2020/21 Carlo Ancelotti

[catcherintherye]

His away win at Fulham is looking better and better with each passing week.

As might that point at Burnley.

We will be streaky and inconsistent this season. In a way Ancelotti has always been this way, at his best his teams can deliver world class performances home or away against anyone as he showed at his previous teams, at his worst they’ll lose games they should easily win. Unfortunately now though there seems to be an expectation that teams should he’d ping what City and Liverpool have been doing and smashing everyone home and away each season regardless of which teams they put our. The reality is we’re nowhere near that, when we get even a single injury our team is impacted and we have to change shape or bring in personnel who aren’t as good. Sometimes we’ll get punished for that. We started well, we were then absolutely rank performance wise for three games, and then we seem to have been a bit up and down since but picking up points. We’re still in touch with the european places and to be honest given the lack of quality and depth in the squad and the shambles of the last few seasons I’d take that for Everton about now. Of course I want better, everyone on here does, but I think there’s some green shoots that are pointing towards sustained progress which is what you and others have been calling for.

Improved form of individual players: DCL, Digne, Keane have never played better in their careers than now.

New signings: Allan, Godfrey, James, Doucoure all look like the players we thought we were getting and have all improved the first team. This is a world away from us buying player after player for big fees and all of them turning to rubbish as soon as they got through the door.

Less draws: We don’t seem to throw away as many leads as we used to. When we’re defending a lead under Carlo late on in games everyone feels confident.

Set pieces: These blighted us under Martinez and Silva. No one is talking about them any more and we’re good offensively on them.

The height of the team is better, we’re slowly but surely adding some more pace and physicality with Godfrey and Doucoure, and we now seem to have a few players in Allan Godfrey Holgate Richarlison DCL who look up for the scrap.

There’s so much work still fo be done but I think we’re in a miles better position than we have been at any point since Martinez’s first season. People can make ana regiment for the opposite and they may be proved to be right in time, but I think we’re putting in place some key pieces for a good team moving forward under Carlo.

The one thing you have to say with Ancelotti, is he never just leaves it the same. I can understand people saying they don't always like/agree with his methods, but he rarely just leaves a losing team to go out every week to keep struggling.

Like it or not, Kennt and Nkounkou struggled at Newcastle, so we have gone in a different direction. Godfrey had a poor game at right back, so he hasn't kept repeating it. Iwobi looked better on the right than theleft, so we haven't repeated that mistake etc etc.

There will be some criticism if we go tinkering on a winning team and it doesn't work, but he kept the same team for the first few weeks of the season. We have all grown really frustrated with managers who refuse to change things when it's not working. But that could never be levelled at Ancelotti.

 

[Terrarian]

As might that point at Burnley.


The one thing you have to say with Ancelotti, is he never just leaves it the same. I can understand people saying they don't always like/agree with his methods, but he rarely just leaves a losing team to go out every week to keep struggling.

Like it or not, Kennt and Nkounkou struggled at Newcastle, so we have gone in a different direction. Godfrey had a poor game at right back, so he hasn't kept repeating it. Iwobi looked better on the right than theleft, so we haven't repeated that mistake etc etc.

There will be some criticism if we go tinkering on a winning team and it doesn't work, but he kept the same team for the first few weeks of the season. We have all grown really frustrated with managers who refuse to change things when it's not working. But that could never be levelled at Ancelotti.

I do agree to a point, too much tinkering can be counter productive as relationships struggle to form but not much he can do about injuries.

 

[Toffeelover]

As might that point at Burnley.

Right now Arteta's name is mud down there in North London. To think with similar results we sacked Silva. Glad we got Carlo.

 

[DualityNSNO]

I do agree to a point, too much tinkering can be counter productive as relationships struggle to form but not much he can do about injuries.

I just hope the 3-5-2 experiment is over and done tbh.

The rest - obvious world class manager.

 

[Terrarian]

I just hope the 3-5-2 experiment is over and done tbh.

The rest - obvious world class manager.

I can only agree with that, never a formation I have liked, far too exposed down the wings

 

[Saint Domingo]

I just hope the 3-5-2 experiment is over and done tbh.

The rest - obvious world class manager.

I agree, but, that 352 formation blew Fulham away in the first half, and this is a Fulham team who beat Leicester and really should have beaten Liverpool too so it’s a tricky one to say it was completely a mistake at the time.

