2020/21 Carlo Ancelotti

[kiss the crest]

Carlo knows the football isn’t great, but as others have said he has to work with what he has got. Come the summer and he makes another 3 signings we will put teams to the sword and be much better on the eye, when Napoli played Liverpool the other year when he was in charge they played them off the park at the pit.
So for the few moaners give him some slack

 

[Prevenger17]

I honestly don't think the football is as bad as people are making out. Our defending is excellent and we are getting up the pitch regularly enough. Its often getting squandered by a poor final ball, which can be frustrating, but the intent and desire is there.

 

[Bullens Rd]

Carlo knows the football isn’t great, but as others have said he has to work with what he has got. Come the summer and he makes another 3 signings we will put teams to the sword and be much better on the eye, when Napoli played Liverpool the other year when he was in charge they played them off the park at the pit.
So for the few moaners give him some slack

I'd love to know what he really thinks about these players. I mean, last night he actually came out and said Iwobi played well. He can't be impressed seeing Holgate on the right, Gomes constantly passing the ball to the opposition or Bernard playing like an under-8. Of course we'll never know, but I'll assume he has some strong feelings about some of the players, heh.

 

[JAYMULL]

Carlo the complete mirror image of Klipperty, calmness personified

 

[Steve EFC]

I honestly don't think the football is as bad as people are making out. Our defending is excellent and we are getting up the pitch regularly enough. Its often getting squandered by a poor final ball, which can be frustrating, but the intent and desire is there.

Our league position is credit to Carlo from getting the best he can from the group of players he has to his game management.
Defensively we are looking strong now and up front we are proving to be clinical with DCL and Richy in good form.
We are struggling in midfield and that is why we are unable to control games and keep possession and it is also why my ageing process is sped up during those 90 mins Everton play each week.
In glimpses we can play terrific football but most of the time it’s uncomfortable to watch and even much lesser teams too often are able to pin us down and attack for large periods.

 

[Jim Hopper]

Our league position is credit to Carlo from getting the best he can from the group of players he has to his game management.
Defensively we are looking strong now and up front we are proving to be clinical with DCL and Richy in good form.
We are struggling in midfield and that is why we are unable to control games and keep possession and it is also why my ageing process is sped up during those 90 mins Everton play each week.
In glimpses we can play terrific football but most of the time it’s uncomfortable to watch and even much lesser teams too often are able to pin us down and attack for large periods.

I think we’ll see major improvement once Allan is 100%, Davies is back in the side and James is back involved and finding his rhythm again.

Can you imagine how good we’ll be?

A diamond system with

Holgate—Keane—Godfrey—Digne

——————Davies——————-
——Doucoure———-Allan———-

——————-James——————

—————DCL——Richy————-

Some proper bite and energy in the middle. James pulling the strings, Digne overlapping, Richy getting in behind and Dom bullying and dragging players out of position. This is the way forward.

 

[Deco]

We lost to West Ham, Newcastle and Fulham, fans moaned.

We tweaked things a bit and manage to beat Southampton and West Brom (after WINNING AT ANFIELD!) but fans still moan?

We’ve had continual disruption with injuries, I’m really not surprised we haven’t been able to play flowing football for a while.

Even if we miss out on top 4 by 5 points and blame the Newcastle/Fulham results, EVERY team has lost games they should’ve won this season.

Carlo’s 3 point blues.

 

[roy vernon]

We lost to West Ham, Newcastle and Fulham, fans moaned.

We tweaked things a bit and manage to beat Southampton and West Brom (after WINNING AT ANFIELD!) but fans still moan?

We’ve had continual disruption with injuries, I’m really not surprised we haven’t been able to play flowing football for a while.

Even if we miss out on top 4 by 5 points and blame the Newcastle/Fulham results, EVERY team has lost games they should’ve won this season.

Carlo’s 3 point blues.

