2020/21 Carlo Ancelotti

[twoblue]

I agree, but the problem within that is we went from Moyes to Martinez with no directors in place. Then we got a new owner and appointed our 1st DOF and a new manager who made it very clear that the previous manager was totally wrong about everything and went out of his way to do everything the opposite way to prove it. This meant alienating and replacing almost half of an entire squad in 2 years, and it failed spectacularly and expensively. So we appointed a 2nd manager to try and fix his mess, and let's be fair to Allardyce, we all knew it was a temporary, damage limitation tactic. Allardyce said what we all knew, the squad was a mess, but he wasnt well liked, so everyone dismissed it.

So we go and get a new Director of football and a new manager, both of whom felt that the previous approach was wrong. This negates the consistency of the DOF approach, as it was a complete reset. The new manager had similar ideas/ideals to Martinez, and was once again, a complete 180 from the previous approach. Unfortunately, like Martinez and Koeman before him, he was so stubborn and inflexible, that he refused to alter his approach for anyone, and if plan A didn't work, plan B was trying plan A again. On top of this, he was about as charismatic a leader as Gary Megson, and he had neither the tactical nous nor the gravitas or pull to alter things in a different way. At least Koeman was a name, even if he was an arrogant bully who didn't care. But safe to say, it didn't work. Again.

Then, the stars aligned, and we had the opportunity to sign Ancelotti, 1 of the best most revered coaches in the world. On top of being available, he brings experience, exposure, calmness, connections, and a track record of winning. He is also a student of the game, trained under Arrigo Sacchi and is tactically astute as well as pragmatic, something we have been calling out for for years.

But the problem with appointing someone of his calibre, is people expect miracles.

The squad was patchy when Martinez failed to get players to believe in his methods.

Koeman made a bad squad worse by selling 3 of the best young stars in the squad and wasting hundreds of millions on overly expensive, older, bang average journeyman players in hopes of a quick fix to make us the best of the rest.

Allardyce took over his mess and realised there were no goals in the team, so spent another small fortune on 2 more quick fix short term signings.

Silva went the other way and spent even more money on expensive cast offs (and Richarlison) from other teams.

Ancelotti is 1 COVID interrupted year in to trying to fix 7 years of topsy turvy mis management and is left with the onerous task of the squad rebuild Moyes left us with in 2013, but hamstrung by the expensive flops that prevent any meaningful movement 1 way or the other.

He needs 2 years minimum from now, and if that means 2 years of treading water until we are in a position to challenge again, then so be it. Sometimes you need to take a step back to take 2 steps forward, and this seems like 1 of those occasions. We need a bit of patience.

Football is never ending. Not getting Europe in year 1 is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

This is a great post, but you know what though, Carlos will be offered other jobs and it won’t take much to get his head turned. I don’t think he is here for 5 years. If he is what kind of football are we playing, what kind of squad are going to have.

 

[Kever10]

I don't expect any manager or DoF to just come in and wave a magic wand to make everything better. To be honest I don't really see anybody saying that, it's just a bit of a straw man argument that comes up when there's any criticism.

My concerns with Ancelotti and Brands aren't really related to the fact that we didn't finish in the top 6, they're more related to the fact that we still don't seem to have settled on a recruitment strategy, have no defined style of play, don't appear to be getting any better, don't really have a squad make up that you would expect to get better over time etc. I've said before, if we'd finished 10th this year with the likes of Gordon, Branthwaite, Nkounkou etc getting plenty of game time, and we were looking like we were learning how to play a possession based game or a counter attacking game or whatever then I'd be pretty positive about the future. We haven't though, we've shown no real desire to shake up the squad (to the point of suggesting players like Coleman and Sigurdsson may even get new contracts, and putting 2 keepers on the bench rather than pick anyone from the youth team) and have made absolutely no progress whatsoever in terms of the football we play. If anything it's got worse, and it's no more effective.

Ancelotti needs to be given more time, we can't just sack managers every time we hit a rough patch, but he also needs to be judged the same as any other manager would be. Personally i've seen very little to latch on to. There's just been no real improvement in either tangible or intangible terms, it's been 18 months of just muddling through so far, and at some point you have to say it's time to move past that stage. I'm not saying he can't do that, just that I'm not really seeing much evidence that it's happening.

While no one has explicitly mentioned waving a magic wand, expecting him to fix the wrongs of 7 years in 1.5 COVID interrupted seasons and have us playing a certain brand of football that the man himself has told us the squad are not capable of doing, is pretty much the next best thing.