 

[BlueToff]

I've just done a post on our alleged tough run. I'll try not to repeat but I don't see it. We've played 4 of the top already, and it will be 5 of the top 5 after Wednesday. The fixtures after that ease up a bit. Arsenal are poor, City are not the City of the last couple of years, and the rest of the games we should be favourites in.

It's not the games themself, mate. I'm not scared of any team in this league though equally so on their day any team can beat anyone - it's just that type of season.

The tough part comes from the fixture congestion. We have six games in 15 days, IIIRC. A league cup quarter-final three days before a trip to Sheff Utd, with City 48 hours later.

We've hardly had the squad to cope with a few injuries playing one game a week, as evidenced over the last few months.

 

[DualityNSNO]

I agree, but, that 352 formation blew Fulham away in the first half, and this is a Fulham team who beat Leicester and really should have beaten Liverpool too so it’s a tricky one to say it was completely a mistake at the time.

I can't say it's a mistake - I personally like it, it just doesn't work for us and it seems like everyone is kind of awkward. It leaves the middle a bit too exposed with our current personnel, which isn't suited to it - Allan *has* to play, but he's more defensively oriented rather than box-to-box as is asked of him in that, and it shows.

I believe it blew them away in the first half because they weren't properly prepared for it - we were (mostly) high and mighty on the 4-3-3 we played up until that point and the 3-5-2 was a surprise even to us.

It showed in the next few games, as there were positives in the Fulham game but the next few games (i.e. Leeds) we got completely left out of the game. We weren't completely trash but our passing wasn't connecting and the fact they broke at speed meant as soon as one player loses their man it leaves a man open and it creates dangers for them.

I like that we have options and Ancelotti prefers to fix things, it's really refreshing to see, but it just isn't our thing currently.

 

[BlueToff]

I agree, but, that 352 formation blew Fulham away in the first half, and this is a Fulham team who beat Leicester and really should have beaten Liverpool too so it’s a tricky one to say it was completely a mistake at the time.

It's a system that needs balance and that balance comes predominantly from the wing-backs.

Without Digne it fell down because Carlo clearly hasn't wanted to play Nkounkou which negated half of the strongest point of a 3-4-3. In shifting Iwobi across against Leeds, he basically negated both sides.

 

[ForeverBlue92]

It's not the games themself, mate. I'm not scared of any team in this league though equally so on their day any team can beat anyone - it's just that type of season.

The tough part comes from the fixture congestion. We have six games in 15 days, IIIRC. A league cup quarter-final three days before a trip to Sheff Utd, with City 48 hours later.

We've hardly had the squad to cope with a few injuries playing one game a week, as evidenced over the last few months.

Our DOF yet again leaving us short.

Imagine going into the winter period with just DCL covered by a one legged Cenk Toshun.

 

[BlueToff]

Our DOF yet again leaving us short.

Imagine going into the winter period with just DCL covered by Cenk Toshun.

Yep, it was poor.

I suppose the plus side is if we can get James back, then we have the option to rotate Richarlison with DCL, so it may not just be the case of having Cenk as the back up. That does require some flexibility from Carlo though and unfortunately Richarlison isn't' playing great right now, though sure it'll come.

But it was always a stupid approach.

 

[catcherintherye]

It's not the games themself, mate. I'm not scared of any team in this league though equally so on their day any team can beat anyone - it's just that type of season.

The tough part comes from the fixture congestion. We have six games in 15 days, IIIRC. A league cup quarter-final three days before a trip to Sheff Utd, with City 48 hours later.

We've hardly had the squad to cope with a few injuries playing one game a week, as evidenced over the last few months.

Yes all fair. If Im honest, we should rotate heavily v City. I remember last season we didn't do that and it was madness. We need to win v Sheffield United and Manchester United and I would just earmark that game in for rotation. It's worth noting it's going to be hard for every other team as well. We do have the added complication of that league cup game.

 

[JMT]

As might that point at Burnley.

Really? We can't be putting a positive spin on that. They are a dreadful team, scored 6 goals all season!

 

[LouReedwalkonthewildside]

The funny thing is if Delph hadn't got injured against Burnley and us being forced into changing tactically in the game then we could have easily seen us start against Chelsea with the same set - up that we have been playing lately, so maybe instead of it being a tactical masterclass from Ancelotti it was more fortuitous?

 

[catcherintherye]

Really? We can't be putting a positive spin on that. They are a dreadful team, scored 6 goals all season!

I have a funny feeling the draw against Burnley may look a bit more acceptable as few weeks go by. Not a great result, but better than it was. I'm sure Arsenal would bite your hands off for a draw with Burnley right about now!