If we miss out on the top 4 by 5 points, it will be our best season in years. This squad is very limited once you get past the first choice 11, it’s March, we’re 5th, 1 point off the top 4 and people are moaning about the quality of the football.

Carlo has looked at the players and come up with systems which get us results, it may not be pretty, but, did we really expect to be in this position at this time of the season? Cast your mind back to the start of the season, when all the players were fit and fresh, we played some great football, as we still do in flashes. As the injuries and fatigue took hold it became a case of Carlo pragmatically finding ways to keep grinding out points.

I think it’s fair to say that he has succeeded, I know some home results have been disappointing, but, overall this season has been so much more than we could have expected.

 

[DanB90]

I honestly don't think the football is as bad as people are making out. Our defending is excellent and we are getting up the pitch regularly enough. Its often getting squandered by a poor final ball, which can be frustrating, but the intent and desire is there.

I said this a few weeks ago. People are acting like it’s agricultural, route one, play the percentages football. It’s a million miles from that.

It’s structured, organised and most of the time, clinical.

 

[allen]

Carlo is the ultimate pragmatist, without being bogged down by being a pessimist. That's the huge difference between him and Moyes.

 

[Lanolin]

I don’t really like the way we play but it genuinely doesn’t matter in the slightest if you get results. I think when we play like that and roll over like against Fulham it’s fair game to have a go but if they dig in and see it through like last night I won’t be complaining. He’s not allardyce, I have no doubt this isn’t how he wants us to play, so as long the results keep coming until he’s in a position to change it it’s fine.

 

[Saint Domingo]

I honestly don't think the football is as bad as people are making out. Our defending is excellent and we are getting up the pitch regularly enough. Its often getting squandered by a poor final ball, which can be frustrating, but the intent and desire is there.

This. We’re actually trying to play through the lines and attack in a different manner than just always looking for a cross from the left back. The through balls we’ve seen v Liverpool and Southampton are attacking moves we’ve added under Carlo.

Allardyce Koeman and Silva had us hitting long balls into the channels or for DCL to flick on. Nowadays we’re getting ourselves into trouble trying to play out from the back. It’s night and day.

 

[Saint Domingo]

I said this a few weeks ago. People are acting like it’s agricultural, route one, play the percentages football. It’s a million miles from that.

It’s structured, organised and most of the time, clinical.

You don’t have the league position we have and beat the teams we’ve beaten if it’s just sit deep and play % football. If it was that we’d be back in the bottom half where all the managers we had who did that had us. It’s far better than that.

 

[JMT]

The football isn't enjoyable to watch why are we trying to make excuses for it? The last two have been absolute garbage to watch. Does it matter if we win? No it doesn't the 3 points is the main thing but lets not kid ourselves here.
I have no doubt that Ancelotti doesn't want to play this way either but due to personnel and injuries he's making do so It's nothing to write home about yet, If we're playing this way next season then it'll become a serious issue.
WBA and Southampton pass it around better than we do.

 

[paulbefc]

This is where I’m leaning now at this point. I’ve accepted that we aren’t going to be playing any attractive attacking football from now until the end of the season. What you can’t deny though, is that we are getting results at a rate that will secure us Europe.

People aren’t obliged to watch every single one of our games. If the football is that bad to watch, don’t watch it. Sit back, relax and wait for the results to come in. You will get your fluid cohesive football when we have built a proper team.

This is it in a nutshell. Even after the summer window, you could see that the 4 players we got weren't going to solve every problem. We need 3/4 more this summer to be the kind of squad that can absorb injuries and crowded fixture lists without having to make concessions on style of play and attacking football.

European qualification would make this coming window so much easier, both financially and in attracting these players.

Europa League would make us a fantastic proposition for players and would give us a bit of financial flexibility. CL remains a "dream", but would change everything.

Even if we get no European football though, I think we'd be able to start next season with a squad that could finish in the top 4 if we're "shrewd" in the summer.