2020/21 Carlo Ancelotti

[BlueToff]

But... I haven't seen a team do a number on that like City, other than United, since November.

We really did nullify them bar, let's face it, a huge stroke of luck for their first goal - and then their quality told (and obviously KDB's quality led to that first goal).

That's positive, because it shows that when we have a plan these players can stick to it and fulfil it. We just dont' have enough going the other way, or the options to change it - the latter is on recruitment. Recruitment, recruitment, recruitment. It all boils down to that – for 5 years it, on the whole, hasn't been good enough.

 

[TheBigIguana]

But... I haven't seen a team do a number on that like City, other than United, since November.

We really did nullify them bar, let's face it, a huge stroke of luck for their first goal - and then their quality told (and obviously KDB's quality led to that first goal).

That's positive, because it shows that when we have a plan these players can stick to it and fulfil it. We just dont' have enough going the other way, or the options to change it - the latter is on recruitment. Recruitment, recruitment, recruitment. It all boils down to that.

You're not wrong we were very solid defensively and that can be a good platform but it needs to be accompanied by some sort of threat and we didn't really have that. That has to be the aim now.

 

[Zatara]

It does eventually catch up with you Zat because you put loads of pressure on the other end of the pitch to keep clean sheets.

Weve seen it all before with the Italian teams over the years. Their defence is so solid that they soak up the pressure and then score one or two goals.

A player like Mbappe or someone like Haaland up top costs £100mil++++ also someone like a Sancho would still be £80-120mil. However, top defenders are usually £40-60mil.

Again, in central midfield the top players are usually £40-60mil.

Instead of focusing on an expansive, free flowing open football it could actually work out well for us to stick to building the centre of the team and using wing backs in either a 3 or a diamond.

Imagine, we want 2 top notch wide players, thats going to cost as much as 4 top notch central players.

 

[ToffeeTim]

Genuinely think the gameplan was right tonight, for what we had available.

It's more the 'what we had available' that worries me. That's not just down to injuries.

However, it was always going to be settled by them turning to their bench, so there is obviously a clear flaw in the plan there unless we'd managed to get 2 goals ahead which, lets face it, was never likely.

The tactics were completely fine as far as I saw. It was pretty much the same as what United did. Only they have pace and quality and we didn't. We had enough opportunities to put together counter attacks but weren't able to find the first couple of passes to get up the field. I just dont think we are good enough on the transition right now and need another option in attack

 

[BlueToff]

You're not wrong we were very solid defensively and that can be a good platform but it needs to be accompanied by some sort of threat and we didn't really have that. That has to be the aim now.

It does. I think better players help that and, again, injuries exposed the weakness in our squad.

I don't think that's an excuse though, it just shows up how crap the squad building has been under multiple DoFs and multiple managers.

We've lost our two biggest games this season so far based on not having quality to offer when we needed it most, and the teams we've faced having quality to bring off the bench.

We can't just accept that, because frankly after the money spent it's not on.

 

[BlueToff]

Weve seen it all before with the Italian teams over the years. Their defence is so solid that they soak up the pressure and then score one or two goals.

A player like Mbappe or someone like Haaland up top costs £100mil++++ also someone like a Sancho would still be £80-120mil. However, top defenders are usually £40-60mil.

Again, in central midfield the top players are usually £40-60mil.

Instead of focusing on an expansive, free flowing open football it could actually work out well for us to stick to building the centre of the team and using wing backs in either a 3 or a diamond.

Imagine, we want 2 top notch wide players, thats going to cost as much as 4 top notch central players.

I have seen no evidence that this is what this Everton team focuses on

 

[Zatara]

I have seen no evidence that this is what this Everton team focuses on

Im talking about building out the team.

We cant exactly play expansive free flowing football without wide players. If we sign those wide players (at the top end of the market) then we could do some damage in attack...but we'd still lack the defence and Midfield quality and quality depth.

If you fast forward two years with the existing squad then at the 'top' level Id say these are the quality core:

GK: Maybe Pickford or Virginia
DF: Digne / Godfrey maybe Branthwaite/Nkounkou
MF: Doucoure
CF: Richarlison / DCL maybe Kean


Its clear to me that we should be targeting a RB + CB + 2×CM.

Stay away from the wide forwards for a season and work on a strategy which gets the most out of the quality we would have.

In another summer we can always look to the wide attacking positions once weve got the defensive and midfield foundations.

 

[BlueToff]

Im talking about building out the team.

