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#2 How to shore up the defence
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.
