Carlo Ancelotti

[MikeO]

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/51707268

No touchline ban.

[markjazzbassist]

we finally catch a break

[Finn balor]

I don’t think we should have accepted it. We should have took it further and made more of a point of the disgrace of a decision.

[Bill]

They're still saying it was disallowed because of offside but surely it can't be offside if a defender got the last touch.

[c1982]

2 minutes ago, Bill said:

They're still saying it was disallowed because of offside but surely it can't be offside if a defender got the last touch.

The moment the ball is played forward, Sigurdsson is offside so it doesn’t matter that it hit the defender. If the defender had control of the ball and passed it back then there wouldn’t be any offside.

[Palfy]

4 minutes ago, Bill said:

They're still saying it was disallowed because of offside but surely it can't be offside if a defender got the last touch.

Bill there were a few things that the offside rule clearly states it was not off side, as you say there player got the last touch, the keepers view wasn’t obscured, and Gylfi made no attempt to play the ball he actually did the complete opposite. 
We were robbed by the incompetence of VAR and I’m still totally gutted by what’s happened. 

[MikeO]

25 minutes ago, c1982 said:

The moment the ball is played forward, Sigurdsson is offside so it doesn’t matter that it hit the defender. If the defender had control of the ball and passed it back then there wouldn’t be any offside.

True enough, the fact that it was an involuntary touch by slabhead makes it irrelevant; if he'd have made an intentional swing at it and the result had been the same then Gylfi would've been played "on". Still think it should've stood though.

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

7 hours ago, markjazzbassist said:

we finally catch a break

Not really, it’s a total piss take that he was sent off in the first place, we’ve still been shafted 

[barryj]

2 hours ago, MikeO said:

True enough, the fact that it was an involuntary touch by slabhead makes it irrelevant; if he'd have made an intentional swing at it and the result had been the same then Gylfi would've been played "on". Still think it should've stood though.

I’m for VAR in theory but it just seems like Premier League make it up as they go along. The lineman and ref gave the goal and then it was disallowed by VAR. They keep saying that they’ll back the ref and only overturn clear and obvious errors. This wasn’t clear and obvious in that it’s down to the interpretation of ‘in the field of view’. So it should have stood. Add this to the blatant penalty on Siggy 5 seconds prior that in my opinion they didn’t review at the time but later said they did when asked by the Everton interested media. I say they didn’t review it as at the ground there was no ‘checking for penalty’ VAR screen only ‘checking goal’ (& that it was such a clear goal that a blind man with patches over both his eyes at night could have seen it). 

It’s alright though, it’s only little old Everton. 

[Shukes]

10 hours ago, c1982 said:

The moment the ball is played forward, Sigurdsson is offside so it doesn’t matter that it hit the defender. If the defender had control of the ball and passed it back then there wouldn’t be any offside.

This is and has been the rule since the offside rule was invented as far as I know. 
 

Similar to the Shits goal in the 80’s euro final. Was it McDermot lying on the floor injured when they scored? The opposition cries for offside, but the goal was given. The big difference was he was to the side and not involved at all.

But for me Gylfi didn’t make any impact on the outcome and the goal should have stood.

[Romey 1878]

10 hours ago, barryj said:

I’m for VAR in theory but it just seems like Premier League make it up as they go along. The lineman and ref gave the goal and then it was disallowed by VAR. They keep saying that they’ll back the ref and only overturn clear and obvious errors. This wasn’t clear and obvious in that it’s down to the interpretation of ‘in the field of view’. So it should have stood. Add this to the blatant penalty on Siggy 5 seconds prior that in my opinion they didn’t review at the time but later said they did when asked by the Everton interested media. I say they didn’t review it as at the ground there was no ‘checking for penalty’ VAR screen only ‘checking goal’ (& that it was such a clear goal that a blind man with patches over both his eyes at night could have seen it). 

It’s alright though, it’s only little old Everton. 

Basically, we're big enough for the authorities to make an example of (not just on this, we've been done on a few other things as we know) but not big enough that we can actually do anything about it.

We're the perfect club for the FA/PL.

