Ancelotti confirms Godfrey & Holgate will start for Everton v Leeds
Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed he’ll make two defensive changes to his Everton side as they face off with Leeds United on Wednesday.
Ben Godfrey and Mason Holgate are set to come back into the starting line-up when the Toffees travel to Elland Raod. The two didn’t feature in the 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle at the weekend.
As quoted by the Liverpool Echo, the Blues boss said the spirit of the squad wasn’t affected by their omission on Saturday.
“I don’t think the face that these two players (Godfrey and Holgate) were not there affected the spirit. The spirit was affected by the collective throughout the team,” Ancelotti said.
“They will play, yes.
“I think it’s an important period. We came out of these two home games not so good, because our target was to have more points.
“But of course, the reaction will be important tomorrow, to show a different team spirit.”
Time to bounce back
Everton ended 2020 in really strong fashion. The Toffees went undefeated in the league during December, beating Arsenal, Chelsea, Leicester and Sheffield United.
After their 15th game, they were second in the table, only two points off Liverpool.
Since the turn of the year, they’ve picked up just one win in four. Everton are now ninth in the league with 33 points. The most worrying performance came against Newcastle on Saturday.
Ancelotti dropped Godfrey and Holgate in favour of Seamus Coleman and Lucas Digne at left and right back. Everton had been playing with the two young defenders in the fullback areas in recent months and have looked solid.
Despite this, they’ve begun playing quite narrow. The two are natural centre-halves, not fullbacks who are going to bomb on and overlap.
Against Newcastle, Coleman and Digne were showing for the ball in wide areas. As the Toffees have become so accustomed to playing down the middle, they weren’t being found.
Its an area Ancelotti will need to address going forward. For now, the right decision is to bring Holgate and Godfrey back in to sure up the back line.
In other Everton news, this is what new signing Josh King can bring to the squad.