Ancelotti must earn his money at Everton in last games

Returning to the team’s efforts at Goodison Park though and apart from two home wins against West Brom and Brighton in the first month, Everton have only beaten Chelsea, Arsenal and Southampton in the Premier League at home.

And two of those home wins were in December when Ancelotti was playing the aforementioned scratch defence and the team were winning by one goal margins.

It is a continuing mystery why the Toffees can’t seem to win at the grand old lady. Ancelotti has said that it’s mainly down to a mental problem and perhaps that’s all it is but I think tactical and team decisions haven’t helped.

There have been too many changes in formation and personel, althought to be fair that has often been forced on the manager by injuries.

It’s difficult to create enough stability when you have to constantly react to injury and bring players in last-minute but there are times when it seems that Ancelotti makes changes that don’t work and his in-game substitutions have been at times perplexing and costly.

That was the case with the Crystal Palace game recently when he brought on two defensive players as the Blues were pressing for a second goal to make the points safe. This didn’t work and Palace, after making their own more attacking changes, equalised so denying Everton two more precious points.

It was an example of where I think Ancelotti’s cautious, defensive instincts override the need to go all out and win a match.

There are times when you have to be safety first and do whatever it takes to avoid defeat and being an old-school Italian coach Ancelotti’s instinctive pragmatism is to be expected.

As we’ve said the 61-year-old is very adept at setting Everton up to be solid, tactically smart and to effectively counter-attack when away from home and that has led to some excellent wins on the road. But he dosen’t seem as confortable when he has to find a way to win at home by playing a much more positive attacking game.

Too many times the Blues were timid and slow in their play and passing and it was all too laboured with players giving the ball away cheaply and far too often, so stopping them gaining any attacking momentum.

Another related problem is that too many of the players at his disposal seem to comfortable and are not under real threat for their position in the team so don’t give their best in the mundane matches against supposedly weaker sides.

Individuals like Digne, Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin are basically shoe-ins for the team and while they are all very good players, have at times seemed to be coasting without any real competition.

This could be a problem and the consequence of such an unbalanced squad with too many other squad players like Alex Iwobi not good enough to push the starters. In contrast Jordan Pickford’s improvement this season has been directly related to Robin Olsen joining.

Ancelotti has chastised his players at times this season for their perceived lack of effort but is his relaxed management style a factor here?