We cant exactly play expansive free flowing football without wide players. If we sign those wide players (at the top end of the market) then we could do some damage in attack...but we'd still lack the defence and Midfield quality and quality depth.

If you fast forward two years with the existing squad then at the 'top' level Id say these are the quality core:

GK: Maybe Pickford or Virginia
DF: Digne / Godfrey maybe Branthwaite/Nkounkou
MF: Doucoure
CF: Richarlison / DCL maybe Kean


Its clear to me that we should be targeting a RB + CB + 2×CM.

Stay away from the wide forwards for a season and work on a strategy which gets the most out of the quality we would have.

In another summer we can always look to the wide attacking positions once weve got the defensive and midfield foundations.

We need a right-back, we need a forward (quick, capable of playing anywhere but predominately someone to stretch the pitch) and an athletic ball carrying midfielder.

Those are the priority areas.

We have, tops, as it stands, about £40-50m to spend this year if we get Europe. We're gonna have to flog some players - Kean, Bernard and hopefully Iwobi will be gone.

You can't play in this country without physicality. That's why our squad is so poor once you scratch the surface.

 

[TheBigIguana]

We need a right-back, we need a forward (quick, capable of playing anywhere but predominately someone to stretch the pitch) and an athletic ball carrying midfielder.

Those are the priority areas.

We have, tops, as it stands, about £40-50m to spend this year if we get Europe. We're gonna have to flog some players - Kean, Bernard and hopefully Iwobi will be gone.

You can't play in this country without physicality. That's why our squad is so poor once you scratch the surface.

I'd really like if we focused on a forward capable of doing his job and if we needed someone to do a different job we just signed that player instead of going 2 for 1.

 

[kenada_blue]

Nkounkou, Davies and Iwobi. Throw them on last 15 minutes and go 433.

...or, alternatively, do f.a. and limp out on the end of a 2-0 scoreline.

Would've made zero impact on the game against that opposition.

 

[Terrarian]

I really wish we would carry more of an attacking threat. Watching us is like watching the opponent have a kick about, we never have the ball, It's boring, dull and you don't win cups playing like that.

I know there are two camps here, I think the majority are still behind Carlo but we need to see more on the pitch. These are top level internationals we have playing and we play like a conference team trying not to get mullered, I can't stand it personally, it goes against every fibre of my being of how I think football should be played.

 

[JMT]

One of the world’s highest wages, one of the world’s most expensive squad but we can’t expect to win at home.

Dinosaur of a manager.

Should be under the same scrutiny that Jose is under.

He has had his day. Get him out.

.

 

[messymascot]

Right Back is absolute priority someone who gives us equal threat on either side instead of everything getting congested down our left. A Right Forward and Attacking Midfielder are equal priority to me as they will mean we can cope without James and when he is fit use him sparingly. Finally a goalkeeper to challenge Pickford. If we get all of them then I think it is fair to judge Ancelotti at the moment he is making best of the Franksteins monster that he has been given to deal with. Many people say we have the 8th best squad in the league. So far he has got us to the last 8 of both Cup competitions where we got knocked out by the 2 best teams in the country. We also knocked a top 8 side out in both competitions. In the league we are currently 7th and can still finish anywhere from 4th to 10th so we are on course to at least finish where the squad would expect to finish. I said last night I thought he could have used subs better but we don't know what injuries players might have been carrying.

 

[The_La]

Really can't read much into a game against city. They've won 34 games in 4 months. That's more that a lot of teams win in 2 seasons - us included.

We're still nowhere near a complete team. We have some nice pieces but lots of weaknesses. Players that don't really complement each other, and only one player that really has the consistent ability to unlock almost any defense - and he's been injured.

The biggest issue for me (amongst others) is the breakdown between our pretty solid defence and our two very good attacking players. There's a missing link in midfield. We bought really well in that area in the summer with 3 quality players - but we've not had the 3 of them together on the pitch since November I believe.

Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin are exciting - but only if we can both get the ball to them in quality areas AND support them. We got a glimpse of what the looked like in September/October, but we haven't really see it since.

I know we don't like to admit it, but we're still a team in transition and it's to Carlo's credit that he's got us challenging as far up the league as he has.

I'm encouraged that he's building defensive solidity into our DNA and I'm hopeful that next season with a few more astute bits of business we'll look like a much more coherent and exciting proposition.

If we squeak into Europe this season then it's s massive bonus.

 

[zukai12_]

Injuries have played a major role and we are clearly having a better season than last year

But i would like to see us play a little more on the front foot