Former England international Paul Robinson expects Carlo Ancelotti will experiment with youth players in the Everton first-team, as our season is effectively over.
Robinson doubts Ancelotti will be able to guide the club to anything more than a mid-table finish during his half-season in charge at Goodison Park, as relegation should not be a possibility.
Ancelotti took charge in December with the club 15th in the Premier League standings, after interim boss Duncan Ferguson took five points from a possible nine following Marco Silva’s departure.
Silva was fired on the back of losing the Merseyside Derby 5-2 at Anfield, with the result plummeting the Blues back into the bottom three after entering the October international break inside the relegation zone.
Three league wins and a loss under Ancelotti has kept the club climbing up the table to sit 11th heading into Saturday’s trip to West Ham United, where a win could move us to within three points of fifth-placed Manchester United.
Robinson, though, seemingly feels that Ancelotti should use the remainder of the season to try out each player on hand at Finch Farm to assess their suitability for his tactics, rather than going all-out in pursuit of European football for next term.
“They’ve got no expectations this year, it’s a free hit for Ancelotti until the end of the season,” Robinson told Football Insider.
“They can’t do any worse than they were, they’re not going to get relegated, so it’s an opportunity to look at all the players they’ve got.
“I expect he’ll use this opportunity to look at players like that.”
What should be Ancelotti's focus?
Premier League results
Testing youth players
Silva did not give any academy players their Premier League debuts during his time at the helm, with the only top-flight debutants at Goodison Park under the Portuguese’s watch all being players brought to the club.
No youth players made the step up to senior football in the FA Cup or EFL Cup under Silva, either.
In other Everton news, the club have reportedly made a formal bid to sign a 41-cap midfielder this month.