2020/21 Carlo Ancelotti

[DOMNOLAN]

We have such useless players.. I don't know how Carlo gets anything out of them. Its a miracle we're not in the bottom half.
DCL - so what if he has been England # 2 to Kane and learnt to take his chances.
Richy - ok so what he actually starts for Brazil as a forward.
James Rod - I mean.. sure he might be a creative genius with a wand of a left foot and the vision of superman.. how does that help?
Digne - might be the most chances creating LB in England if not Europe.. but you know
Doucoure - So he has an engine of a diesel truck and can go for 120 minutes
Godfrey - might be the fastest back in the league and built like a brick house but what does that matter
Keane - winning aerial battle and pinging cross field passes like Pirlo all season.. how does that help
Pickford - Might be England number 1 but all those mistakes
Allan - sure he is all nuggety and can drive the ball forward and pass.. but he's not Gueye

So there is the best we have.. how can we hope to compete with that lot hey? I mean have you seen the other teams in the league? The personnel Saints, Fulham, Newcastle, Leeds have.. I mean lets not even try compare to Leicester or Aston Villa.. West Ham?? Forget it.. No way this mob could actually find a pass, space or string enough passes together to actually get passed the half way line without have to go back to the keeper first (then back to defense, then back to the keeper, then Davies, then Keane, the Mina, then Davies... you get the point).

Then you throw in Bernard, Gomes, Davies, Sig, Coleman.. any two of those in the team completely nullifies anything the above 9 players might bring to the side.. totally. It only takes one bad apple to make the whole bunch worthless.

If its not clear what my message is .. its this:
Everyone saying what do you expect from Carlo with a team like ours? The above is what you are saying.
That a team with those players throughout its ranks are too useless to actually try play football with any discernable style. Fans who are questioning why tactically we seem so devoid of confidence are called negative.. when in fact we are the ones that believe in the players! I don't believe we need to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater! I believe we have a seriously talented group of players that are far better than we give them credit for and are not being allowed to express themselves and play to their full potential.

I believe Carlo can get them there... I really do and I want nothing more than him to turn this ship around.. but right now we are as rudderless and disjointed as any time in the last few years... otherwise why are we here? To make up the numbers?

I get your point, and I agree. However I will question the part in bold. This is in fact how bad Sig is.

 

[consho]

I think playing Holgate and Godfrey against a team who had scored about 6 goals all season was a decent gamble.

Do I think the team was weakened, possibly, cos I consider them our best pairing, not many agree, for loads, Holgate and Godfrey are, what is Carlos best 11?

When everybody is fit, refreshed and ready, which team does Carlo pick? We don't know, cos its never happened yet.

So in the end you grudgingly agree with me !!!!!!

 

[Goat]

So in the end you grudgingly agree with me !!!!!!

No mate, I still wouldnt call it a weakened side.

Carlo has been here 14? months now and has rotated the side in every single game we have played and it still shocks people.

So no, I don't consider it a weakened side, any side in which we pick Iwobi, that's a weakened side.

 

[Gilbert..]

It's not that it was weakened - it's that it had no discernable shape or system. And you can't argue otherwise. It was crap, completely imbalanced and set the tone for a crap performance - and we know a fair chunk of these players need no excuse to turn one of them in.

Very imbalanced. The midfield had no shape at all. No pace.
But. The excuse of other options doesnt wash with me. As the only real options were iwobi and bernard. Iwobi is gash and bernard is about as reliable as a chocolate teapot.
Could sit here a post till the cows come home.
Bottom line is the squad is still a mess.
I will take fighting for 5th to 10th until we can attempt to get some pace into that midfield and buy a new keeper.

 

[consho]

No mate, I still wouldnt call it a weakened side.

Carlo has been here 14? months now and has rotated the side in every single game we have played and it stil
o I think the team was weakened, possibly, cos I consider them our best pairing, not many agree, for loads, Holgate and Godfrey are, what is Carlos best 11?

l shocks people.

So no, I don't consider it a weakened side, any side in which we pick Iwobi, that's a weakened side.

Your quote "Do I think the team was weakened, possibly, cos I consider them our best pairing," seems to contradict what you are now saying.

 

[Goat]

Your quote "Do I think the team was weakened, possibly, cos I consider them our best pairing," seems to contradict what you are now saying.

Should my word be considered final now mate?

I mean cos I think Mina and Keane are our best pairing, does that make it 100% so?

Anyway, I don't think we lost cos we didn't play Mina and Keane and we will never know, so lets save our fingers and agree to disagree.

 

[TheSecondComing]

The JP one, we had 2 balls cleared off the line

We actually played some really good stuff that day, Gomes ran the show.

I do wonder what would have happened if we had held on that day.

 

[Saint Domingo]

Yeah, it is. But... they have to surely start working on something else then so that they can, y'know, pass five yards?

Maybe there's only so much he can do, but then you have to again point to the recruitment over the past 5 years, including Brands' time here.

Everton was a mess top to bottom. Brands and Carlo have come in and are trying to turn around an institution that had been ploughing in the wrong direction for about 20 years. If they’re not the right people, who do people want?

