Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti will sign Swedish international keeper Robin Olsen on a permanent basis – to keep the pressure on number one Jordan Pickford.
England keeper Pickford has endured some shaky moments over the opening months of the season and been left out of the starting Premier League line-up by Ancelotti on two occasions.
Olsen, currently on loan from Roma, has impressed the Everton boss when deputising and now, Ancelotti wants to make his stay at Goodison Park permanent.
Ancelotti said: “We are pleased to have him here. He is a goalkeeper with experience so I think we are going to talk with him and his agent to find a solution for him to be here permanently. It can be for January or in June.
“The games that he played he did well. He was comfortable, he was calm, he was quiet. I think he gives good support to Jordan also.”
Ancelotti must decide who starts in goal tomorrow night as the Toffees open the new year with the visit of West Ham and former manager David Moyes to Goodison.
Victory would lift Everton to within a point of top place in the Premier League table, with Ancelotti welcoming Brazilian winger Richarlison back from a concussion injury. However, high-profile potential starters James Rodriguez, Allan and Lucas Digne all remain out to longer-term concerns and Ancelotti admits keeping his key players free from injury will be more important than trying to sign replacements in this month’s transfer window.
Ancelotti confident Everton can challenge for Europe
He said: “To be in the top four will not depend on the transfer window. To be in the top four depends on the quality we are able to show in the second part of the season and that means also to try to avoid the injury that we had in the first part.
“We had out important players – Digne, Allan, Richarlison. If we are able to recover well, these players [and] the squad is good enough to be in European position. We have a good squad for this.
“To be in the top four will be more difficult and also to have a fantastic transfer window in January will be difficult because there are top teams [who are] really strong and in this moment we are pleased to be there but this doesn’t mean we are at the same level as these top teams.”
While Everton remain perplexed at the way in which the Premier League postponed their meeting with Manchester City on Monday, at just a few hours’ notice due to a Covid outbreak in the opposition camp, Ancelotti admits his side should benefit from the enforced rest.
He said: “Yes, the fact we didn’t play against City we can have fresh legs against West Ham. It can be an advantage for that reason so the preparation for the game it was good. I hope we are ready.”
Meanwhile, Ancelotti is looking for a fifth successive league victory tonight, a run all the more impressive as 14-goal leading scorer Dominic Calvert-Lewin has not hit the net during that sequence.
But the Everton manager remains delighted with the England striker’s contribution, even without his prolific early-season scoring form.
He said: “It is true that he didn’t score as usual, as he did in the beginning but it is also true he was really important.
“Against Chelsea, he won the penalty, against Arsenal he was involved in the own goal, he had opportunities against Sheffield United so I don’t have to ask more, I don’t have to ask him to score goals. We were solid defensively also because him and Gylfi Sigurdsson work hard defensively.”
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3rLpweD
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