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Ancelotti comments on Everton home form worrying

By Matt Townsend

LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 23: Carlo Ancelotti, Manager of Everton gives instructions to their side during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Everton at Emirates Stadium on April 23, 2021 in London, England. Sporting stadiums around the UK remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by John Walton - Pool/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 23: Carlo Ancelotti, Manager of Everton gives instructions to their side during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Everton at Emirates Stadium on April 23, 2021 in London, England. Sporting stadiums around the UK remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by John Walton - Pool/Getty Images) /
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Carlo Ancelotti has been speaking about the problems Everton have had this season at Goodison Park and claims new signings are not the answer to turning it around.

These are worrying statements from the Everton boss as we move closer to the end of another frustratingly inconsistent season and the start of the summer transfer window.

The Toffees home form this season has been abysmal with eight Premier League defeats and another four draws costing a total of 32 points. If it wasn’t for those fine away wins they’d probably be in the bottom three or four!

Obviously no matter how good the Blues had been this season they wouldn’t have secured all those points. But even if they’d only managed to get half of them, another sixteen points would now put Everton in second place in the table. That’s a sobering statistic and goes to show how much of a chance has been blown this season.

And as we’ve said many times before it’s not as if those defeats in particular, have all been against top sides as the Toffees have lost to Leeds, West Ham, Newcastle United, Fulham and Burnley at Goodison Park.

Again many Premier League teams have struggled at home in this strange campaign but the Blues record is one of the worst and not nearly as good as those sides around them in the hunt for European qualification. So why is that?

Ancelotti says that the key to improvement in the side’s performances at the grand old lady, is the return of fans and not new additions to strengthen the team.

That’s an odd statement to make as I think as it’s very clear that there are still major weaknesses in this team that can only ultimately be improved by new and better players.

In particular, the side needs a new right-back, and a right-sided attacker with pace and the ability to create and score goals, another striker to provide pressure and an alternative to the current two and/or a different option off the bench. And finally also another energetic, athletic midfielder, especially as there are now renewed doubts about Jean-Philippe Gbamin’s health.

That’s quite a shopping list and while it’s debatable whether the Toffees would be able to get all the players they might want in this summer’s window, the club must address the weakness on the right side of the team and get another striker in as an absolute priority.

It’s worrying if Ancelotti doesn’t think these additions are necessary to improve the team’s home form and it raises questions about how much in-coming activity Everton will actually be doing in this summer’s window.

We’ve heard positive noises about bringing in two or three players and focusing on the right side of the team and that’s good to hear.

But in addition, there is also a question mark for me sometimes about the manager’s team selections, tactics and style of play.

The Italian has been forced by injuries in this campaign to adopt a much more defensive approach at times and that’s fair enough. It worked when the Blues needed to stabilise the season at the end of last year following a series of defeats.

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However, there are situations when this cautious approach seems to have backfired. In particular Everton have been much too passive and negative in some of those home losses to sides lower down the league allowing their opponents to press, outwit and outwork them.

And in recent games Ancelotti has brought on defensive players when the need is for the team to go and win the match. This was the case in the Crystal Palace and Arsenal games and while Everton held on for all the points at the Emirates they dropped another two against Palace allowing Roy Hodgson’s side to take advantage and equalise late in the game.

Too often in these matches the Toffees have played football that has been slow and lacking in urgency. Games like these raise questions for me about whether Ancelotti can adopt the sort of attacking, pressing football often necessary for success in the Premier League.

Then there is the quesiton of how can he integrate a player like James Rodriguez, who while being immensly talented, is not really a footballer able to play the sort of high-intensity game most often seen in the Premier League – nor for that matter is Gylfi Sigurdsson. Rodriguez is also very injury-prone and so it seems risky to rely too much on him for your side’s creativity.

The Blues have to find a way to play with more speed and energy, particularly at home, need additional pace, especially on the flanks, and must create and score more goals.

So I have to admit to entertaining increasing doubts about Ancelotti’s approach, and comments like these above only reinforce them. I hope he can prove me wrong.

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