Carlo Ancelotti has told his Everton players they must become “really serious” about defending and can’t bank on scoring “three or four goals” every game. The Blues held on to defeat Fulham 3-2 last weekend to end a run of four games without a win. Everton are the Premier League’s joint-fourth highest scorers with 19 in their opening nine games but are joint-fourth from bottom (with Liverpool) for goals conceded, having shipped 16. The Blues have kept only one clean sheet in the league this season, on the opening weekend against now-top of the table Spurs.
Carlo Ancelotti said “We worked this week on our defensive process. It is important to be more compact in our backline but this issue is for all the players, Everyone plays his part in defending. It is an aspect where you can work mentally, too. To defend properly doesn’t require technical skills. The teams who don’t concede many goals are focused and concentrated and really serious about stopping opponents from having space where they can hurt you. To say you will score three or four goals in every game is impossible and for the consistency we want our defending must improve. Andre Gomes is the cover star of Everton’s matchday programme for the game with Leeds United at Goodison. The start of the season was a good surprise for us, We expected to play well and have a different mentality and attitude from last season – but nobody can predict you will win seven straight games. The bad part was our defeats. Every team can lose, that is football, but our first reaction was not so good. There were difficulties with losing some players but, honestly, we could have done better.”