[Bill]

13 hours ago, c1982 said:

The moment the ball is played forward, Sigurdsson is offside so it doesn’t matter that it hit the defender. If the defender had control of the ball and passed it back then there wouldn’t be any offside.

No your wrong, how many times have we seen players walking back from an offside position while on of their own men run past and play the ball. Your not offside until you play the ball and Siggy didn't.

[Palfy]

2 hours ago, Bill said:

No your wrong, how many times have we seen players walking back from an offside position while on of their own men run past and play the ball. Your not offside until you play the ball and Siggy didn't.

Or interfere with play by obstructing the keepers view and he clearly never did that, as the keeper moves to his right to save the shot indicating he had a clear view of DCL and the ball at all times. 

[Bill]

We got stuffed by VAR again.

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/03/06/jamie-carragher-meets-carlo-ancelotti-not-one-last-payday-going/

 

My allegiance to Everton ended over 25 years ago, but there is a moment during an hour with Carlo Ancelotti when the heart of the schoolboy within me beats faster.

“Next season we have to qualify for the Champions League,” Ancelotti tells me. “I am here for this.”

I pause. I have not heard an Everton manager speak like this since I stood on the Gwladys Street.

“Is that really possible given the strength of the competition?” I ask.

“I am sure this club has that ambition,” he insists.

“The owner wants to be at the top. That is for sure. The idea is clear. I do not know how long it will take, but it will not take long. The spine of the squad is competitive. I do not know what the target will be this season, but next season we have to fight for the top four.”

I tell Ancelotti how invigorating it will be for fans to hear a coach of his calibre talk so boldly.

“Do you realise how many Evertonians loved seeing you get sent off at the end of the game against Manchester United last week?” I ask.
 

Ancelotti sounds surprised.

“You think the fans like it because I got the red card? That is why they clapped me?” 

“Yes. They want to feel the manager is out there fighting for them,” I reply, sensing an opportunity to ask the most blunt question.

“When it was first said Carlo Ancelotti might come to Everton, people said you must only be coming for a final payday.”

He laughs.

“No, no, no. Fortunately, I do not need the money,” he says.

“I see Everton like I saw Napoli. It was fantastic to be in Milan, Madrid and Munich, but sometimes you get the possibility to grow a good project. We have young players with quality – players like Richarlison, [Dominic] Calvert-Lewin, [Mason] Holgate and [Lucas] Digne. The base of the team is good. Holgate signed a new contract and Dominic is going to. We have a spine and want to improve the squad in the summer.”

Ancelotti has spent his decorated career in Europe’s most exotic cities – Rome, Milan, Paris and Madrid. Today, in the office at Everton’s Finch Farm training ground he already calls home, he could be mistaken as a spokesman for Merseyside tourism.

He tells me about his midweek trip to the Bootle Strand shopping centre (above), which prompted a surge of disbelieving selfie hunters.

“Difficult to park, but full of Evertonians,” he observes.

A few miles down the road are the leafy suburbs of Crosby, where he and I are near neighbours. Ancelotti adores Antony Gormley’s iron men scattered along the seafront.

“I was at the beach on Monday. It is beautiful. I walked three miles and counted all the statues. There are at least 100,” he says

“This part of England is different to London. It is more friendly. London is more cosmopolitan – there are a lot of Italians in London. Usually I stay in the centre of the city but I feel good here, and I have already found a good Italian restaurant.”

It feels like Ancelotti has instantly absorbed his club and the city. As supporters like to put it – it seems like he already ‘gets’ Everton.

There are those who patronisingly claimed he would be too sophisticated for the club, yet his advocating of 4-4-2, direct, aggressive football, chimes with Goodison tradition. When I suggest such tactics – certainly when employed by English coaches – are considered archaic, he looks aghast.
 

There is no winning system. If I have different players I could play a different system. 

“Football has changed a lot – more intensity, more tactical knowledge and the rules. How many teams build up from the back now? Nearly everyone.

“If you want to play long balls and fight for the second ball, that is football. If you want to play catenaccio and counter-attack, it is football.

“There are some managers who organise the teams for themselves, not the players, so people can say, “Look how well he organises the team”.