 

[Brownie]

We're a difficult team to figure out, that is for damn sure.

 

[BlueToff]

At no point have I even attempted to defend the performance, it was shocking, but personally I don't lay the blame at Mina and Keane being missing.

No, but I don't think that was the main issue with that team. The main issue was playing 3 slow midfielders, all trying to fill the same space, in an extremely narrow system, and then commenting after that we were physically outmatched.

Everyone's allowed a bad day at the office, but he'd tried the same system and shape earlier in the season and it was equally as poor.

 

[BlueToff]

Everton was a mess top to bottom. Brands and Carlo have come in and are trying to turn around an institution that had been ploughing in the wrong direction for about 20 years. If they’re not the right people, who do people want?

I think they are the right people. Doesn't mean I can't criticise them for making bad decisions.

 

[Blunatic]

It's not that it was weakened - it's that it had no discernable shape or system. And you can't argue otherwise. It was crap, completely imbalanced and set the tone for a crap performance - and we know a fair chunk of these players need no excuse to turn one of them in.

you can argue otherwise quite easily. he tried to play with a double attacking pivot of James AMRC and Sigurdsson AMLC floating inbetween the lines on either side of the pitch, this is why he also played more offensive minded fullbacks in Coleman and Digne the idea being they would provide width and passing options for James and Sigurdsson on the outside with Doucoure breaking from the CM trio to provide an extra option and support to Richarlison. I believe he hoped that by playing this way we would be able to outnumber them and control the midfield ultimately pushing us further up the pitch and playing a higher defensive line. This is why he went with the selection of Godfrey and Holgate as a central defensive partnership as they're quicker than Mina and Keane and more suited to playing a higher line. It didn't work (primarily because we had too many players couldn't or didn't run) but it was there.

 

[BlueToff]

you can argue otherwise quite easily. he tried to play with a double attacking pivot of James AMRC and Sigurdsson AMLC floating inbetween the lines on either side of the pitch, this is why he also played more offensive minded fullbacks in Coleman and Digne the idea being they would provide width and passing options for James and Sigurdsson on the outside with Doucoure breaking from the CM trio to provide an extra option and support to Richarlison. I believe he hoped that by playing this way we would be able to outnumber them and control the midfield ultimately pushing us further up the pitch and playing a higher defensive line. This is why he went with the selection of Godfrey and Holgate as a central defensive partnership as they're quicker than Mina and Keane and more suited to playing a higher line. It didn't work (primarily because we had too many players couldn't or didn't run) but it was there.

That's all true - but it didn't work the other time he tried it and it was never going to work against Fulham, because Coleman can't get up and down anymore, so he wasn't offering any width. Doucoure was having to drop deep to cover the space, left by James, down the right, and that was dragging Davies all over the shop and Gomes couldn't make up the ground or get on the ball enough, and then Sigurdsson and James both dropped deep, leaving Richarlison totally isolated.

It didn't work and didn't take much to see it was never actually going to work. That was very clear after 5 minutes, too. And he didn't change anything until after we'd inevitably gone behind.

No excusing Sunday, he had a horror show. It happens, good managers make mistakes. Carlo's subs are a bit crap, too, but he's not helped by having a lot of the same type of players.

 

[Blunatic]

That's all true - but it didn't work the other time he tried it and it was never going to work against Fulham, because Coleman can't get up and down anymore, so he wasn't offering any width. Doucoure was having to drop deep to cover the space, left by James, down the right, and that was dragging Davies all over the shop and Gomes couldn't make up the ground or get on the ball enough, and then Sigurdsson and James both dropped deep, leaving Richarlison totally isolated.

It didn't work and didn't take much to see it was never actually going to work. That was very clear after 5 minutes, too. And he didn't change anything until after we'd inevitably gone behind.

No excusing Sunday, he had a horror show. It happens, good managers make mistakes. Carlo's subs are a bit crap, too, but he's not helped by having a lot of the same type of players.

I agree there is no defending the selection or the tactical approach it was his worst day as our manager. The only good thing about it is hopefully games like this are in his and brands minds when it comes to the next transfer window.

 

[MrGrumpy]

I agree there is no defending the selection or the tactical approach it was his worst day as our manager. The only good thing about it is hopefully games like this are in his and brands minds when it comes to the next transfer window.

Had Coleman been half decent he would have scored instead of hitting the post and we would of won.
Carlo has a serious problem that he can’t solve. Coleman is useless in the oppo half so he forced to play a CB at RB who is far more defensive minded. Coleman also really dropped levels in the last 2 years.
You that have a £45 million flop(worst signing in our history) who is unable to run or pass forward, yet have no choice but to play him due to lack of options.

Our attacks are so poor
Keeper passed to CB in our box who passed to sigi who stood on our own box at which point he passed back, the ball goes back to RB/LB who the goes to Sigi who now 25 yards from our goal who goes back to CB, rinse and repeat till we blast it 110 yards to far or amazingly pass to Coleman 25 yards out who crosses straight thought the church’s window
Or it goes to Richy/DCL who have no one within 25 yards of them