Ancelotti details why Everton had ‘difficulties’ in the second half v Fulham
Carlo Ancelotti has blamed the international break for his Everton side’s poor second-half performance in their 3-2 win against Fulham on Sunday.
The Toffees started brightly at Craven Cottage as a Dominic Calvert-Lewin brace and Abdoulaye Doucoure’s first Everton goal gave them a 3-1 lead at half time.
Everton dropped off in the second half and simple mistakes nearly saw the Toffees throw away their lead and Ancelotti believes the international break is to blame.
Ancelotti is quoted by the Liverpool Echo as saying, “It was a difficult game, difficult to prepare for because we didn’t have players over the international break.
“At the end, we reached our goal which was the victory. It was a fantastic first half, the second half was more difficult. We lost physical energy and in the second half we had difficulties, that was quite normal to have.
“James was tired, Richarlison was tired, Allan was tired – and so I tried to replace them but we stopped playing for this reason I think.”
Rodriguez, Allan and Richarlison were all away on international duty in South America and those players being tired or jetlagged would explain the drop in performance we saw from them in the second half.
In truth, Rodriguez never really got going and it was clear from the first minute that something wasn’t right as he was misplacing passes and being caught in possession which is unlike him.
Allan and Richarlison were brighter. Richarlison had an assist after roughly 40 seconds but he wasn’t as sharp as usual and missed three golden opportunities to score.
Allan maintained his performance level for the longest which meant he played the full 90 minutes as Everton picked up points in the Premier League for the first time in four games.
Ancelotti shouldn’t have this problem next weekend as he has a full week to make sure his star men are fully recuperated in time for his side’s clash with Leeds United.
In other Everton news, some fans blasted on Toffees player after he made a costly error against Fulham.