Match Thread Everton v Aston Villa (Thursday 16 July 18:00) - MotM Poll

[Toffeelover]

Everton v Aston Villa is the most played fixture in English top-flight history, with Everton winning 76 of the 203 previous meetings compared to Villa's 74.

Hope we make it 77.

 

[ToffeeTim]

Stekelenberg
Sidibe Holgate Keane Digne
Davies Gordon Iwobi
Walcott Kean Richarlison

 

[zook]

Ancelotti says Mason Holgate is fit for Villa. Andre Gomes is fit. Mina is out. Delph is out

Never thought I’d be longing for the return of Fabian Delph - still maintain that we’ll look like an actual professional football side if we have Delph and Gomes starting together, they’ve only managed that twice this season.

Midfield is definitely the area we need improving the most, that’s a certainty, but a midfield 3 of Gbamin, Gomes and Delph - while not exactly spectacular - would be a solid base to allow a front 3 and 2 fullbacks to play with more freedom.

Currently our attacking minded players are having their creativity curbed by a vulnerable midfield 2 that consistently struggles to retain and regain possession.

 

[Ring master]

SOME OF THE ANCELOTTI PRE MATCH ASTON VILLA P/C


Holgate and Gomes passed fit
Mason Holgate is available. Andre Gomes available.
We are without Yerry Mina and Fabian Delph.

Ancelotti on away form
On home and away form: "I think we are more protected and safe at home, we find it more difficult away.
We have to improve our mentality and our knowledge

More on away form
I don't think this is a problem of whether the fans are there or not. This team has to improve its personality, above all in away games. I'm not satisfied with what we've done away. to be more competitive, we need to improve the aspect of the mentality.


Wants a reaction
On Villa: "We expect a reaction from the last game. Different attitude, different mentality, different character. A big part of the DNA at this club is that everyone wants to see players fighting. When there is no fight, it's not in the DNA of this club.


Ancelotti on Branthwaite
I think he showed his quality and showed his limits and inexperience. We conceded a goal from a set piece, but after that he showed personality and quality. We don't have to put a lot of pressure on him, for sure he's going to improve.


Ancelotti on missing out on Europe
I think that this club has to compete in Europe. We were not able to do that this season, we want to fight next season to reach European competition. It has to be a target, and it is a target for this club, we have to fight next season

This season didn't start well, we were close to the bottom of the table in December. We had a dream to reach Europe, but the last results were not good. This doesn't change the plan, the target must still be Europe."


Ancelotti
The priority, when I arrived, was to be safe as soon as possible.


Ancelotti on midfield criticism
In general we have to improve everywhere. I think that, in this period, what we showed is that sometimes in midfield we needed more power, we needed more quality. We have players with quality and power, but we were not always able to show this

Ancelotti on formations
I think the system is not so important. For the players I have in this moment, 4-4-2 defensively is the best system


Ancelotti on changing system against Wolves
When you change shape it's not always easy for the players to understand. For the future, the identity has to be quite clear. Defensively you can see easily how we play, offensively we would like to have a different system to attack


Ancelotti on youngsters
I think this is the best environment, they are playing with us and learning a lot from more experienced players. As I said, they are training with us not because we like to have young players, because they have the quality to be with us
It is important for everyone not to expect to much from these players. They need time to be comfortable with the team, we have to be patient with them


Ancelotti on poor form
Three poor performances. Why? It is difficult to say. First of all I think that we didn't have a lot of time to recover properly, second of all we lost a bit of fighting spirit. I think the players lost a bit of motivation and concentration

What Ancelotti told players
I was really surprised and I marked this to the players. It's not acceptable, I said. I'm sure in the next three games we are going to have a different attitude

 

[Arteta10]

Check out recent results......you happy with that rubbish.
Of course Ancelotti has tactical knowledge. But this is Everton. Let's see how he does next season. And of course I hope to be proved wrong.......I hope that Ancelotti turns out to be the footballing genius that everyone thinks he is.
But imo our footballing genius didn't have much of a clue what to do against the Liverpool kids.....Chelsea and more recently Wolves.
He gets far to much of a free pass on this site.(and I don't really care how he did with the footballing giants of this world)........let's see how next season goes...

You don't think the players have something to do with recent results more than the manager?

It was his tactical switch that won us the game against Leicester, they were all over us at 2-1 until he spotted the problem and made the change. We looked comfortable after that.

As for hoping Ancelotti 'turns out to be a tactical genius' I think its a little late for that. He turned out to be a tactical genius about 20 years ago, he has nothing to prove.

Ridiculous to try lay even a shred of the blame at his door when you see the cowardly performances that the players on the pitch are putting in

 

[Wat Tyler]

Ancelotti on midfield criticism
In general we have to improve everywhere. I think that, in this period, what we showed is that sometimes in midfield we needed more power, we needed more quality.


What Ancelotti told players
I was really surprised and I marked this to the players. It's not acceptable, I said. I'm sure in the next three games we are going to have a different attitude.

Code for - I bollocked them.

