Ancelotti hopeful over injuries to key players

My 9 year old son went to bed demanding to know what time tomorrow there would be an announcement on the length of time the two Brazilians would be absent for!

This will hopefully cheer him up in the morning because he knows, like the rest of us, how crucial these two have been so far this season.

A speedy recovery to them both and Jonjoe!

Carlo seems confident, fingers crossed both can fully recover in a fortnight. We have cover so may not be worth risking Richarlison for Saturday. Maybe even leave him on the bench and use him if absolutely necessary.

Hope they recover quickly but may need the magic lamp for that. Vital to recover fully above all else.

Does someone think James can start on Saturday?

Cause no James nor Richarlison on the 11 would be pretty weird

Hoping the Boys from Brazil will be fit for the weekend, but as Will #3 says, we need them fully fit. If Delph can be disciplined he can do a holding job (I thought he did OK vs West Ham) and we have Bernard and Iwobi out wide. I'm not suggesting any are as good as Richy and Allan, but we need squad players to step up at times coz it's a long season.

These two are key players so we need to make sure injuries are not going to be aggrieved and made into longer term ones. Do we need to rush them back?

We have a squad with some quality players on the fringes and as we saw when Richarlison and Allan went off the players that replaced them did really well.

Bernard, Iwobi, Sigurdsson, Delph, Nkounkou and Gordon are all more than capable, quality starters who were on the bench or left out for the last league game. They could easily offer options for Carlo to put out a really strong team against Brighton.

With the intensity Richarlison plays at and the physical burden he invites with his playing style, it was a massive risk to have him start 4 games In 12 days. And so it proved.

Hindsight is wonderful of course. But if you had offered me going out of that particular competition and preserving the health of Richarlison and Allan then it's an option I would have taken. There was also the chance that a weakened team may still have beaten West Ham.

Pickford

Kenny. Keane. Besic. Nkounkou

Delph. Davies.

Iwobi. Siggy. Walcott.

Kean

Wouldn't have been a bad line up at all. Give players an opportunity to stake their claim.

Consider that, generally this competition has been won by the bigger clubs for most of the past decade then it will mean probably getting City, Spurs etc in a semi final and or final. A big ask. For a cup that only secures a Europa league entry.

Obviously the line up last night also reflected the club protecting players that it is seeking to offload imminently. Ironically, we may now need them as cover for the injured trio

Tommy 7

‘ With the intensity Richarlison plays at and the physical burden he invites with his playing style, it was a massive risk to have him start 4 games In 12 days. And so it proved.'

Injuries happen. Richarlison is a really durable player. I don't think there was any ‘massive risk' taken by the club. He's just been unlucky and so have we.

What would have been a ‘massive risk' is selecting a centre midfielder, who hasn't played for the club in about 2 years, and playing him at centre back. A very odd choice, indeed.

@ Phil

Yes he is durable. But no point running him into the ground after little to no pre-season.

The risk of playing Besic would've been losing the game and going out of the cup. Which if you'd have read my post properly you'd have gathered that this was an outcome I was comfortable with.

Richalison has been immense this season going forward and his tracking back.

With the 3 injuries I'm more worried about Allen the most, only because we have Coleman at RB to cover Kenny. And Gordon and a few others to take that LF role.

Allen does such a great job there, maybe dacource and fall ball into the role with gylfi for the time being.

Let's just hope these are just cramp injuries and not more severe.

Well done Everton by the way dispatched WHU is good fashion another DCL hatrick whats going on with him? new inzagai?

I hope Allan and Richarlison come back soon. It's interesting to think who are least replaceable players are? These two perhaps? Rodriguez? Calvert-Lewin? Keane?

I would not have played such a strong team personally but we are through in the cup and if Allan and Richie are fit for the derby then I'll be happy enough.

Richarlison's injury wasn't a result of over working him through Tommy. It was an ankle twist. Could have happened in any game at any time.

Allan's looked the worse, but hopefully nothing serious. Wait for the official medical verdict.

The League Cup is a viable piece of silverware. Yes, we may get City in the semis or whenever. and we can turn them over.

Winning silverware, any silverware, would lift such a burden off this club. No silverware in 25 years. This haunts us.

Winning the League Cup could give the impetus to develop further.

We have a world class manager, and we have some very exciting young players mixed with some very good players at their peak.

The win yesterday - maybe we could have scraped through using the reserves. Maybe.

