Premier League 2019-20: 3 key areas Carlo Ancelotti must address at Everton

From the latest news reports, it appears that Everton are on the verge of appointing Italy’s Carlo Ancelotti as their new manager; the former Chelsea, Real Madrid and Napoli boss will likely replace the fired Marco Silva in the next couple of days.

With the Toffees struggling for traction in the Premier League right now – they currently sit in 16th place, just three points above the drop zone – Ancelotti will have a major job on his hands if he wants to turn things around, making Everton a top-six contender once again.

Here are 3 key areas of concern for Carlo Ancelotti upon his appointment at Everton.

#1 Where are the goals coming from?

Can Ancelotti help the likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin to score more goals?

One big problem that Everton have had thus far in 2019-20 is a lack of goals, most notably from a high-level striker. The Toffees aren’t the lowest scorers in the Premier League; they have 20 goals thus far, putting them above 7 other sides in the scoring stakes, but it’s hard to deny that their forward line just doesn’t look that dangerous.

Top scorer Richarlison, who has 6 league goals, isn’t a traditional frontman, and while Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who has 5 goals, is a classic striker, watching him you get the sense that he’d be better off used as a foil for another forward, as he takes an average of just 1.6 shots per game.

A couple of recent reports have suggested that the club could be planning a move for veteran Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but the Swedish superstar is 38 years old and while he was a world-class striker in his prime, he’s now injury-prone and past his best.

With that in mind, it’s more likely that Ancelotti will have to use the forwards he’s already got. Part of the issue for Everton this season has been the variation in systems they’ve used; Calvert-Lewin has acted as a lone striker at times as has Cenk Tosun, they’ve used Richarlison to partner Calvert-Lewin, and even used three up front too.

Along the way, summer signing Moise Kean has struggled greatly, while Alex Iwobi has failed to make an impact since joining from Arsenal. If Ancelotti wants the Toffees to climb back up the table, then he needs to settle on a system in attack – and work out the right combination of forwards, too.

#2 How to shore up the defence

The likes of Yerry Mina have struggled in Everton's defence this season

While Everton have struggled to score goals this season, perhaps their biggest problem has been in defence. The Toffees conceded 46 goals last season – averaging a total of 1.2 per game – but this season in just 17 games, they’ve already leaked 29, an average of 1.7. That’s a huge increase and if Ancelotti wants to turn things around for them, it has to change.

Part of the cause of the Toffees’ suffering is the lack of Idrissa Gueye; the Senegalese defensive midfielder was one of the most outstanding holding men in the Premier League last season, but the summer saw him sold to Paris St. Germain for a fee of around £30m.

Rather than replace Gueye with another holding man, Everton instead spent most of their funds in the summer to bring in attacking players Moise Kean, Alex Iwobi and Andre Gomes. Fabian Delph and Jean-Philippe Gbamin were also signed, but both men have struggled with injuries thus far and haven’t really established themselves in the Toffees’ starting XI.

That has meant that Everton’s defence has suffered from a lack of a screen, and with the centre of that defence also being somewhat fluid – Marco Silva could never decide between Mason Holgate, Michael Keane and Yerry Mina, and none of the three have been outstanding – the Toffees have been flimsy at the back.

How can Ancelotti change this? For starters, he needs to settle on a central defensive partnership and stick to it so that his players become more comfortable with one another. And with the January transfer window coming up, it’d probably be an idea for him to look for a top-class defensive midfielder, too – or hope that Gbamin can return from injury and live up to the £25m fee that Everton paid for him.

#3 How to get the best of an inconsistent squad

Can Ancelotti get the best out of inconsistent stars like Moise Kean?

Of all of the Premier League’s squads, perhaps none – outside of Arsenal – can boast as many talented, but inconsistent players as Everton’s. Once he takes over the club, Carlo Ancelotti will be tasked with getting the best out of them if he wants to make them climb back up the Premier League table.

The Toffees have spent big money over the past few years on the likes of Alex Iwobi, Theo Walcott, Cenk Tosun, Moise Kean and Richarlison, and while all of those players have shown flashes of their talent at Goodison Park, they’ve also been completely anonymous at times too, making things extremely frustrating for Everton fans.

Ancelotti therefore has two choices; he can either attempt to get the most out of those players, or he could instead perform a wholesale clear-out at Goodison, selling a lot of the club’s bigger names likely at a financial loss given their lack of success at Everton.

Dealing with Kean should probably be a priority for the Italian boss; the 19-year old was signed from Juventus in the summer with a lot of hype after bursting on the scene at the Allianz Stadium a couple of years ago, but has failed to find his feet in England and was recently substituted by caretaker boss Duncan Ferguson after just 18 minutes in Everton’s draw with Manchester United.

If Ancelotti can find a way to get the best from the teenager – and can manage to coax more consistency from the likes of Iwobi and Walcott too – then he probably doesn’t need to change a lot at Goodison Park. If he can’t do that, then Everton’s board have a lot of work to do in the next couple of transfer windows.