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Ancelotti must earn his money at Everton in last games

By Matt Townsend

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - MAY 01: Carlo Ancelotti, Manager of Everton reacts during the Premier League match between Everton and Aston Villa at Goodison Park on May 01, 2021 in Liverpool, 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 Peter Byrne - Pool/Getty Images)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - MAY 01: Carlo Ancelotti, Manager of Everton reacts during the Premier League match between Everton and Aston Villa at Goodison Park on May 01, 2021 in Liverpool, 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 Peter Byrne - Pool/Getty Images) /
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It’s a difficult thing to admit but I am beginning to have more and more doubts about whether Carlo Ancelotti is the right man for Everton.

I know this will seem hard to hear for many Everton supporters and I sincerely hope to be wrong, but I have to say I think recent results culminating in Saturday’s 2-1 loss at home to Aston Villa, have repeatedly highlighted continuing failures in the team that he doesn’t seem able to resolve.

The Toffees home form has been terrible this campaign and as has already been pointed out here, will now almost certainly cost the Blues a chance of European football next season.

In fact Everton might well finish lower than under Sam Allardyce or in Marco Silva’s last full season when on both occasions they ended up in eighth place. That’s not exactly progress is it?

It’s an extremely frustrating reality as just a few more wins at the grand old lady against opponents like Newcastle United, Fulham and Burnley would have put Everton right in the mix not just for Europe but for the Champions League.

If the Blues cannot somehow scrape a European place next term they will have blown a massive chance to re-position this club as a contender again after so many years of failure and underachievment.

This Premier League season has been a much more open one than would have been expected in any normal pre-Covid year. As a result, there have been some crazy results and many teams, including the top sides, have struggled for the consistency they might usually expect, especially at their home ground.

That means it’s created an opportunity for any of the less fashionable sides that can find some decent, regular form to make a run for the top four or European places, as Leicester City and West Ham have done.

Everton started the season in great form and won their first seven matches in a row, including four straight Premier League games to sit top of the table at the first international break. There were though signs of continuing defensive fraility but at that time it didn’t matter.

However, the Toffees have never recovered that form after the first break and the campaign has ultimately been another irritatingly inconsistent one.

On the plus side the Blues have found the antedote to their constant problems away from home with ten victories on the road, the most since the 1986-87 championship season.

Whether that represents a genuine turnaround or if as I supect, is at least in part because of the unusual conditions with no fans in grounds, we’ll find out next season.

It’s certainly true that Ancelotti has engineered some of these wins with some very good tactical and team selection decisions, most notably at Leicester, Wolves and Liverpool.

These were often forced on him by injuries and he showed a good ability to make the most of those difficult circumstances.

In particular at the end of last year, he found a really solid defensive formation when he decided to play a four centre-back formation with Ben Godfrey and Mason Holgate playing at full-back either side of Yerry Mina and Micheal Keane.

At the time Everton were in poor form and had struggled losing three out of four Premier League matches and looking very vulnerable defensively.

Godfrey in particular was a revelation at left-back and his energetic, dynamic and determined performances meant he couldn’t be left out of the side even when Lucas Digne returned. His emergence has been one of the best aspects of this campaign.