In terms of us not having settled on a recruitment strategy, I fail to see how you have come to that conclusion, when he has essentially had 1 summer window to implement it, and we are not privy to what goes on behind closed doors. If you are going to point to signings made since he took over, I would suggest that Branthwaite, Nkounkou and Godfrey point to a strategy of signing good young potential, while the signings of Allan, Doucoure and James all point to us attempting to address the woeful options we had at our disposal in midfield by instilling some instant quality. I dread to think where we would be if we had not had any of those signings this year.

No true strategy will be apparent 1 year in, 1 year in which a global pandemic affected the ability to operate, both in terms of logistics and finances, not to mention the balancing of books thanks to previous spending on players who are not at the required level and/or where signed by different regimes to play different styles of football.

As for a style of play, while it might not be what we all want, I would argue a well organised, hard working team set up to counter teams has been particularly effective, given we have won our biggest number of away games since the 80s, including 6 Away wins and 1 draw against the 9 teams who finished above us. We also did well in games that we took a lead, which shows a level of tactical nous and organisation we could've only dreamed of in years gone by. Hopefully this means that by adding quality to that foundation, we can build on this going forward. And yes, the home form was disastrous, but always against teams who we were expected to be on the front foot, which again, only highlights the obvious lack of quality that has been pointed out ad nauseum.

Like i said, both in terms of implementing a recruitment strategy and implementing a style of play, it's going to take time. As good a manager as he is, he was never going to turn this squad into 2007 AC Milan simply by being nice to them, but as a diplomatic man, he was never going to push them all under a bus and create enemies the way Koeman did either. He still needed to keep them onside as he knew he had to deal with them. He is not a fool though, he will know they are not good enough.

Roughly 60 pages of kneejerk reactions in this thread since the final whistle yesterday suggests that collectively, people either do not have the required patience, or they assumed he was going to wave his magic wand. Sadly, it doesn't exist

 

[jamieni]

This is a great post, but you know what though, Carlos will be offered other jobs and it won’t take much to get his head turned. I don’t think he is here for 5 years. If he is what kind of football are we playing, what kind of squad are going to have.

It’s up to the board to give him the backing to improve the squad, otherwise what’s the point in him sticking around?

 

[Bedfordblue]

See Carlos biggest fan Richard Keyes thinks he should be sacked immediately and replaced with Nuno…..
Beginning to wonder how much of this is him and how much is Gray, he’s never been this obsessed with Everton previously he persisting griping about Carlo, Richarlison and Mosh the Dosh are a bit bewildering.

Do It Now – Richard Keys Tells Everton To Sack Carlo Ancelotti, Identifies Replacement

Richard Keys has told Everton they should sack Carlo Ancelotti and bring in Nuno to replace him.

insidefutbol.com

 

[gwladysnight]

It’s up to the board to give him the backing to improve the squad, otherwise what’s the point in him sticking around?

The really top coaches get the maximum out of what they have. They bring through young players and they improve them. Carlo doesn't do that. He is a man manager who gets players to perform for him for a year or two and then gets sacked.

He isn't an empire builder, he just flits from Club to club.

 

[Lanolin]

While no one has explicitly mentioned waving a magic wand, expecting him to fix the wrongs of 7 years in 1.5 COVID interrupted seasons and have us playing a certain brand of football that the man himself has told us the squad are not capable of doing, is pretty much the next best thing.

In terms of us not having settled on a recruitment strategy, I fail to see how you have come to that conclusion, when he has essentially had 1 summer window to implement it, and we are not privy to what goes on behind closed doors. If you are going to point to signings made since he took over, I would suggest that Branthwaite, Nkounkou and Godfrey point to a strategy of signing good young potential, while the signings of Allan, Doucoure and James all point to us attempting to address the woeful options we had at our disposal in midfield by instilling some instant quality. I dread to think where we would be if we had not had any of those signings this year.

No true strategy will be apparent 1 year in, 1 year in which a global pandemic affected the ability to operate, both in terms of logistics and finances, not to mention the balancing of books thanks to previous spending on players who are not at the required level and/or where signed by different regimes to play different styles of football.

As for a style of play, while it might not be what we all want, I would argue a well organised, hard working team set up to counter teams has been particularly effective, given we have won our biggest number of away games since the 80s, including 6 Away wins and 1 draw against the 9 teams who finished above us. We also did well in games that we took a lead, which shows a level of tactical nous and organisation we could've only dreamed of in years gone by. Hopefully this means that by adding quality to that foundation, we can build on this going forward. And yes, the home form was disastrous, but always against teams who we were expected to be on the front foot, which again, only highlights the obvious lack of quality that has been pointed out ad nauseum.

