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?
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.