But the 4-1 win kept the feel good factor going. DCL bagged another hatrick and is in the form of his life. Keep it going for as long as possible.

Ancelotti will see in training when a certain player needs resting.

Allan is the biggest loss. But we can survive Brighton without him and we do have a couple of weeks for him to recover for the derby (which in itself is evidence that the gods are smiling down on Goodison at the moment?). I'm glad Carlo is treating this cup as the opportunity that it is. We need silverware...I can hardly remember 1995 anymore!

Despite losing Allan, the moment doucoure came on we pushed on and really put them to the sword.

Great strength in depth and absolutely buzzing for Dom

Fingers crossed! I also wouldn't risk either this weekend, and hopefully bother ready for the derby. Top players, would grace all top 4 sides.

Carlo played the right team and the subs all diid their bit, even iwobi had the shot that hit the post for Dom to tap in.
Tommy, are you saying you would have been happy to get knocked out? This was a chance to get into the last 8 of a competiton and if we keep playing a strong line-up, we might do something that we haven't managed since 1995.
It would be nice to put that stat to bed.

The injuries are disappointing, but the win, and the way it was achieved, are very important. It maintains momentum and confidence, which is something Don Carlo has highlighted repeatedly.

@16 Eddie

No I'm not happy to be knocked out. But I'd have preferred having a go of it last Night whilst resting Richarlison, Dom, Allan, Mina, Seamus, Doucoure and James.

It's a stat I would like to change. But let's not run before we can walk. Another stat I would like to change first is to beat Liverpool. Which I believed we would have had a chance of doing with a full strength team.

Frankly, to have only beaten them once in 10 years is actually beyond abysmal.

@12 Fran. He played last night and got injured. The injury is a direct result of him playing in that game last night. There can be no other way of observing this.

And unless you are some kind of biomechanical expert how on earth can you say that an injury to a complex joint is not the result of that joint being overworked.

No I am not an expert or even a novice but I do know that Ankles are made of bones, tendons, ligaments and muscles. All susceptible to being overworked, particularly when operating at high intensity.

My opinion but I don't think we needed him against Salford. We already knew we had West Ham coming up if we got through.

Bad luck maybe. But you make your own luck. Don't pick those players and they don't get injured in that game.

It's worth remembering that Everton have never won the League Cup. Which is why I want us to go for it every year! Otherwise, what's the point?

Allan is definitely the bigger risk of being long term I'd have thought. The use of his hands to describe the injury said it all.

The other two are twists. Richarlison seems to have a low pain threshold so I think he'll be ok.

We shouldn't be taking Brighton in the slightest bit lightly. We'll probably see Doucoure pushed towards the left to counter Lamptey who is a flyer.

Doucouré can cover for Allan in the meantime.

I'm glad Allan – according to Ancelotti – is not as bad as first thought.

@ Shane

‘Low pain threshold'.

Think I can guess what kind of support you offer at Goodison...

Can't believe some comments on here. Some would rather go out the cup than risk players?

The only domestic cup we've not won... We're now into the quarter-finals.

The starting line-up was perfect, as can be seen by the result. Injuries happen – it's part of the game. What should we do? – have great squad on paper and never play them? It's football, not top trumps.

Would you buy a car and never drive it in case you crashed? Unbelievable...

Carlo Ancelotti is no dummy and probably realises that there is more chance of winning this competition than a top 4 finish this season so he's taking it seriously.

Tommy (18), like most supporters, I detest Liverpool because of the supercilious attitude of the majority of their supporters. However, I can't agree with you that beating them is more important than winning a national tournament.

If I did, I would be subscribing to one of the great "put downs" that their followers always level at us which is "playing and trying to beat them is our annual cup final".

No û it isn't!

They are a team – just like any other (despite what they think) and we are, at last, building a side and have a manager with the stature to beat them, and beat them often.

It will come – but not at the expense of ducking out of a competition we have a good chance of winning for the first time in our history.

Additionally, I wouldn't care if we lost to them home and away in the Premier League for the next 20 years, provided that we beat every other side home and away in those years and won the Premier League every year, having dropped only six points.

Don't get me wrong – I want to beat them every bit as much as you do – but that is not my primary priority for Everton.

As Sir Alex said, many years ago – let's "knock 'em off their perch".

But the way to do it is not just by beating them – it's by beating them and everybody else.

@ 25 Hugh

You're making some wild assumptions here. Beating Salford and West Ham in the early rounds is not winning this tournament. If you read my earlier point, it is likely that we will need to beat Man City to win this National Tournament.