“A team with a clear identity is a limited team. It means they can only play one way. But you must choose the right style by considering the quality and weakness of the opponent and the tradition of your club. If you become the manager of Madrid or Milan, they have a history which says play a particular style. Here there is a feeling if you can get it forward quickly and fight for the long ball, why not?

“They like the ball long and then to fight. This is important. I said this to the players before the Man United game, "Put in some long balls to fight, keep the crowd involved". If you do that in the Nou Camp? No. Not possible. Here is different.”

“Why?”

“You tell me,” I respond.

“There is more than one way to play football. I like all styles,” he says.
Such pragmatism comes with experience. Ancelotti winces recalling how – as a young manager – he failed to sign one of the world’s great players because he prioritised the system.

 

“When I started as a manager with Parma I sacrificed the chance to sign Roberto Baggio,” he says, with a self-critical chuckle. 

“I did not want him behind two strikers. He said he did not like the system so he signed for another club. When I went to Juventus and I had [Zinedine] Zidane who wanted to be the No 10, I said, “Okay, I change the system!” You adapt to the characteristics of the player.

“There are some managers who will sacrifice quality and creativity for the system. I had Ronaldo at Real Madrid. With 4-4-2, Ronaldo had to be one of the strikers. But he does not like to play there. He likes to play wide. What do you do? Sacrifice Ronaldo who scores every game? So I said to Ronaldo, ‘When we have the ball go wherever you want. But please, when we do not have the ball, do not come back so much. Stay in the position to keep the shape’.”

Despite three Champions League wins and domestic titles in Italy, England, Germany and France, Ancelotti’s career is not without lows.

I must mention Istanbul in 2005, of course, when Ancelotti says Liverpool ‘stole’ the trophy from his AC Milan team.

“I remember you using the time up in extra-time – going down for treatment twice,” he says.

“I managed in the Champions League final in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014 – and the best we played was 2005 and we lost. This is football.”

Ancelotti won his second European Cup as manager with AC Milan in 2007 – when they beat Carragher's Liverpool side in Athens CREDIT: AP

More recently, his reportedly informal man-management style was questioned.

“Not a lot of people can judge my job. They cannot see the training, look at methodology or see how I talk to the players, or how my relationship with the players is,” he says.

“Maybe if you stand with me for two weeks you can judge me properly. For other people to judge is more difficult.

“My style of training is completely different to 20 years ago because I continued to learn. Football has changed. I was assistant to Arrigo Sacchi for three years. He was an innovator, first with the philosophy of training but also tactically. The Italian team used to defend backwards, he changed it so they defended forward. But the offside rules were completely different then.

“When I joined Chelsea in 2009 it was a completely different style of training. I tried to combine it, not separating technical, tactical and physical training as I was used to in Milan. I needed to bring it altogether.”
 

Ancelotti won the league and FA double at Stamford Bridge, where he returns this weekend for the first time since his sacking in 2011. 

There are no grudges. He is held in the highest regard by those he managed and is impressed by Frank Lampard's work.

On the day Ancelotti was sacked – coincidentally after a game at Goodison Park – his players insisted he join them for a farewell dinner.

“All the squad was there,” he recalls. “I knew it was going to be the last game and I had friends from Italy over. On the bus home, the players knew I was sacked and Ashley Cole said we must go out. I said no because I had ten friends visiting. We are having dinner at my house.

“But Ashley was, ‘No, no, they must all come. I will send you a bus’. So he sent a minibus to get us. It was unforgettable.

“I remember every day I was at Chelsea. It was a good time, a fantastic period with fantastic staff and unbelievable players.

“I had and I still have a good relationship with Roman Abramovich. He gave me the chance to manage in England and it was one of the best teams I ever managed.”

Can he really hope to replicate that at Everton?

“In the last two games against Arsenal and Manchester United we competed well,” he says. “We made mistakes – sometimes tactical and sometimes we lacked a bit of personality – but I am sure it will not take a lot of time before we always compete with the top teams.”

[markjazzbassist]

top man, love the interview

[Sibdane]

Really happy to have him. He is "Everton." 

[Romey 1878]

That’s a brilliant interview. I feel now that we have finally got the right man in charge and things are going to happen for us. 

