Michael Keane speaks on Carlo Ancelotti’s authority at Everton

Everton centre-back Michael Kean has spoken fondly about manager Carlo Ancelotti, who has improved the club’s fortunes during the backend of the season. The Merseyside outfit were lying just outside of the drop zone when the Italian took over but they have now jumped into a mid-table position and within six points off a Europa League spot.

As such, things are looking bright for the Toffees in the long-run and Keane is pleased to work under Ancelotti, who has a special authority over the first-team squad, he told the club’s official website: “The manager has been fantastic, he has all the experience in the world and has won it all. His demeanour and authority is special, he instantly gained respect from everybody and rightly so. His training has been really good and in all the games bar against Chelsea, we have been really competitive.”

Under Ancelotti, the Toffees have looked competitive in almost every league game and the only exception was the 4-0 thumping defeat at Chelsea, where they looked out of sync from the off. The Merseysiders had gone into the game on the back of some promising performances but they simply failed to turn up for Ancelotti’s return to Stamford Bridge as the opposition head coach.

At present, the season has been halted due to the coronavirus outbreak and there is the optimism that the campaign would be restarted by May. The Toffees have another nine games to make the push for the European places and that won’t be straightforward, considering five of those matches are against teams, who are placed eighth or above.
Irrespective of the eventual outcome, Ancelotti will surely be backed with a sizeable transfer kitty over the summer and the focus could lie on pursuing a quality centre-back and a striker, who can regularly find the back of the net.