‘Find a solution’ – Michael Ball criticises Ancelotti as Everton lose again
Former Everton defender Michael Ball has criticised Carlo Ancelotti’s decision to keep changing the Toffees’ system this season.
Everton lost again on Saturday afternoon as Leeds United ran out 1-0 winners at Goodison Park.
Speaking in his Liverpool Echo column, the former Toffees man claimed the constant changing of systems ‘isn’t helping’ Everton.
He said, “We’ve changed the system and changed the team almost every game. It’s difficult to get consistency going. When we were winning games, we had legs in the team. We had Richarlison, Coleman, Digne – but they’ve been missing.
“The style of play and change in formations isn’t helping us. It’s difficult when you’ve got key players out of the team and you need to keep tweaking things, but that’s going to happen now until the end of the season.
“You look at other clubs in the league, they’re all struggling with injuries. We’re not the only one. But Carlo and the team need to find a solution.”
Everton switched to a five-man defence against Fulham two weeks ago and they retained that shape against Leeds.
The switch to the new system came off the back of three straight league defeats that saw the Toffees slip down the table.
It seemed to work against Fulham, despite a nervy second half, as Alex Iwobi and Lucas Digne thrived as attacking wing-backs.
However, against Leeds, Digne was missing through injury and Iwobi shifted to left-back while Tom Davies was deployed as a right-back.
Everton never looked comfortable and Leeds ran rings around the makeshift Toffees defence as Ancelotti was left with more questions than answers.
The Toffees face Burnley next week and it remains to be seen how the Everton boss will change his squad in an effort to get back to winning ways.
In other Everton news, Fabrizio Romano has shared an update on a World Cup winner potentially joining the Toffees.