Opposition View: Everton – ToffeeWeb
And the award for the Premier League’s biggest under performers so far this season goes to…. okay, maybe not Everton.
Manchester United have been worse. Arsenal are up there too. But given the vast swathes of money spent in recent years by the Toffees, they should be challenging for a top six finish. Yet here we are, over halfway through the Premier League season and they’re only one point better off than Brighton.
Marco Silva paid for their poor first half of the campaign with his job. Everton stunned the football world by somehow managing to convince three times Champions League winner Carlo Ancelotti to take the job, although the size of the task he faces was laid bare when a full strength Toffees side were well beaten by Liverpool reserves in the FA Cup last weekend.
Even so, the future suddenly looks a little brighter for the blue half of Merseyside. Ahead of Brighton’s trip to Goodison Park, we caught up with Lyndon from ToffeeWeb to talk Ancelotti, new stadiums and VAR, which of course gifted the Albion three point last time we met…
Since we last spoke, you’ve had a change of manager with Marco Silva being replaced with Carlo Ancelotti – quite the coup. You must be pretty happy with that appointment?
We are happy, of course, even if still feels a little surreal and no one is quite sure how a manager used to polishing and fine-tuning teams of superstars is going to go about turning Everton’s dysfunctional mob into a winning outfit!
He is the most decorated manager our club has ever hired but you feel it’s the kind of appointment our owner, Farhad Moshiri, has wanted to make, particularly after the failure of his personal project in Marco Silva. It’s going to be an interesting ride to see if Everton can “Everton” up the best managerial appointment in their history!
What are the most pressing issues for Ancelotti right now and where do you see Everton going long term under his management?
The debacle at Anfield on Sunday in the FA Cup – where arguably the strongest side we could put out given our injuries in midfield was humiliated by a team stuffed with untried teenagers – has crystallised many of the challenges facing Ancelotti.
He has a number of experienced players who either were or still are internationals but who are performing well below expectations and look to be sorely lacking in the mental fortitude required to push this team forward when the going gets tough. Marco Silva paid for Everton’s under performance with his job, but that defeat to Liverpool’s kids showed that the players bear a huge responsibility as well. The good thing is they have nowhere left to hide now.
The most pressing issue is in midfield where Ancelotti lacks legs and a true leader, something he might try and address in the transfer window, perhaps with a savvy loan acquisition as André Gomes and Jean-Philippe Gbamin are still recovering from serious injuries.
In the long term, the hope is that Ancelotti can work with Director of Football Marcel Brands to bring in the kind of players he needs to play his style of football – and for Everton to finally fulfil the promise of the Moshiri era.
Are there any notable early differences between Everton under Ancelotti compared to Silva? We know you weren’t exactly great at defending set pieces earlier in the campaign
Interestingly, after the brief interlude under Duncan Ferguson where everything was back-to-basics and get the ball forward quickly, Ancelotti has got the players trying to play out from the back in the way that Silva preferred. Unlike Brighton under Graham Potter, Everton don’t appear to have the players for it so it looks likely to be a rough ride in that respect in the short term.
The defensive weakness at set-piece were already improved after Silva ditched his zonal marking system towards the end of his tenure and things are better on that front.
It’s still very early days but the key differences so far have been Ancelotti’s tactical flexibility and game management which were very much in evidence in the wins against Burnley and Newcastle to end 2019 and
Who have been Everton’s best players so far this season? And any disappointments?
Apart from the last two games against Manchester City and Liverpool, Djibril Sidibé, our loanee from Monaco, has been very good and looked good value for the £14m it would take to sign him permanently this coming summer. Yerry Mina has struggled with injury niggles for much of the season but he has been arguably our most consistent performer while Dominic Calvert-Lewin is slowly emerging as a very competent striker.
The disappointments have been more numerous and serious. Last year’s player of the season, Lucas Digne, has suffered an alarming and mysterious collapse in form; Gylfi Sigurdsson has disappeared as a force in midfield; Fabian Delph has brought none of the leadership and stability we thought we were signing from Manchester City; Michael Keane has looked like a “little boy lost” for most of the campaign, while Theo Walcott and Morgan Schneiderlin offer next to nothing any more.
It means that those in charge of recruitment have plenty to do in trying to shift some of the expensive mistakes made by previous regimes.
Brighton got very lucky when we met at the Amex in October with VAR effectively handing us three points. What did you make of the game that day?
To lose 3-2 was obviously a gut-wrenching result for those of us who had travelled to the Amex in the pouring rain and who looked to be on the verge of celebrating a rare away win. We had done well to retake the lead that day after conceding a soft equaliser.
I confess that given the way we had been playing under Silva, I wasn’t confident we would hold out for the victory even if VAR hadn’t intervened – but there is no question that that terrible decision robbed us of at least a point.
And what are your overall thoughts on VAR?
I think we as a collective of supporters and pundits ushered it in with the increasing obsession with forensically analysing refereeing decisions, which put pressure on the authorities to bring in a “solution” to try and iron out the glaring mistakes.
Unfortunately, while the technology itself has merits, the way it is being applied has been dreadful and it’s having a hugely detrimental effect on the spirit and spontaneity of the game. It’s to the point where they’re combing through moves looking for reasons to chalk goals off rather than just focusing on the clear and obvious errors.
If FIFA would refine the offside law as it pertains to VAR, perhaps with a margin for error and PGMOL could admit that they have been over-bearing and hand the responsibility for decisions back to the referees on the pitch as a result, it could be much better.
As it is currently being implemented, however, I hate it!
Off the pitch, what’s the latest on your new stadium? It looks extremely impressive from what we’ve seen.
The planning application for the new stadium was filed in late December and Liverpool City Council are now undertaking their review. Everton have been very thorough in their consultation of the fans, the local population and businesses so even if the project does get called in by the government, no major obstacles are anticipated.
Funding will be the biggest challenge and it’s still not been spelled out where the various investment will be coming from, but if they can deliver it, the ground does look fantastic and it’s very exciting.
Finally, what’s your prediction for Saturday?
Given what went on at Anfield on Sunday, this is a tricky one as we’re not entirely sure what the response will be, either in terms of personnel changes by the manager or performance from those much-maligned players.
I think it was always going to be a close one given how hard Brighton are to beat these days and I’m tempted to say it’ll be a 1-1 draw but I’ll bank on the Ancelotti factor and say 2-1 Everton.
Thanks to Lyndon for taking the time to talk to us. You can read all about Everton’s progress under Ancelotti on ToffeeWeb and don’t forget to give them a follow on Twitter too, especially if the Albion manage to outdo his 2-1 home win prediction!
