Ancelotti: My players lack bravery
Carlo Ancelotti, the Everton manager, says his players must eradicate their “shyness” as he sets about creating a more courageous brand of football.
The Italian will spend the remainder of the season trying to impose his ideas on a squad he feels too often take the safe option in their passing. He is demanding a more direct, forward-thinking attitude after being particularly unhappy with the first-half display in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at West Ham.
He says his senior players such as Fabian Delph and Theo Walcott must set the example.
“If you want to play football at a certain level, you have to be brave. You cannot be shy,” said Ancelotti.
“You have to take responsibility and the players with more quality have to take responsibility. Here in general we have a young squad, but players with a strong personality and players who are experienced like Delph and Walcott who can help the young to show more bravery and have more courage.
“I like the players who are going to take responsibility on the pitch. It is true in the first half against West Ham we were too shy. I told the players that if you are shy you cannot play football, you have to do something different. Against West Ham, it was like this.”
Everton face Newcastle at Goodison Park tonight hoping to avoid being dragged back into a relegation battle. They must do so without Richarlison, who is still absent with a knee injury.
Ancelotti is looking forward to having more time to work with his players to evolve his system.
“At this moment, we are playing a lot of balls back, instead of playing forward,” he said. “We want to build up, but when you have the possibility to play forward, you must play forward. Quick. If you are slow at the back, you have less possibility to find space in the opponent’s half.
“Sometimes when you say to a player we want possession, they think possession is the target. It is not. The target is always to score goals. Our idea is to do that through possession, but we want to score goals. More possession sometimes means you have less possibility to score.”