Carlo Ancelotti has his work cut out at Everton as he hopes to turn the club’s dream of returning to European football into reality. He took the job with the Toffees near the relegation zone, but fans expect big things from the Italian.

He’s won three Champions League trophies and also domestic titles in England, Germany, Italy and France, so, on paper, his CV is perfect. To add more achievements to it at Everton, though, he’ll need to make two major changes to the team, and they’re both in defence.

Defend corners properly

One of the main factors in Marco Silva's appointment was the attacking style of football he’d have the team playing. However, that did leave his Everton outfit wanting at the back, and their defending from corners put a key spotlight on the previous regime’s shortcomings.

On November 30, the Liverpool Echo reported the Toffees had faced the fifth fewest number of corners in the Premier League at that point in the season, 55, and they’d also faced the joint-fewest shots from corners, 14. However, somehow no team had conceded more goals from corners than Silva’s side, four. That’s not good enough and needs to change.

Ditch zonal marking

Marco Silva loved to deploy zonal marking from corners, free-kicks and, well, as much as he possibly could! It’s true that, when done properly, defenders can identify the most dangerous areas of the pitch and focus on clearing the ball away from that area, but the players just don’t seem capable of enacting that at Everton.

Over the last few months, examples include Bournemouth managing to take three touches inside the box from a corner before putting it into the net and Southampton’s equaliser before the international break where the ball wasn’t cleared and Danny Ings was allowed to tap home unmarked. Zonal marking hasn’t worked and needs to be scrapped.

Summary

Ancelotti needs to sure up the back line so the team can focus on playing the attacking football Marco Silva aimed to play. Whether that be through a higher level of defensive coaching or heading out to find some trustworthy defenders in the January transfer window, they need to stop leaking goals to climb back up the table.

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