Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti said there could be some major returns for numerous first team names ahead of the weekend clash against Manchester United.
Despite consecutive losses against Southampton and Newcastle United, Ancelotti remains confident in his team and advises the players to put the losses behind them.
“It’s a great opportunity tomorrow to forget those two defeats,” he said.
“It’s an important opportunity but it’s still difficult, because we know that Manchester United is a strong team, but it’s an opportunity that we want to take.
“United is a team with experience and quality and it’s true that they have been up and down in this early period of the season, but some games they play really well so we have to expect, for the fact that they have lost their last two games, a team with a strong motivation.
“You have to move forward from these two defeats that were not good and to comeback and to show fighting spirit.”
Ancelotti also confirmed the returns of James Rodriguez and Seamus Coleman from injury and Lucas Digne from his altered one game suspension.
Mason Holgate is also fit for the first time this season.
“Practically, all of the squad is available apart from Richarlison and Fabian Delph, who had a little problem yesterday but is only out for a few days. All the others are available,” the manager added.
“It’s not only important to have James back but also Coleman and Digne.
“We can have a better squad, a better team and it will be an important game but a difficult game.
“James said that he’s 100% and I have summed out that he’s 100%”
With Richarlison still suspended, Ancelotti addressed a key stat about Everton’s struggles without Richarlison, as the Toffees have yet to win a game without the Brazilian in their squad since his transfer from Watford back in July 2018.
“Richarlison is a really important player for us but I think we need to break this statistic and we have to break it tomorrow.
“I don’t think we lost those two games because we were missing Richarlison or James, but because we didn’t play well.
“As a team we didn’t play well and that’s the reason why we didn’t win”
With Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s future at United in question, Ancelotti responded to the rumours and sympathised with the under pressure Solskjear.
“In general, I have sympathy for all the managers as it’s a difficult job. I have more experience than Ole Gunnar and I can say to him that when things are not good there’s only one responsible and that is the manager.
“Every manager is under pressure and I can say its a privilege with the pressure we have and so we have to be able to analyse ourselves but with a cold mind.”
Ancelotti also emphasised the importance of improving defensively and keeping more clean sheets in games of such magnitude.
“We are working on this as this is true. We’ve only had one clean sheet this season, in the first game against Tottenham where we defended really well.
“We have to defend better, I totally agree, and I told the players that we have to defend better because most of the goals that we conceded were due to mistakes and we have to improve there.
“I want to keep things simple. Clean sheets are an important step to try and win the game and to defend well is not a problem of quality but only a problem of sacrifice and concentration.”
(Image under creative commons licence by Илья Хохлов)