I think we could've beaten Salford without Richarlison playing. I think we could've beaten West Ham last night with resting players. But it wouldn't have bothered me too much if we hadn't. As I do think it is a big ask to play Saturdays and Wednesdays.

Absolutely spot on Hugh. For a successful team, playing Liverpool should be 'just another game'. I'd much rather we won a trophy (any trophy!) than beat that lot.

@27

Paul. We won't do either

Injuries can just be bad luck. Look at Jonjoe, he's hardly played and rolled his ankle.

I do think tho given the massive 90-min shift put in by Richarlison and Allan on Saturday, we had enough quality in the squad to rest these two and still hammer West Ham (pardon the pun).

Tommy 28

Well it appears you've finally shown your true colours with that comment.

I'm sincerely grateful Ancelotti's values align with everybody else's on this thread rather than your own.

That is exactly the type of attitude our club needs to shake.

Tommy #26, we did beat Salford without Richarlison playing. He was on the bench.

If we go out playing a weakened team, there would be over a hundred posts here not happy at all. Injuries are part of the game, although we do seem unlucky more often than not.

It's about time we started getting to the latter stages of cups and it's great that we're winning and confident of giving anyone a game.

@31 Frank. Fleetwood I meant.

@30 Phil

I'll make two predictions.

1. We won't beat Liverpool without Allan playing.

2. We won't win the Carabao Cup.

Not because I'm negative. Because:

Without Allan, we will not be able to cope with Liverpool defensively and our midfield will be overrun and our full-backs pressed deep by their full-backs.

We won't win the Carabao cup because we will have to beat Tottenham, Man City, or Man Utd and Liverpool or Arsenal to do so. Likelihood is we will have to face 2 or maybe even 3 of these teams.

We haven't beaten any of them away from home since 2013 with the exception of Spurs this season. Prior to that solitary win at Moyes's Man Utd, there were years before without a win. We haven't beaten Liverpool home or away in a decade.

Quarters and semi-finals will be played, if we get there, during a 6 game sequence over 17 or 18 days prior to and after Christmas Day.

It's not me being negative. It's history and statistics that are massively against us. In an overwhelming way.

The only chance we have of achieving either is if James, Richarlison, Allan, Doucouré and Calvert-Lewin all remain fit and able to play throughout. Not to mention, an injury to Mina or Keane will decimate us.

So, in light of all that... I'd have taken the chance in trying to beat West Ham with £35M players like Iwobi. £20M players like Walcott & Kean, and £45M players like Sigurdsson playing.

Just my opinion, of course.

Christ Tommy. I'd hate to be that pessimistic in life.

God knows we've been waiting for some good times and therefore I'm daring to dream about a cup win and winning at Mordor.

By all means come on here in a few weeks and talk about how the injuries cost us at Anfield, but we don't even know who's going to be missing yet so let's just enjoy another win and roll on Saturday.

Okay, okay, we get it, Tommy! The season is over, yeah??

A couple of setbacks maybe but not the end of the world.

Brighton on Saturday and then a break. Still maybe a chance to sign a striker or will a miracle happen in the form of Moise Kean or Bolasie?

If ever this squad was to really prove themselves and step up to the plate, now is the time. Liverpool are not invincible and statistics are there to be changed. They are not carved in stone.

I think Tommy stops and rubber necks car crashes! We are a force under Carlo, injuries or not, and every top-six side will know they will have been in a game to beat us. Coyb!

Tommy,

What we did last year under Marco is now completely irrelevant, let alone 2013. We held them to a draw three months ago with Tom in there, so no need for such pessimism.

Of course. I'm not expecting us to win, why would you? Liverpool are probably the strongest team in the world at the moment. Having said that, if you look for chinks of light, they are there...

I think Jurgen is at a very high pitch at the moment, he's had run-ins with Lampard, Keane and Geoff Shreeve all just in the last three months. And if he does blow, I think it will leave a very big hole.

@38 Kev,

Under Ancelotti they knocked us out of a more important cup competition last season. With a group of teenagers no less. Possibly one of the most embarrassing defeats in EFC history. Not suggesting for a second that this was the fault of Carlo. But it's relevant, you can't deny that.

Tommy, the team we will be facing 1-11 will be different. I don't see how it has any bearing at all. Unless you think a psychological one for Carlo. If so, again no. This is a guy who recovered from Istanbul, and the very next year got his own back, He doesn't do losing on a loop.

