2020/21 Carlo Ancelotti

[billyblue80]

Playing better. Performance wise there isn't much difference from last summer and now.

You do realise we have half a team out? Do you really think we would be worse off than last year with our first team on the pitch? Also our away performances have been levels above last season.

 

[gaino92]

It's really just that I believe that indicators of performance can't be beat forever. If you're conceding more shots than you take and conceding better chances than you create eventually that catches up. We've beat it all year and maybe we will continue it to an extent but the last two games between McNeil's screamer and the OG at Chelsea show how tight we're playing it. Anything like that goes against us and we drop points.

If we create chances like we did against Burnley, we need the forwards to have a bit of composure and the ability to control a ball. We could have at least troubled Burnley if DCL and Richy were actually on it but both had poor games. We have nobody else currently fit who can step up, Bernard, Iwobi, Gomes, Davies, Allan even Gylfi to an extent won't be grabbing us winning goals from open play because they aren't good enough, the problem we have is we have nobody who can replace them

 

[TheBigIguana]

If we create chances like we did against Burnley, we need the forwards to have a bit of composure and the ability to control a ball. We could have at least troubled Burnley if DCL and Richy were actually on it but both had poor games. We have nobody else currently fit who can step up, Bernard, Iwobi, Gomes, Davies, Allan even Gylfi to an extent won't be grabbing us winning goals from open play because they aren't good enough, the problem we have is we have nobody who can replace them

We created two chances which means we'd have drawn had we taken them. And that was better than most weeks.

 

[Cameron Manning]

I love Carlo.

I think he's done a very good job with what he's been given so far and the circumstances (our injuries this season have been troublesome).

Nobody should be raving to the point of calling him a legend, he has a solid start to his management career with us, he has a lot of work still to do. Those criticising him on the other end of the scale can't say hes been awful, or wrong for the club (the stats dont lie we are much better off than we were) but they can show concern for aspects as well.

You have to balance both points, at the start of the season if you said we'd take 7 from spurs, united and liverpool away (ending the anfield voodoo), but get beat by Newcastle, Fulham and Leeds at home. I think i'd have taken it, doing that is better for us than losing the 3 games away, and then taking 7 from the lesser etams. We've hurt teams around us while when lost not gifted tougher teams points.

I KNOW ideally you'd want points from both sets, and that's what gets you CL football, but ultimately we've improved this season, but still missing 2/3 jigsaw pieces for the first 11 in my eyes.

Imagine if we had a right back who could whip a ball in and had some space. We'd have a threat from both sides, James, iwobi, richarlison all would have more to go off when playing that right side.

Fair enough, as I say I’m waiting to see how he turns out as our manager, injuries haven’t helped him, and our weak squad can’t afford the weakening, injuries piling up, so unfortunately the rest of the season will be a struggle for Ancelotti to contend with, so that will have to be taken into consideration if we finish outside the top eight.

 

[TheBigIguana]

You do realise we have half a team out? Do you really think we would be worse off than last year with our first team on the pitch? Also our away performances have been levels above last season.

Home and away has kind of not been a thing without crowds.

I'm not letting injuries be an excuse for not developing the team. I'm just not. We can try and play better with whoever we have.

 

[gaino92]

We created two chances which means we'd have drawn had we taken them. And that was better than most weeks.

We created 2 chances 1 we scored from 1 DCL should have scored from, we also created a couple more chances wherein if DCL's control didn't fail him he would have been in 1 on 1. Couple poor shot from Richy as well

 

[Jim Hopper]

Everton finish 12th last season.

Evertonians: NoT GoOd EnOuGh TeRrIbLe SeAsOn.

Everton a year later sitting in 7th place having reached two cup Quarter Finals and overcome some of the teams away from home we have struggled to beat over the years one a Merseyside derby where we got dry bummed 5-2 in last season... with an injury ridden team and no recognised right side at all.

Evertonians: NoT GoOd EnOuGh We WaNtEd PrOgReSs”

Great site lads.

 

[Saint Domingo]

"When he's has top players."

We're probably never going to have a team as good as City, United or Chelsea. Having the best players can't be a prerequisite.

I'm really not on about style so much as if you're playing super defensively you've got to be good at it. We're honestly still too leaky.

Then why are people expecting the same levels of performance? Winning home and away at top sides, putting the lower end teams away routinely with style. Having a playing style that’s so good that you don’t need to adapt to the opposition and can play it for the majority of the 38 games. This is the preserve of the top sides we are trying to compete against yet there’s an expectation we’ll do this without having the same resources as them.

Every side below that top tier has problems. The issue is that we just ignore everyone else’s and focus on the one week when they beat someone looking really good. West Ham can routinely put the bottom sides away and have a definite style, but that style is useless against the top teams away from home. They’d never get the results we’ve had this season at Liverpool Spurs Leicester. Equally our flexibility makes beating lesser teams at home a problem for us currently.

