough, but Carlo takes some of the blame too. And like when we do well, they share the credit

Most of our good results have came in matches where we did not have to make the running. Our bad results have came from a lack of desire and effort to go and force the issue. It's all a mentality issue and comes back to a lack of effort and desire. Good teams do not let the last 20 minutes play out like that when they are a goal down at home.

 

[Brisan123]

Any season where we don't win anything or get into Europe is a failure. This club needs to get real and stop treating mediocrity as success.

If we dont get Europe this year it will be a real disappointment because it was a huge chance and next year will be far harder to compete. It won't be the management's fault though. The fault will lie solely at the feet of the players because they pick and choose when to show up. They don't want to succeed anywhere near enough. They wouldn't perform like this so regularly if they did.

I'm already looking forward to the summer clear out. It better be good.

Who will buy our dross
Nobody is paying money for Iwobi ,Gomes maybe if he goes back to Portugal
There again Portuguese clubs are broke
We have too many bad/average players who nobody else will sign

 

[BlueToff]

We’ve scored plenty of goals in the second half in away games. How do you think he sets us up any differently at home? I don’t see it. I honestly can’t say at home expect for one game that the teams he’s put out have not been good enough to beat the opposition. I can’t see how he’s tactically prevented us from getting points against those sides?

What I have seen is a depleted squad with bang average players who aren’t willing to or don’t have the ability to quickly close down, make the right runs or play with a bit more urgency and directness. That’s not on the manager. Especially when you’ve got him coming out telling us that the spirit just wasn’t there and that the opposition just wanted it more than us which is completely evident on what we watch.

but it’s not my away form that concerns me, it’s more the way we attack in general in all of those games - home or away. We don’t create - we don’t have a structure in place to create - unless we rely on individual moments from players like Digne, Gylfi and James (one of whom can’t stay fit, one of whom is wildly inconsistent in terms of his general performances and one of whom is a left-back who hardly ever has anyone to link up with)

I’ve said, it’s not even about the set up. Sometimes it is - like fulham, and the first 30 mins the other day. They were the wrong systems to use. Surely you can see that playing 5? Slow central mids against a physical Fulham side was wrong, or that playing a narrow diamond with no width from the full-backs and no movement in midfield wasn’t going to beat Burnley.

As soon as an opposition score the first goal, it feels like it’s game gone in terms of even a point when we’re at home.

I am happy to blame the players, but Carlo takes responsibility too, just like when we won at Anfield, and his tactics were spot on, and the players played brilliantly and they all get credit.

it doesn’t have to be so black and white

 

[Jim Hopper]

but it’s not my away form that concerns me, it’s more the way we attack in general in all of those games - home or away. We don’t create - we don’t have a structure in place to create - unless we rely on individual moments from players like Digne, Gylfi and James (one of whom can’t stay fit, one of whom is wildly inconsistent in terms of his general performances and one of whom is a left-back who hardly ever has anyone to link up with)

I’ve said, it’s not even about the set up. Sometimes it is - like fulham, and the first 30 mins the other day. They were the wrong systems to use. Surely you can see that playing 5? Slow central mids against a physical Fulham side was wrong, or that playing a narrow diamond with no width from the full-backs and no movement in midfield wasn’t going to beat Burnley.

Look at his options mate and look at the calibre of players we have and the skills they offer us. There’s your answer.

 

[GrandOldTeam]

We've become so used to blaming the manager, but this isn't Marco Silva. He's not without criticism, but his credentials should afford him less cry arsing.

"One of the most successful managers in world football, having won 20 trophies including league titles in four different countries and the Champions League three times – and he’s Everton’s manager. Genuine Nil Satis Nisi Optimum"

I think;

1. Vs the quality in this team, we're exceeding expectations.
2. We can get better, and we will.
3. Let's have some patience.

 

[BlueToff]

Most of our good results have came in matches where we did not have to make the running. Our bad results have came from a lack of desire and effort to go and force the issue. It's all a mentality issue and comes back to a lack of effort and desire. Good teams do not let the last 20 minutes play out like that when they are a goal down at home.

I am happy to accept that, but it’s still on the manager to get that out of the team.

I don’t see why it has to be one fault or the other?
I’ll take Burnley as the example

1. the system was wrong, it’s crap, and needs flying full-backs and a physical midfield. We had neither
2. To beat Burnley, you need to stretch their sluggish defence, that means runs in behind, getting it forward quickly. Not playing a cramped system. You need width and pace
3. Davies has done well as a 6, but we know he’s next to hopeless playing anywhere else. We want Allan in there, and Allan wants to press. Surely, play them in the positions they are naturally better at?
4. Of the outfield players that started the game, how many would you say actually NEED to go? We’ve got a centre-back playing full-back and he’s useless going forward but defensively he’s been by and large sound, are you wanting rid of Holgate? We’ve seen a huge improvement in Davies but yes, he’s probably not first XI of all are fit. But he’s gonna be here as a squad player. Out of the 10 outfield players, I’d say there’s two that NEED replacing - Iwobi and Gomes. The rest are either new, or have been our better performers this season. So surely, you can’t just say that the players are crap and it’s all on them when there’s no chance that we’d be happy or at least 6/7 of those outfield players left