Kevin

My prediction is quite simple. Without Allan, we won't beat Liverpool.

Play him in the two games prior to the LFC game and you increase the risk of him being injured on the football pitch.

Play him in one of those games and this risk is lessened.

The big difference this season unequivocally is the 3 midfield signings. Otherwise you have the team Ancelotti was struggling to get a performance out of last season.

Take away any of the three and we are severely lacking. Take away either Allan or Rodriguez and we simply have nothing remotely near the quality in the squad to replace them. I deem them both, already, to be absolutely irreplaceable in this team.

I went to the opticians yesterday, I wasn't looking for any rose tints but, if I spot a pair next time, they've got Tommy's name on them...

Tommy

"As I do think it is a big ask to play Saturdays and Wednesdays."

Isn't that what we will be doing if and when we get into the champions league?

But, what are you saving these players for? The league? You say we won't win the cup because we won't get past "Tottenham, Man City, or Man Utd and Liverpool or Arsenal." But those same teams are in the league along with Chelsea. So are you resigned to finishing below them in the league also, in which case are we saving players from injury to assure ourselves of 7th or 8th place? Sounds like a very Moyesian world view

Oh Tommy Carter oh Tommy Carter

@43. Yes Kieron. Saving them for the league. And an FA cup run

We should look to win 12 - 13 home games in my opinion.

We should look to win 10 away games.

Do this. Champions League Football.

Easier said than done of course but in order to achieve it you are talking about putting teams like Brighton on Saturday to the sword.

With us at full strength. That is a very achievable result.

Playing Wed and Sat is a big ask, for most players. It is where we aspire to be, but until we build a better quality squad then players like Richarlison bare a huge responsibility in such games.

Better quality squads can look to several match winners. We perhaps have just 3.

I agree that the likes of RS have 11 quality players and more in reserve which is what Carlo has to achieve at Everton.

Everton do have other ''experienced'' players, some injured and some just not up to snuff. When that side of things is sorted perhaps the future will be more optimistic for us fans.

He doesn't have what he needs yet which will make this season more of a work in progress but the good start has some of us expecting too much too early.

I hope people do not misconstrue that I believe Carlo Ancelotti is the best thing that has happened to Everton Football Club since the appointment of Howard Kendall

Its all about opinions and my opinion is Carlo was spot on with team selection and tactics against West Ham which allowed us to continue our momentum.

You cant plan for injuries especially 3 in one game.

My opinion is that we will beat Liverpool. It is long overdue and we are full of confidence at the moment and we have the best manager in the world.

Hindsight is wonderful of course.

As is irony! ;-)

Tommy C, don't be so stressed man. However I do agree with you wine need Allan to beat that smug lot.

Another great win. It doesn't matter who the opposition are or what the competition is-winning breeds winning and it will permeate the whole club! Also, on the debate of who should be rested etc- we now have a manager who ONLY understands his teams playing every 3 or 4 days because his teams are always in the latter stages of competitions! He knows how to deal with injuries and will re jig for Saturday and beat Brighton.
This guy is a class act and now his latest team are winning regularly, 90% of opposition coaches will panic and bugger their team up by trying to outwit him-which they will fail.
To me, it looked like we played even better when Allan went off,and I think he's brilliant.
With Silva, we'd be on 3 pts and out of the League Cup-never been more convinced and contented we will win thing's with this genius of a football man at the helm.
You just watch!

If Allan has even just strained his abductor (The muscle Carlo mentioned) then three weeks would be the absolute best we can hope for.
That's in an ideal world.
Let's keep our fingers crossed that he's literally just tweaked it.

@50 Joey Mac

I'm not stressed. I'd rather he rested players last night. That's all

@50

Also Joe. I don't like to compare. Especially to LFC

But it's remarkable how their most influential players. Salah, Mane, Wijnaldum, Van Dijk, Allison, Alexander-Arnold and Robertson. For the most part, hardly ever miss a game. And certainly not a long term injury amongst them in 3 years.

Tommy, I agree also, with both your last posts.

Tommy@54
Spot on.
Looks like we will be playing them now as well with 1 arm behind our backs.
Derby voodoo might well continue...

Well, if you start out thinking you've got one hand behind your back, you'll play with that mentality. We need to maintain the pair of football testicles we seem to have been growing with Don Carlo, and use the best options we have in the squad, to go out there and beat any opponent, using the resources at our disposal. Any other approach is simply defeatist and smacking of the last three decades of mediocrity.