Like i said, both in terms of implementing a recruitment strategy and implementing a style of play, it's going to take time. As good a manager as he is, he was never going to turn this squad into 2007 AC Milan simply by being nice to them, but as a diplomatic man, he was never going to push them all under a bus and create enemies the way Koeman did either. He still needed to keep them onside as he knew he had to deal with them. He is not a fool though, he will know they are not good enough.

Roughly 60 pages of kneejerk reactions in this thread since the final whistle yesterday suggests that collectively, people either do not have the required patience, or they assumed he was going to wave his magic wand. Sadly, it doesn't exist

Ah the old ‘everyone who doesn’t see things exactly the same as me is a knee jerking bedwetter’ argument. Always good when that one comes out.

If you see things that make you think we’re going in the right direction that’s great. I genuinely don’t, but footballs like that isn’t it? In a couple of months time I might be wondering why I was concerned but I can only comment on how I see it, and I’ve laid that out already so I won’t bore you doing it again

I’m not an impatient or entitled fan. I repeatedly said that silva should get more time and I’ve already said to you I think ancelotti should too. I want to see signs of progress though, and won’t be rushing to build a statue of him if ‘not often losing games that we score first in’ is still one of the most positive things you can think of about his tenure this time next year.

 

[Bebeto]

See Carlos biggest fan Richard Keyes thinks he should be sacked immediately and replaced with Nuno…..
Beginning to wonder how much of this is him and how much is Gray, he’s never been this obsessed with Everton previously he persisting griping about Carlo, Richarlison and Mosh the Dosh are a bit bewildering.

Do It Now – Richard Keys Tells Everton To Sack Carlo Ancelotti, Identifies Replacement

Richard Keys has told Everton they should sack Carlo Ancelotti and bring in Nuno to replace him.

insidefutbol.com

To be fair he has a point...Big Sam finished 8th...and he got sacked...Ancelotti has finished 10th and had a terrible end of the season. Strange line up at times...like he had no idea how to solve it. And his attitude towards james is unforgivable...he is different towards the other players and James cannot do wrong it seems. The pic from the plane in any other professional football club would have resulted on that player to be transfer listed....not here it seems

 

[paulbefc]

The really top coaches get the maximum out of what they have. They bring through young players and they improve them. Carlo doesn't do that. He is a man manager who gets players to perform for him for a year or two and then gets sacked.

He isn't an empire builder, he just flits from Club to club.

I see you signed up to the forum the day after Liverpool beat Barcelona.

I see you also don't rate Everton's manager.

And you don't rate Everton's owner.

I'm sure it's all just a coincidence.

 

[Bedfordblue]

To be fair he has a point...Big Sam finished 8th...and he got sacked...Ancelotti has finished 10th and had a terrible end of the season. Strange line up at times...like he had no idea how to solve it. And his attitude towards james is unforgivable...he is different towards the other players and James cannot do wrong it seems. The pic from the plane in any other professional football club would have resulted on that player to be transfer listed....not here it seems

Thing with James and that photo, which is a bit galling for us, is at other teams he’s played for, no one would particularly care. Those teams are littered with other mega stars, so while he jets off to Columbia, i doubt it would have raised an eyebrow at Bayern or Real where he’s just another player. But we aren’t used to it and when he clears off we have to watch that cack we endured yesterday so there’s a higher degree of fume.
We need more players of his ability so he’s not on some pedestal and everyone’s head falls of when he’s unavailable.
10th is massively disappointing but when it’s viewed in context of some of the results we’ve had, that none of Carlos recent predecessors were able to achieve, I genuinely don’t think he’s the problem.
Just hope Mosh has something up his sleeve to give Carlo what he’s undoubtably been promised, whitest not falling foul of UEFAs FFP rules.

 

[Thomasc]

Remember when you bragged that you and Stoke had overtaken us?

Tbf they have won a trophy more recently than us.

 

[BlueToff]

Really wow Gerrard been gone that long, thought he left 2 years ago and klopp on his 3/4 year

Nah, he left at the end of 14-15. Klopp took over October 2015

 

[BlueToff]

Ah the old ‘everyone who doesn’t see things exactly the same as me is a knee jerking bedwetter’ argument. Always good when that one comes out.

If you see things that make you think we’re going in the right direction that’s great. I genuinely don’t, but footballs like that isn’t it? In a couple of months time I might be wondering why I was concerned but I can only comment on how I see it, and I’ve laid that out already so I won’t bore you doing it again

I’m not an impatient or entitled fan. I repeatedly said that silva should get more time and I’ve already said to you I think ancelotti should too. I want to see signs of progress though, and won’t be rushing to build a statue of him if ‘not often losing games that we score first in’ is still one of the most positive things you can think of about his tenure this time next year.

