GOODISON SIRO
Ancelotti has managed at some of the world’s great stadiums and gets great welcome before victory
EVEN a half-time marriage proposal could barely add romance to a damp Merseyside afternoon where the football matched the grey sky.
With Burnley the ferocious, cussed opposition, Carlo Ancelotti (above right) clearly had no illusions.
This was hardly the San Siro or the Bernabeu. This was not taking over a team of galacticos and guiding them back towards the glory that is inherent in the clubs he has managed. Yet the rousing reception he received, as he walked along the touchline at the start of his first game in charge of Everton, showed that he is at a special club, if one whose best days are something of a distant memory.
And when Dominic CalvertLewin (right) produced a stunning winning goal 10 minutes from time to lift the roof off this famous old stadium,
Ancelotti certainly knew one thing. If he has a big job on his hands, then he will at least get plenty of help from the supporters who already revere him.
It is a long time since Ancelotti has managed at this level, more than 20 years in fact, when he left Reggiana for
Parma. Since then, it has been a host of illustrious names and venues, and inevitable success.
Yet he knows how to build teams, as his spells at those first two Italian clubs showed, by steering Reggiana to promotion before driving Parma to second place in Serie A and into the Champions League.
Everton are some distance from that. Yet as skipper Seamus Coleman said, the team has already taken on board some of his ideas and some of his demands.
That much was clear on an otherwise gloomy afternoon, when the home side were transformed from a desperate first half, where they were too methodical and even robotic. Ancelotti got to work at the break, changing the formation, getting Bernard on the ball, and crucially, providing quicker ball into Calvert-Lewin. The young centre-forward is still a work in progress, a work that is happening out on the pitch in the full glare of the unforgiving Premier League spotlight.
He missed three presentable chances to the groans of an expectant Blues support, heading an early Gylfi Sigurdsson freekick wide early on when he should have done better, and mistiming his jump from Lucas Digne’s cross to head horribly over before the break.
A third chance
came soon after the interval when he headed straight at the Burnley keeper Nick Pope, who had made a fine close-range save earlier, from Mason Holgate.
Yet if that spoke of Burnley’s defensive resilience and a lack of creativity – the tricky Bernard apart – then Calvert-Lewin’s third chance at least showed that Ancelotti’s half-time teamtalk had filtered through.
“We were a little slow from the back in the first half,” explained the Italian later. “We were in positions to counterattack, but made the wrong choice, so we had to be more efficient in front.”
With his fourth attempt, Calvert-Lewin was certainly that. He is such an impressive forward, but one who is not yet clinical enough.
His winner though, showed courage, athleticism and instinct.
“He is a fantastic striker. But where he can and has to improve is the movement without the ball. He has to be more focused on the goal…stay in the box,” added Ancelotti. The 22-year-old did just that. When Sigurdsson did brilliantly to win back possession and sent Djibril Sidibe (right) swiftly away down the right, Calvert-Lewin sniffed danger, darted between two centre-halves, and dived headlong to divert into the far corner. It was a stunning header, a beautiful goal that showed a glimpse of what Ancelotti is all about – quick thinking and movement, tactical prowess, and incisiveness.
Burnley’s one decent chance, from a mere
30 per cent possession, came when
Chris Wood headed Phil Bardsley’s freekick over.
But really, they knew this was about a certain Italian manager, and a new Everton era.. which may have had a damp start, but still ended with some Christmas fireworks and a promise of better things to come in the New Year.