[Aidan]

Wow how well does he speak. He's so confident and so easy to invest faith in. 

Makes me believe in the project again. 

[Hafnia]

Enjoyed reading tbat.  Great questions by carragher too. 

[c1982]

21 hours ago, Bill said:

No your wrong, how many times have we seen players walking back from an offside position while on of their own men run past and play the ball. Your not offside until you play the ball and Siggy didn't.

Or interfere with play as Palfy points out. I don’t think he was interfering with play but that’s the reason the ref/VAR has disallowed it.

The example you’re giving is when players ahead of the game are not interfering with play.

18 hours ago, Palfy said:

Or interfere with play by obstructing the keepers view and he clearly never did that, as the keeper moves to his right to save the shot indicating he had a clear view of DCL and the ball at all times. 

Exactly!

[Bill]

C1982, the result of var at the match came up on the giant screen as no goal - offside.  In an interview 15 minutes after the game the reason had changed to - in line of the goalies vision.  Both explanations where wrong. I say again.... We got stuffed by VAR.

[MikeO]

1 hour ago, Bill said:

C1982, the result of var at the match came up on the giant screen as no goal - offside.  In an interview 15 minutes after the game the reason had changed to - in line of the goalies vision.  Both explanations where wrong. I say again.... We got stuffed by VAR.

It hadn't, the reason for the goal (wrongly) not being given was offside however it was explained. There was no way they could've put "no goal - offside because Sigurðsson was in an offside position and obstructing the goalkeepers view" on the screen.

That said you're right, we got stuffed by VAR.

[c1982]

2 hours ago, Bill said:

C1982, the result of var at the match came up on the giant screen as no goal - offside.  In an interview 15 minutes after the game the reason had changed to - in line of the goalies vision.  Both explanations where wrong. I say again.... We got stuffed by VAR.

Offside/ in goalie’s vision are exactly the same explanation of why it was disallowed. I haven’t disagreed about us being stuffed by VAR - we were as I don’t think Gylfi affected the play - as rightly said de Gea was already wrong footed.

Your original post said, ‘They're still saying it was disallowed because of offside but surely it can't be offside if a defender got the last touch.’

I merely pointed out that, it was a deflection and if the ref/VAR (wrongly) saw Gylfi as offside and interfering in play then it CAN be offside if the defender got the last touch with it being a deflection.

[Matt]

1 hour ago, MikeO said:

It hadn't, the reason for the goal (wrongly) not being given was offside however it was explained. There was no way they could've put "no goal - offside because Sigurðsson was in an offside position and obstructing the goalkeepers view" on the screen.

That said you're right, we got stuffed by VAR.

But if Siggy had just gotten up and moved we wouldn’t have (even if he was fouled). I’m a fan of his and I’m trying to give him a chance to prove everyone wrong but when he does things like that he’s not helping us or his defense. 

[Bill]

Can somebody tell me what the fuck the last sentence means….... Made an obvious action that impacted de gea's ability to make a save. !!!

A statement read: "In the 91st minute of Everton v Manchester United , Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s goal was disallowed following a VAR Review for an offside offence against Gylfi Sigurdsson.

"The on-field decision was to award the goal, but the VAR advised the referee that Sigurdsson was in an offside position directly in the line of vision of David de Gea and made an obvious action that impacted de Gea’s ability to make a save."

[MikeO]

This isn't "misconduct" though?

 

[StevO]

20 hours ago, MikeO said:

This isn't "misconduct" though?

 

But he’s so lovely and passionate isn’t he

fuck off Klopp!

[Newty82]

Bad day at the office. We still have an inferiority complex against the typical top 6 sides. We've seen this for years, so it ain't gonna change in a matter of months under anyone.

It's more frustrating when we were edging so close to the top 6. We can still make it but it's a tough ask.

Still, massively glad to have Carlo here and really looking forward to the Summer when he gets a fair chance in the market. That midfield needs urgent attention. I think, hope, we plough big funds into the midfield because, in my opinion, sorting that area out will make a huge difference alone.

[Guest]

Quote

Nice one carlo!! The best so far. This team rearly is shite.