2020/21 Carlo Ancelotti

[Lanolin]

Yep, it is.

And then what makes it worse for me is that instead of just going 'right, let's play to our strengths' (like we've done in away games, by and large), we've tried to keep at it and just looked completely crap against these types of teams.

Look where our goal v S'ton came from - one long ball from Pickford, DCL winning the flick, Sigurdsson playing a quick pass.

If we need to go direct, go direct, because we're better at it. And then push up 5 yards that way. Get the ball up top and that's when you push.

We can blame players all we want but we don't press, we don't play to our strengths enough. Of course the players have to make the decision on the pitch, but what's actually been worked on in training because I genuinely don't see a sign of any attacking structure.

Yeah i've mentioned before that while DCL's conversion into a tap in merchant is brilliant in many ways, it has lost us something too. It's all very well him being in the 6 yard box to finish, but when we can't create anything it all becomes kind of pointless. There are times when the 'old' DCL, being a constant nuisance, running the channels, battling for every scrap etc, would be a lot more useful than the 'new' DCL waiting inside the width of the posts for a ball that never comes. I'm surprised we haven't reverted to that type of football at times, and instead have just continued to do things that are consistently not working.

 

[Jim Hopper]

Yep, it is.

And then what makes it worse for me is that instead of just going 'right, let's play to our strengths' (like we've done in away games, by and large), we've tried to keep at it and just looked completely crap against these types of teams.

Look where our goal v S'ton came from - one long ball from Pickford, DCL winning the flick, Sigurdsson playing a quick pass.

If we need to go direct, go direct, because we're better at it. And then push up 5 yards that way. Get the ball up top and that's when you push.

We can blame players all we want but we don't press, we don't play to our strengths enough. Of course the players have to make the decision on the pitch, but what's actually been worked on in training because I genuinely don't see a sign of any attacking structure.

How can we press with players like Gomes and Sigurdsson in the middle of the park? Which is what we’ve had to deal with mostly this season? Gomes The most dispossessed Everton player and most dribbled past player in Europe? What strengths do we have in the middle of the park? What strengths do we have currently? We’ve got a winger who’s rubbish who thinks he’s a No.10 who’s rubbish. We’ve had to use centre half’s as fullbacks most of the season. Our most creative player has been missing due to injury. Richarlison only hit form in January. Our only strengths currently are our back line and our strikers. We currently have one of the worst midfields in the league due to injury.

 

[billyblue80]

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.

Agree we need midfielder players who are consistent and are up to the demands of the league in terms of pace and physicality. Doucoure has been holding our midfield together now he is out our crippling inadequacies in there are exposed again.

 

[BlueToff]

Yeah i've mentioned before that while DCL's conversion into a tap in merchant is brilliant in many ways, it has lost us something too. It's all very well him being in the 6 yard box to finish, but when we can't create anything it all becomes kind of pointless. There are times when the 'old' DCL, being a constant nuisance, running the channels, battling for every scrap etc, would be a lot more useful than the 'new' DCL waiting inside the width of the posts for a ball that never comes. I'm surprised we haven't reverted to that type of football at times, and instead have just continued to do things that are consistently not working.

Thing is I think we have a bit mate tbf - he has certainly done that a lot more of late.

Issue is we then don't have anyone in the box, and yes thatis on the players too, to have more conviction.

But from experience, we know that when this squad is drilled to do stuff, they do it. Without our best creative players fit, and even with them fit, any 'free flowing' attacks go out of the window.

Fine, I can accept that for what it is, for now. Doesn't mean we can't have a default structure which gets player A from one position to another and the ball from one place into player A.

 

[Bluestar]

I understand all that. It doesn’t change my opinion. You cannot go out and spend a fortune on players aged 28-30 and finish 8th or 9th. You can’t play safety first, dull as dishwater football for 34 of your 38 games and finish 8th or 9th. You can’t not give opportunities to Gordon, nkounkou, branthwaite etc and finish 8th or 9th. We simply have to ‘achieve’ something this year otherwise it’s just been a complete waste of time and yet another failed recruitment policy.

Gordon, Nkounkou and Branthwaite have great potential but are not ready for the first team. Gordon may be a differeMy prospect next year, but Nkounkou and Branthwaite will probably go on loan again to continue learning their trade.

I’m afraid without the signings we made, we would be in a far worse position. Of course there is work to do, but overall I would say we are in better shape than last year

The big problem has been the financial drag of players like Bolasie, Schniderlin, Tosun, Delph and Walcott taking big salaries and offering very little. We are treading water while those players get moved on. Unfortunately the squad still has huge gaps to fill, it couldn’t be addressed in one summer.

I understand your frustration with the style of play, but we have missed Allan, James, Coleman and Digne for large parts of the season and the squad quality trails off very quickly underneath them. Ancelotti has shown willingness to change the system With three at the back, wing backs, 442 and changing from passing out the back to going long against Liverpool. I’m afraid that there just isn’t enough depth of quality available at present.

 

[Lanolin]

Thing is I think we have a bit mate tbf - he has certainly done that a lot more of late.

Issue is we then don't have anyone in the box, and yes thatis on the players too, to have more conviction.

But from experience, we know that when this squad is drilled to do stuff, they do it. Without our best creative players fit, and even with them fit, any 'free flowing' attacks go out of the window.

Fine, I can accept that for what it is, for now. Doesn't mean we can't have a default structure which gets player A from one position to another and the ball from one place into player A.