 

[jtl60]

Villas midfield totally overran us in the reverse fixture, think we need to have someone in there to match them and would consider playing Holgate in the midfield and leaving Braithwaite in defence.

 

[The Trinity.]

You don't think the players have something to do with recent results more than the manager?

It was his tactical switch that won us the game against Leicester, they were all over us at 2-1 until he spotted the problem and made the change. We looked comfortable after that.

As for hoping Ancelotti 'turns out to be a tactical genius' I think its a little late for that. He turned out to be a tactical genius about 20 years ago, he has nothing to prove.

Ridiculous to try lay even a shred of the blame at his door when you see the cowardly performances that the players on the pitch are putting in

sacked by a few clubs......But not to worry......he managed to get Everton to beat a misfiring Leicester City.
And yes some of our players are useless. So let's see how Ancelotti fares when he can (hopefully) change things around.
I think that he has his hands full with this Everton squad. You think.that he will work out ok. Let's see.
And just once more........I couldn't give a #### what he did with other clubs or 20 years ago.........he's at Everton now.

 

[Arteta10]

sacked by a few clubs......But not to worry......he managed to get Everton to beat a misfiring Leicester City.
And yes some of our players are useless. So let's see how Ancelotti fares when he can (hopefully) change things around.
I think that he has his hands full with this Everton squad. You think.that he will work out ok. Let's see.
And just once more........I couldn't give a #### what he did with other clubs or 20 years ago.........he's at Everton now.

OK mate, you couldn't give a #### that Everton, after years of dire managers, finally have one of the most successful managers of all time. And you're giving him grief after hes managed about 15 games, with possibly the worst squad we have had in 20 years.

Strange take, but to each their own.

 

[The Trinity.]

You don't think the players have something to do with recent results more than the manager?

It was his tactical switch that won us the game against Leicester, they were all over us at 2-1 until he spotted the problem and made the change. We looked comfortable after that.

As for hoping Ancelotti 'turns out to be a tactical genius' I think its a little late for that. He turned out to be a tactical genius about 20 years ago, he has nothing to prove.

Ridiculous to try lay even a shred of the blame at his door when you see the cowardly performances that the players on the pitch are putting in

sacked by a few clubs......that were mainly built by other managers....But not to worry......he managed to get Everton to beat a misfiring Leicester City.

And yes some of our players are useless. So let's see how Ancelotti fares when he can (hopefully) change things around. Bring in his own players.

I think that he has his hands full with this Everton squad. You think.that he will work out ok. I've seen nothing yet to suggest that all will be well.
But it's early days.. Let's see.

And just once more........I couldn't give a #### what he did with other clubs or 20 years ago.........he's at Everton now...
...Playing out from the back looks great at Real Madrid. Why persist with all that nonsense with the players he has at his disposal now.
Why persist with our slow useless midfield......
He is allowed to try something different........Duncan Ferguson did...
But I hope that you are right. We will then have a decent team. So once again.......let's see.

 

[The Trinity.]

OK mate, you couldn't give a #### that Everton, after years of dire managers, finally have one of the most successful managers of all time. And you're giving him grief after hes managed about 15 games, with possibly the worst squad we have had in 20 years.

Strange take, but to each their own.

Try reading my post correctly. I couldn't give a #### what Carlo Ancelotti did 20 years ago. I very much give a #### how Everton fare. Have done now for over 50 years. So let's just agree to disagree about Ancelotti. Time will tell.......

 

[Arteta10]

Try reading my post correctly. I couldn't give a #### what Carlo Ancelotti did 20 years ago. I very much give a #### how Everton fare. Have done now for over 50 years. So let's just agree to disagree about Ancelotti. Time will tell.......

OK mate.

Think you will find you're very much in the minority on this one tho

 

[Cameron Manning]

You don't think the players have something to do with recent results more than the manager?

It was his tactical switch that won us the game against Leicester, they were all over us at 2-1 until he spotted the problem and made the change. We looked comfortable after that.

As for hoping Ancelotti 'turns out to be a tactical genius' I think its a little late for that. He turned out to be a tactical genius about 20 years ago, he has nothing to prove.

Ridiculous to try lay even a shred of the blame at his door when you see the cowardly performances that the players on the pitch are putting in

Yes the players have a lot to answer for, some of them have underperformed for most of the season, but they have been selected constantly, Ancelotti has a proven very successful career, however it is what he achieves here that matters to Evertonians, so he does have plenty to prove to us fans, hopefully he will, the past has gone it’s the present that counts to us.

 

[Cameron Manning]

Surely a Carlo Ancelotti side cannot lose to this bloody Aston Villa team? They're pants!

They’ve got Grealish and McGinn in central midfield, we’ve got erm ! erm erm, they’ve got Grealish and McGinn, think it makes a massive difference, but I’m still hoping we can pull through!!!

 

[granter79]

Villas midfield totally overran us in the reverse fixture, think we need to have someone in there to match them and would consider playing Holgate in the midfield and leaving Braithwaite in defence.

Id be all for this and would like to see Braithwaite start the last few games.