There’s too much of wanting to have the cake and eat it. Let’s keep all the over performance bits but expect the under performance to go away because Newcastle and Fulham are a bit embarrassing. That’s what it’s boiling down to. If we spun it the other way im sure Ancelotti could have done what Moyes has and drilled a very solid system that drew a lot of games but beat the expected teams at home. We’d probably be where they are in the table without the big away wins.

Until the squad matches those top teams though there’ll always be something that we wish could just be bolted on without losing the rest of the package but it never will be because there’s only so many ways you can spin this group of players to get results.

Better quality means more tactical options, more rotation options, more competition for places, and more and more inconsistency being wiped out. Without these things there’ll always be something for us to moan about that isn’t good enough.

 

[TheBigIguana]

We created 2 chances 1 we scored from 1 DCL should have scored from, we also created a couple more chances wherein if DCL's control didn't fail him he would have been in 1 on 1. Couple poor shot from Richy as well

Right but he didn't control them so they weren't chances.

Still that was our best creative game since who knows when and wasn't great.

 

[Tubey]

My question is how do you think we'll be playing in 12 months? I honestly can't say and that's really what my issue is. Are we sure there is a direction? People love to talk about being pragmatic but when every game is a coin flip you are really just playing for luck. In the past tactics like that were fine for Carlo as he had guys like Kaka, Drogba and Ronaldo. Without that level of talent even games aren't going to tip your way as much.

If you can't trust Carlo Ancelotti to spend money and have a direction for your club, then it's time to jack football in altogether.

I'd understand the argument if we were two years into a Marco Silva project, but this is Carlo Ancelotti.

Just need time and patience. We could have pushed on a bit in January but clearly we'd written the season off in advance as a transitional one.

 

[TheBigIguana]

Then why are people expecting the same levels of performance? Winning home and away at top sides, putting the lower end teams away routinely with style. Having a playing style that’s so good that you don’t need to adapt to the opposition and can play it for the majority of the 38 games. This is the preserve of the top sides we are trying to compete against yet there’s an expectation we’ll do this without having the same resources as them.

Every side below that top tier has problems. The issue is that we just ignore everyone else’s and focus on the one week when they beat someone looking really good. West Ham can routinely put the bottom sides away and have a definite style, but that style is useless against the top teams away from home. They’d never get the results we’ve had this season at Liverpool Spurs Leicester. Equally our flexibility makes beating lesser teams at home a problem for us currently.

There’s too much of wanting to have the cake and eat it. Let’s keep all the over performance bits but expect the under performance to go away because Newcastle and Fulham are a bit embarrassing. That’s what it’s boiling down to. If we spun it the other way im sure Ancelotti could have done what Moyes has and drilled a very solid system that drew a lot of games but beat the expected teams at home. We’d probably be where they are in the table without the big away wins.

Until the squad matches those top teams though there’ll always be something that we wish could just be bolted on without losing the rest of the package but it never will be because there’s only so many ways you can spin this group of players to get results.

Better quality means more tactical options, more rotation options, more competition for places, and more and more inconsistency being wiped out. Without these things there’ll always be something for us to moan about that isn’t good enough.

I get what you're saying but I think our results against the teams you're saying West Ham would never beat, and they won't you're right, are not a guarantee to continue. Defend deep and take your chances isn't a novel idea for beating those sides. At some point the fortune flips like it did against Chelsea.

 

[TheBigIguana]

If you can't trust Carlo Ancelotti to spend money and have a direction for your club, then it's time to jack football in altogether.

I'd understand the argument if we were two years into a Marco Silva project, but this is Carlo Ancelotti.

Just need time and patience. We could have pushed on a bit in January but clearly we'd written the season off in advance as a transitional one.

Yes this is Carlo Ancelotti, the guy who hasn't built up a club since the early 2000s.

And we clearly have not written this season off as transitional or we'd be doing transitional things and not clawing for every single point.

 

[gaino92]

Right but he didn't control them so they weren't chances.

Still that was our best creative game since who knows when and wasn't great.

You're being pedantic now, if he controls the ball and slots then you come on here and laud iwobi (I think it was Iwobi) for his assist and you know it. The 2nd one from Davies was even better and DCL should have done a lot better with it, they are chances that our striker hasn't capitalised on

 

[TheBigIguana]

You're being pedantic now, if he controls the ball and slots then you come on here and laud iwobi (I think it was Iwobi) for his assist and you know it. The 2nd one from Davies was even better and DCL should have done a lot better with it, they are chances that our striker hasn't capitalised on

Yes if that had happened but it didn't happen. I'm not lauding Iwobi for an almost assist and I'm not giving the team credit for almost creating a big chance.

 

[gaino92]

Yes if that had happened but it didn't happen. I'm not lauding Iwobi for an almost assist and I'm not giving the team credit for almost creating a big chance.

The fact is if DCL had a bit of composure/ball control then those 2 passes would have went down as big chances created, alas his boots were on the wrong feet and he fluffed them both, the providers have done their part, the recipient hasn't. They created the opportunity for a shot on goal, the striker has messed it up.