I haven't seen running stats etc but to my eye we haven't used him anywhere near enough in that way. He was like a duracell bunny 2 years ago, chasing every ball into the corner, never letting defenders have a second to have a breather. I think we often give teams a bit of an easy ride at the moment, i'm not sure that many sides who've won at Goodison recently have come away nursing cuts and bruises and saying how tough it was. There's a lot of games where you're expecting the alamo in the last 10 minutes and it just doesn't happen.

 

[Bob Elstone]

Gomes is a waste of space.

 

[Jim Hopper]

I understand your frustration with the style of play, but we have missed Allan, James, Coleman and Digne for large parts of the season and the squad quality trails off very quickly underneath them. Ancelotti has shown willingness to change the system With three at the back, wing backs, 442 and changing from passing out the back to going long against Liverpool. I’m afraid that there just isn’t enough depth of quality available at present.

That sums up my opinions.

I think he’s squeezing all he can out of what he has available at the moment.

Not sure what else he can do. I’m sure he’s tried and not just sent his players out with zero plan or structure like many would believe. If it was some bum manager who didn’t know what he was doing fair enough.

I don’t expect anything to change for us until all of our better players are available and the turgid chokers of yesteryear are shown the door.

 

[Death]

Borrowed from @GrandOldTeam in his 'second balls' thread:

2017/18: 8th. 49 points. 26 points from 4th.
2018/19: 8th. 54 points. 17 points from 4th.
2019/20: 12th. 49 points. 17 points from 4th.

Now, let's look at 2020/21.

With 10 games remaining;

2020/21: 6th. 46 points. 5 points (+game in hand) from 4th.

Then, go and compare our win rate since Ancelotti took over vs the years before it,

Super club janitor FRAUD

 

[HumbleWedbetters]

A poor performance is just that, it doesn’t mean they don’t care about losing

You ever seen someone run for the bus and you can tell that missing it is quite a big thing for them?

Vs someone who looks like they are gonna miss it but when they do they just sit down and play on their phone?

we've got too many people who don't look like they care if they miss the bus.... And no I've not interviewed them but if I was an opposing player I would know which ones are gonna give me an easy day.

 

[RomanReigns]

Brighton. But yeah that's the list.

we didn't outplay Brighton

both sides had 11 shots on goal each and they had 57% possession

we beat them quite comfortably but we didn't outplay them

 

[PSB1]

Nobody is saying he's doing badly or that we're not doing well all things considered.

There's just frustration - and understandable frustration - that we really could/should have been better off.

We can't/won't win every game. We will make mistakes - so does Carlo. It's an acceptance that he has made them and not to just blame it all on the players, it's too much of an easy get-out. It's also not wrong to state we should take more than 4 points from 21 on offer v the seven teams we've faced in the league since the start of 2021.

Disappointment is understandable as you say. Taking that disappointment to a level of bitterness is less understandable.

Yes, we 'should' have taken points here, there and everywhere but except for the top clubs with deep squads, we're not in the happy position to perform adequately when we have a rash of injuries.

In your opinion (and many others), C A has made mistakes. I wonder if he's tried to respond to situations beyond his control and the players he's involved haven't been able to respond to the changes he's made.

So far, he gets a 9.5 / 10 from me.

 

[TheBigIguana]

we didn't outplay Brighton

both sides had 11 shots on goal each and they had 57% possession

we beat them quite comfortably but we didn't outplay them

I'd say we did because we had 4 massive chance so taking them all wasn't flukey and their first goal came from the biggest mistake of the entire season by Pickford. For me we were well better. They came back into when it was 4-1 too.

 

[BlueToff]

I haven't seen running stats etc but to my eye we haven't used him anywhere near enough in that way. He was like a duracell bunny 2 years ago, chasing every ball into the corner, never letting defenders have a second to have a breather. I think we often give teams a bit of an easy ride at the moment, i'm not sure that many sides who've won at Goodison recently have come away nursing cuts and bruises and saying how tough it was. There's a lot of games where you're expecting the alamo in the last 10 minutes and it just doesn't happen.

Think first half at S'ton we definitely did that - that Salisu lad was running scared.

We just don't get enough players forward. And playing a diamond hasn't helped because we then only three attackers - and one of them is Dom.

Yep, totally. We can't, and don't, sustain pressure. We operate totally on moments. Again I can blame the players and they're a major reason but then surely something needs to get worked on so that they can at least keep up the pressure.

We look largely clueless going forward and too many people willing to pass the buck. So while that's on the players, I also want to see some kind of structure in place that gives these idiots simple plans to follow and then we build from there.

It worked with the defence.

 

[BlueToff]

Disappointment is understandable as you say. Taking that disappointment to a level of bitterness is less understandable.

Yes, we 'should' have taken points here, there and everywhere but except for the top clubs with deep squads, we're not in the happy position to perform adequately when we have a rash of injuries.

In your opinion (and many others), C A has made mistakes. I wonder if he's tried to respond to situations beyond his control and the players he's involved haven't been able to respond to the changes he's made.

So far, he gets a 9.5 / 10 from me.

People keep saying this, but bar the odd loon or WUM, nobody is saying that.

Instead you get people making reasonable points just told that it's all on the players.

It's a mix of factors. I back Carlo fully, but I'm worried by our lack of guile and craft not just in the sense of the players, but also tactically at times when we need to take the game to teams. His subs when chasing the game are regularly dismal and too late, as one example, even with a lack of options (taking Davies off but leaving Gomes on the other day, for example).