This idea people have that it takes time to implement an identity is nonsense.

If carlo was going to implement it, I genuinely believe that we’d have seen the groundwork. Like you say in your other - excellent - post, I can’t see evidence of that. Not saying it won’t happen definitely, but I’m not sure better players make that happen.

I think what we’ve got this season, in terms of being a pretty adaptable team, is going to be the way we are. We aren’t going to be a possession team, we aren’t going to be a counter-attacking team. Like all of CA’s teams, we’re going to try to be a jack of all trades. In that sense, better players are definitely going to help. But, will that approach get a team like Everton, who haven’t got unlimited resources, aren’t regularly competing in the CL etc, where we want to be? I don’t know. I hope it does.

Completely agree on the recruitment side. There’s been no strategy at all, under brands or Walsh.

 

[Pb34np]

This idea people have that it takes time to implement an identity is nonsense.

If carlo was going to implement it, I genuinely believe that we’d have seen the groundwork. Like you say in your other - excellent - post, I can’t see evidence of that. Not saying it won’t happen definitely, but I’m not sure better players make that happen.

I think what we’ve got this season, in terms of being a pretty adaptable team, is going to be the way we are. We aren’t going to be a possession team, we aren’t going to be a counter-attacking team. Like all of CA’s teams, we’re going to try to be a jack of all trades. In that sense, better players are definitely going to help. But, will that approach get a team like Everton, who haven’t got unlimited resources, aren’t regularly competing in the CL etc, where we want to be? I don’t know. I hope it does.

Completely agree on the recruitment side. There’s been no strategy at all, under brands or Walsh.

Totally agree. It’s the manager. Love him and the boards ambition in getting him but his best skills are managing a bunch of elite footballers and egos. We aren’t going to have that for many years. we have good players and should be top6 this season. Carlo is lovely guy and great manager but pretty sure I stated in earlier comments probably a little lazy and under focussed. Still uncomfortable he was allowed to bring in family

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

I see you signed up to the forum the day after Liverpool beat Barcelona.

I see you also don't rate Everton's manager.

And you don't rate Everton's owner.

I'm sure it's all just a coincidence.

Say whaaaaaaat? This lad is blue through and through. EFC tats and jimjams for sure.

 

[COYBL25]

While no one has explicitly mentioned waving a magic wand, expecting him to fix the wrongs of 7 years in 1.5 COVID interrupted seasons and have us playing a certain brand of football that the man himself has told us the squad are not capable of doing, is pretty much the next best thing.

In terms of us not having settled on a recruitment strategy, I fail to see how you have come to that conclusion, when he has essentially had 1 summer window to implement it, and we are not privy to what goes on behind closed doors. If you are going to point to signings made since he took over, I would suggest that Branthwaite, Nkounkou and Godfrey point to a strategy of signing good young potential, while the signings of Allan, Doucoure and James all point to us attempting to address the woeful options we had at our disposal in midfield by instilling some instant quality. I dread to think where we would be if we had not had any of those signings this year.

No true strategy will be apparent 1 year in, 1 year in which a global pandemic affected the ability to operate, both in terms of logistics and finances, not to mention the balancing of books thanks to previous spending on players who are not at the required level and/or where signed by different regimes to play different styles of football.

As for a style of play, while it might not be what we all want, I would argue a well organised, hard working team set up to counter teams has been particularly effective, given we have won our biggest number of away games since the 80s, including 6 Away wins and 1 draw against the 9 teams who finished above us. We also did well in games that we took a lead, which shows a level of tactical nous and organisation we could've only dreamed of in years gone by. Hopefully this means that by adding quality to that foundation, we can build on this going forward. And yes, the home form was disastrous, but always against teams who we were expected to be on the front foot, which again, only highlights the obvious lack of quality that has been pointed out ad nauseum.

Like i said, both in terms of implementing a recruitment strategy and implementing a style of play, it's going to take time. As good a manager as he is, he was never going to turn this squad into 2007 AC Milan simply by being nice to them, but as a diplomatic man, he was never going to push them all under a bus and create enemies the way Koeman did either. He still needed to keep them onside as he knew he had to deal with them. He is not a fool though, he will know they are not good enough.

Roughly 60 pages of kneejerk reactions in this thread since the final whistle yesterday suggests that collectively, people either do not have the required patience, or they assumed he was going to wave his magic wand. Sadly, it doesn't exist

Well said mate.