2020/21 Carlo Ancelotti

[catcherintherye]

If you think we're better than arsenal and villa........why?

The league table.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

Out of pure curiosity, who exactly??

He means pumped them full of PEDs

 

[ToffeeTim]

“A big summer ahead”

That’s been peddled out so many times over the last ten years that it should be our new motto

It's very boring. Every season is called a transitional season and when the season unravels everyone says it's ok because we'll go big in the summer. But we will have the same set of players letting everyone down next season too.

Far too many excuses rolled out every week and far too much defeatism going around. I'm not saying we should beat City but the second half performance was a bunch of players who didn't think they could win. They stood off and gave them far too much respect.

 

[Death]

This has to be the worst I have seen GOT. Like we have been torn apart having a go at each other for every manager that's walked through the door post Moyes. But this time around is my most ashamed to be a blue.

 

[PhilRegan]

Transitional season hasn't been mentioned much. Let's add this one to the other 25 before it as a transitional season.

 

[nsno-chris]

He means pumped them full of PEDs

He’s improved them by ensuring they have asthma

 

[MrGrumpy]

I worry that Ancelotti in two of his three signings (Allan and James) doesn't see that if you add 2 no-paced players to a first team that is already lacking in pace it will catch up with you.

This is basic stuff in the PL: any player you sign must have a serious turn of pace. Yes, you can get away with carrying one in a first team who has great technical ability and is essential in getting a team to play a certain way, but by and large we are more reliant on no-paced players than most other teams in the top half.

We had no real pace for years, started with Koeman and since then we added non.
We don’t even play like a team that has any pace, when do we ever slip a ball through for a forward to run on to? It’s always loft
Midfield is a serious problem still, With Allan and James we have much better control but take them out and your left with sideway passing slugs.

what really winds me up with Everton and has forever is the fact our players get the ball and seem to have no space or time yet the oppo can stop make a coffee and then pass. We never seem to get overloads yet seem to be constantly overloaded.

 

[Jim Hopper]

Yes mate I agree with you that some players are not good enough and never will be. But my point is that good managers can improve certain players. That's what good managers do. Klipperty did it with quite a few of them lot. Before he spent big on the spine of the team. Clough was a prime example of getting the best out of a gang of over the hill journeymen.

It’s all well and good but if you have a team full of snails who don’t want to or refuse to dig deep in the trenches when we are on the back foot then what else can he do? He’s not going to suddenly turn Sigurdsson into a decent Dynamo playmaker, he’s not going to turn Andre Gomes into a quick agile defensive midfielder, he’s not gonna turn Alex Iwobi into a fast paced highly confident winger who just runs at people constantly and gets back to help out defensively when needed. This is what he’s having to work with recently due to injuries and players badly out of form.

 

[PhilM]

Not sure what else he can do with some of these jokers at our club in all honesty. Some of them have played under 3/4 different managers now and still revert after the honey moon period. It’s literally like trying to squeeze blood from a stone with most of them.

The only solace this season so far has been that at least all of his signings made in the summer have contributed well and improved us. It shows that if given money to bring in his own calibre of players we can improve and he will improve us.

Even if we decided we wanted to go for an all out pressing, aggressive in your face approach after one or two injuries we’re right back to square one, same old wasters, same old turgid performances.

Club has too much rot within the squad.

Too many of the players look jaded if not exhausted and this is part of our problem because the ability to play on the front foot is often stifled.

That's not disregarding poor selections from the boss or individual/collective poor performances, yet it's a factor in general terms why we may struggle.

We still lack pace and/or the ability to play at a higher tempo.

 

[Egil Olsen]

That is our current identity due to the players available. It wasn't the case earlier in the season when we had players all fit and firing. This is what gives me hope that with a few more additions we can play attractive and winning football. It's not like Allardyce who would always have played that way.

Do not buy it. This is the main pattern, except for 6-8 games. Ever since Ancelotti took over, we have been reactive in our style. It's also something Ancelotti is known for being with his teams. Even with the players we have, we can play in a completely different way. It's a choice. But to make a system work, you have to practice it, and there has to be some stability. The most stable system in our game is catenaccio.

 

[MrGrumpy]

Transitional season hasn't been mentioned much. Let's add this one to the other 25 before it as a transitional season.

Our transitional play needs some work

 

[Death]

@matty1878 whats going on here. Crush these gremlins. How have you let them escape from the plot dungeon?

 

[catcherintherye]

That is a quite astonishingly positive take on a team that has won 3 out of 11 games inside 90 minutes in 2021, and hasn’t won any of its last 7 home games against PL opposition over 90 minutes. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but there’s genuinely no reason to believe it other than blind faith.

Ok I'll try and put some meat onto it.

We have already beaten Arsenal and Tottenham on the 3 occasions we've played them. We are above Villa and my feeling is they will fall away as the season goes on. I think we will lose to Liverpool.

The broader point was more, that after Liverpool we have played a number of harder fixtures. I'm not saying there aren't some tough games, but the toughest games, as per the league tablre are really Liverpool, City, United, Leicester and Chelsea. I'm sure most people would accept they are the best 5 teams in the league currently. While West Ham, Villa or ourselves may do something remarkable over the next few months, it looks like they are the top 5 teams.

After Saturday we will have played 5 "2nd round" games and 4 will have been against that grouping. We will have had easier fixtures. I'm not sure saying well we still have Arsenal, Spurs, Villa etc really deals with that point.

The counter I would say, which seems fairer is that we can't perform against poorer teams consistently at home, and having lost to Fulham and Newcastle recently there's no easy game for us. As I tend to say though, two things can be true at once, namely we will have played harder fixtures, but also that there's no guarentees we make the best of the easier fixture.

I don't massively worry about Spurs, Arsenal, Villa etc. They seem to be in a sweet spot for us currently, of sides who are not so good as to be miles better than us, but not so bad we take them lightly.

 

[ToffeeTim]

Our transitional play needs some work

This is very true. We are one of the worst teams in the league on the transition. You don't have to be that good to do well either. If you are half decent on the transition and decent at set plays in both boxes, you will do well in this league.

 

[kenada_blue]

Got to disagree with that to a point. Players who have looked ordinary under certain managers have turned into good ones under other managers. This has happened in football for decades.

Flatter to deceive. The only one that did it successfully was Fergie. He'd turn your Phil Neville's and John O'Sheas into title winners.

First you need character and drive to even be able to tap into that. In context to us...none of them do and it's been proved under a number of managers.