Carlo Ancelotti has elaborated on his decision to rotate his goalkeepers with Jordan Pickford set to return to the Everton starting XI against Arsenal on Sunday. The England international is the Blues’ first-choice shot-stopper but, despite keeping a clean sheet in last weekend’s win over Chelsea, was an unused substitute against Leicester City on Wednesday as Robin Olsen was handed a chance in goal. Everton made it back-to-back clean sheets as the Swede kept his first shut-out, having previously been handed his Premier League debut in place of Pickford in the Blues’ defeat to Newcastle United last month. But Ancelotti pointed out how even legendary goalkeeper Iker Casillas was not safe from rotation during his stint as Real Madrid manager when explaining his decision.
Carlo Ancelotti said “I consider a goalkeeper a player, As we rotate the defenders and rotate the strikers, sometimes I want to rotate the goalkeepers. I started in Real Madrid when I had two great goalkeepers. Lopez and Casillas. Casillas was a world champion but he understood. Everyone understood. No problem for this. It is less risk to do mistakes. If you stay on the bench, for sure you don’t do mistakes. We have three clean sheets, two when James wasn’t there. I think the first was the most difficult of the season and we had the clean sheet with James. We had the period where we didn’t defend well as a team. Our defensive ability doesn’t depend on if James is there or not. It depends on the concentration and that we need to work together, all the midfielders and defenders.”
