In Carlo Ancelotti’s eighth game as Everton manager he delivered something Marco Silva never achieved in 18 months – a comeback win in the Premier League. Victory in his ninth would continue the club’s managerial bounce, taking them joint sixth, a point behind Tottenham, and injecting a little more substance into the theory that another dismal season at Goodison Park could yet end in European qualification. “Nothing special,” was Ancelotti’s assessment of his work so far. “I am not a magician … until now.”
That line arrived with a laugh from Ancelotti who, before Crystal Palace’s visit on Saturday, was also keen to dispel a second take on his managerial reputation – namely, that the three-times Champions League winner does not build winning teams from the bottom up, as Everton wish, but applies the finishing touches to elite European squads primed for success. His counterargument arrived without laughter.
“It is not true that I only finish teams,” said the former Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich manager. “Usually when a club changes a manager it means something went wrong in the past. This is normal. It’s true I found fantastic players and fantastic squads, like at Real Madrid, like Bayern Munich; but when you arrive in a new place the job is the same. You have to explain your work and strive to build a relationship with your players; you have to try to know them as a character. You have to find the right combination between your idea of football and the idea of the players. The work of the manager is to combine these ideas.
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“You start to build a relationship and try to explain to them your methodology of football. This never changes. There are different kinds of teams. PSG were starting to build a new a team, a new club. Here it is already organised. I don’t have to work on the character of the club. The structure of the club is really clear. It is really well-organised. I don’t have to build a club. Of course, we try to put the squad in a better position in the future in the Premier League.”
Ancelotti may feel he does not have to build a club at Everton but he accepts there must be a rebuild of the team for it to match the ambition that prompted his appointment by Farhad Moshiri. The 60-year-old has also been there before.
“When I went to Milan [in 2001] the moment was not good for the team,” he recalled. “But they had ambition, the history and the tradition to be at the top. Slowly, slowly we built and honestly what we did in Milan was quick. We won the Champions League in the second year. I arrived November and the year after we won the Champions League.
“It depends. You can compare [the situation at Everton] to Parma. When I was at Parma, I had different experiences. I was really young. In that period I also had really young players: Buffon, Cannavaro, Thuram, Crespo. So it was a young team with fantastic quality inside. I don’t think we have to put a line [a date for success]. We work day by day to improve.”
Everton have collected 19 points since Silva was sacked following a 5-2 mauling by Liverpool on 4 December. Ancelotti has benefited from the surge in confidence and togetherness created by Duncan Ferguson’s successful spell as caretaker manager and has persisted with the 4-4-2 formation the Scot introduced after one training session. “In some parts of games we have done well, other parts not good,” the manager said. “We have to be more confident when playing our style. In some periods of games we have looked confused. We have to be more precise on the pitch.”
In terms of motivation and organisation Ferguson and Ancelotti have shown up Silva’s shortcomings, although the Italian has also witnessed the fragility of the squad’s character with the late implosion against Newcastle and the FA Cup humbling at Anfield. He hopes the response at Watford last weekend, when Everton recovered from two goals down and the dismissal of Fabian Delph to triumph 3-2, marks a turning point. It was the first time Everton had come from behind to win in the Premier League since December 2017, and the first time from two goals down or more since September 2015.
Ancelotti said: “I think confidence was the key point. After Marco Silva was sacked the interim of Duncan was really good because the players were able to beat Chelsea. That was really important as it gave the players no anxiety. This result showed everyone: don’t be too anxious. We were not in a fantastic position in the table but it showed us that we were better. I think the players are now more confident and more relaxed.”
