2020/21 Carlo Ancelotti

[Little Ralphy]

Said it for a while. Our style of play at home is completely out dated feels like we are playing 10 years behind everyone else. Little movement off and on the ball. All stagnant slow paced backwards sideways stale crap. It’s not so bad against teams who come here and don’t care if we see more of the ball but for lesser teams who press high it’s not good enough and an alternative approach is needed and we haven’t seen any change in approach at all, it was a carbon repeat of the Newcastle game, like for like, no lessons learned, nothing.

This is it for me, and the reason why we are so easy to play against. We don't have players capable of committing the opposition, no one with genuine pace who can run with the ball, and we also don't have players who make runs off the ball to show and give options. So it becomes very easy to predict where the ball is going to go, and easy to defend against. Someone like sigurdsson hiding making sure he's not an option just kills us, but he's not alone in that. We need to clear out the players not prepared to impose themselves on the game, and work for the team, and bring in energy and pace.

 

[LocalNative]

 

[Lanolin]

I don't think that what we've done though. We seemed to adopt this approach for the tough run of games, then moved away from 4 cb's (and what that entails). I am a big Ancelotti fan, but I don't understand it. We are posing no more offensive threat with "attacking" fullbacks (no idea how Coleman now fits that criteria) but are just a lot more open defensively.

I've said before, I just think the '4 centre back' thing is a massive oversimplification. We were getting men behind the ball, sitting extremely deep, asking players to be extremely disciplined and work very hard defensively. The constant focus on who the full backs are in the system is just missing the point spectacularly in my opinion, as is holding on to the belief that everything would be fine if we just went back to that. It's a bit like last saturday when everyone was claiming it was obvious that Mina was the key to defensive solidity and it was no surprise we'd conceded 3 without him, only for us to promptly concede 4 after reinstating him.

 

[BlueToff]

he was playing 4-3-2-1 which is fair enough but we lack Serdorf, Kaka, Pirlo and Gattuso so make it work. We also had minimal width and he took off the wrong centre midfielder. When we attacked we couldn’t transition from midfield to attack and could barley beat their press at times. They on the other hand could easily play out from the back and were in our attacking third with minimal effort. We didn’t press them or offer much on a counter attack. We didn’t have much possession and could barely string a pass together.

Maybe the players are knackered or maybe Carlo was just out thought by Scot Parker.

for me Gomes, Richarlison and Holgate look off the pace and off form. I don’t think Holgate is good enough and I haven’t a clue what’s happened to Richarlison. Bar the Spurs game (away) when he could have scored a few and looked dangerous he hasn’t really found any form this season at all - albeit he scored 2 in the FA Cup.

I think yesterday was the perfect game to get rich back in form by playing him up front in a proper three - James and King were available and should have been up there alongside him.

then go with a midfield three of Davies, Gomes and Doucoure, with Sigurdsson, Iwobi and Bernard to bring on as attacking options

4-3-2-1 is a horrid system for the modern game, especially this Everton side

 

[D410]

Player Leadership qualitys needs to be a big part of our summer recruitment process.


No point adding quality if players decide when to pick and choose when to turn it on because they don't fancy the opposition or can't or won't back the managers tactics on a game to game basis


All teams loose games but as fans we can see when players hide or are not brave enough to dominate there opposite player or space.


It struck me last night that full backs and our midfield didn't trust the players ahead of them. That has to stop , every player can influence or change a game with the right positive mental attitude and courage.

 

[BlueToff]

I've said before, I just think the '4 centre back' thing is a massive oversimplification. We were getting men behind the ball, sitting extremely deep, asking players to be extremely disciplined and work very hard defensively. The constant focus on who the full backs are in the system is just missing the point spectacularly in my opinion, as is holding on to the belief that everything would be fine if we just went back to that. It's a bit like last saturday when everyone was claiming it was obvious that Mina was the key to defensive solidity and it was no surprise we'd conceded 3 without him, only for us to promptly concede 4 after reinstating him.

We are definitely a team that is much more comfortable when defending deep. For the money spent on players and coaching staff though, that’s pretty poor

 

[royalblue66]

What was Carlo’s last season at Napoli, stats wise ?

 

[kenada_blue]

Zero width. Probably expected Digne and Coleman to supply that but were pinned back.

Then the rest of the midfield were useless

 

[Tipp blue]

7 defeats in 22 games.

Teams we've been beaten by:

Newcastle (2)
Southampton
Leeds
West Ham
Fulham
United

Some weird arse mentality issue going on here.

Ridiculous points dropped. How can we go out and score 3 against United 5 against spurs and then not even register a shot on target until the 75th minute v Fulham. Credit to Fulham they looked good yesterday but as good as they were we were equally as bad. It's inexplicable.

 

[kenada_blue]

And we’ve struggled badly against all of those teams. We’re coming up against two pressing sides who are actually good this week, so let’s see how that one turns out.

We have but that's due to having zero legs either further forward or in midfield. We can't even counter attack were that slow.

The point is that a fully pressing side very rarely gains success over a period unless you're juiced up like the RS...and even then that's going wrong.

City are just a complete unit. Press when needed, then keep the ball. They don't need to constantly press as they have the majority of the ball.

We'll lose to either side due to being not as good as either team in areas rather than a press

 

[Jim Hopper]

Ridiculous points dropped. How can we go out and score 3 against United 5 against spurs and then not even register a shot on target until the 75th minute v Fulham. Credit to Fulham they looked good yesterday but as good as they were we were equally as bad. It's inexplicable.

Again mate it’s the style of football we come up against and energy levels. Fulham played out of their skin yesterday, showed more desire, more energy, more determination, they were more fluid and kept their shape well and defended and attacked as a team. We had a group of overpaid individual wallies who didn’t have a clue what they’re were supposed to be doing. Standing off, standing still, waiting for the ball to come to them, zero movement, zero awareness, minimum effort... it was heartbreaking to watch, it’s just not acceptable.

 

[Jim Hopper]

If the club don’t back him properly again this summer they can do one as well. They can’t expect him to perform miracles weekly with this current set of overpaid wallies. What was the point in bringing him in if they’re not gonna back him properly. Pointless appointment otherwise.

 

[BlueToff]

Ridiculous points dropped. How can we go out and score 3 against United 5 against spurs and then not even register a shot on target until the 75th minute v Fulham. Credit to Fulham they looked good yesterday but as good as they were we were equally as bad. It's inexplicable.

Fulham played the way anybody who has actually watched them would expect them to - they’re a decent side whose position in the table is rather unlucky. They also had eight days rest.
We can speak about mentality but when this team is given something simple to do it sets the basics out and then our flair can get us goals.
I can’t look past Carlo for yesterday. He tried to outplay them - and we’re simply not cut out for that.

 

[BlueToff]

If the club don’t back him properly again this summer they can do one as well. They can’t expect him to perform miracles weekly with this current set of overpaid wallies. What was the point in bringing him in if they’re not gonna back him properly. Pointless appointment otherwise.

Yeah but he had a fully fit squad bar Dom to choose from yesterday and did that

 

[Jim Hopper]

Yeah but he had a fully fit squad bar Dom to choose from yesterday and did that

I agree tactically he needs to address the issues but I’m tired of seeing the same old tried and tested players given opportunity after opportunity. Seeing slugs like Gomes who was atrocious getting 90 mins casually jogging around flicking his hair like Prince Charming without breaking a sweat is disgusting.