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Carlo Ancelotti has said that Everton should not be obsessed with ending the longest trophy drought in club history, but motivated by the opportunity at the Carabao Cup.
Everton have not won the League Cup in any way and host Manchester United in Wednesday’s quarterfinals looking to go on and claim the club’s first silver medal since 1995. Yet instead of being overwhelmed by history , Ancelotti believes his team should be inspired by the challenge of finally handing out a trophy to Goodison Park and by the sharp change in form that has seen Chelsea, Leicester and Arsenal defeated in the last three games.
“We have the ambition and great motivation for this competition,” said the Everton coach. “There is not much pressure from the fact that this club did not win for a long time. It is not an obsession, it is just a great motivation. I think we prepared this game at a good time.
“It is a really important competition because we are not that far from the final; in three games it ends. We are there, we want to compete for this, we want to fight. The aim is to reach the final, but for that we have to have a fantastic match tomorrow against one of the toughest teams in the Premier League who beat us here a few weeks ago.
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Bruno Fernandes orchestrated United’s 3-1 victory when the two teams met last month and while Ole Gunnar Solskjær has spoken of resting the playmaker during this hectic schedule, Ancelotti remains wary of the threat he poses. “That day I learned that if you give him space, we are dead,” he added. “We have to avoid leaving spaces because he is a fantastic player and the key point for Manchester United at the moment. We have to take care of this. “
Everton, who will be without James Rodriguez again due to a calf problem, remain one of the few Premier League clubs capable of hosting 2,000 fans as Covid-19 restrictions increase across the country. Ancelotti admits his endorsement helped during home wins over Arsenal and Chelsea, but insists the return of the fans is more important to society than an obvious sports advantage.
“The fact that you can listen to 2,000 fans again after we couldn’t have noise for six months is really good,” added the Blues manager. “The two games we won against strong teams [was] because the players are more focused, more concentrated and more motivated.
“The fans helped us a lot, but I don’t consider it an advantage that we have fans. I just think it’s a great start and the most important thing is to have the whole crowd back in the stadiums ”.
