Merseyside derby: Liverpool a test of how far Everton have come under Carlo Ancelotti

Carlo Ancelotti is often one of the most genial men in management but he looked uncharacteristically angry as he strode down the corridors of Anfield. It was January and it was his first significant setback as Everton manager: their first team had been eliminated from the FA Cup by Liverpool’s assortment of teenagers, debutants and deputies.

Everton’s quest for a trophy since 1995 would stretch into a 26th year. Ancelotti had only been at Goodison Park for a couple of weeks but recognised the damage defeat had done; especially to Liverpool.

“I will tell them it’s not good enough,” Ancelotti pledged then. That message may have been delivered plenty of times in the subsequent six months; at Wolves in July, his more outspoken skipper Seamus Coleman criticised Everton’s desire, commitment and attitude. Ancelotti agreed. Perhaps that forthright approach is why Ancelotti bracketed Coleman alongside Paolo Maldini, Sergio Ramos and John Terry among his best captains.

Ancelotti was so impartial that he was interviewed for the Liverpool job in 2015. Upon his arrival at Everton, however, he was swift to see the significance of Coleman and the now retired Leighton Baines. He emphasised the “sense of belonging” long-serving players provided, giving a club an identity.

Coleman’s understanding of all things Everton takes on another meaning on Saturday. He is the only survivor from Everton’s last derby win. It will be a decade to the day since Coleman, then a young, rampaging right winger, inspired Everton to a 2-0 victory.

One of the scorers that day, Mikel Arteta, is now Arsenal manager. The losing manager, Roy Hodgson, bizarrely claimed it was the best performance of his time with Liverpool. The watching new owners, John W Henry and Tom Werner, were presumably unimpressed and sacked him three months later.

Some 22 derbies have passed since then. Everton’s triumphs have been draws, stalemates at Goodison that delayed Liverpool’s coronation last season and cost them precious points that may have denied them the title in 2019, a thunderous equaliser by Phil Jagielka at Anfield or the knowledge they finished off Brendan Rodgers in 2015.

Yet while they have only conceded once to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool at Goodison, they have not scored at all. The German’s team have specialised in late winners, whether from Sadio Mane, Virgil van Dijk or Divock Origi. The essentially limited Origi, a regular tormentor of Everton, has become a derby talisman. Everton’s psychological problems in this fixture have felt greater as their wait has grown longer.

____________________

Everton v Brighton player ratings

____________________

They have been defined by who they are not and what they have not done. Everton’s misguided buying has brought a contrast with Liverpool’s superb strike rate in the transfer market.

Until now, perhaps. Because if much of the first £450 million ($583.70m) Everton spent under Farhad Moshiri was wasted, this summer’s recruitment drive has powered them to the top of the league. James Rodriguez, Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure are shaping up as outstanding additions. Ancelotti seems to have transformed a sterile side with a void where it needed a midfield into Everton’s most compelling outfit since Roberto Martinez’s team finished fifth with 72 points in 2014.

They have secured one breakthrough win – beating Tottenham was a first triumph at big-six opponents since Coleman also played in the defeat of Manchester United at Old Trafford in 2013 – but their nearest rivals have represented the furthest frontier. Ancelotti is the proven winner who helped AC Milan beat Inter, Chelsea defeat Arsenal and Real Madrid overcome Atletico, but rarely entered a local rivalry in a position of such inferiority. If January showed the scale of the task he took on, Saturday will indicate how close he is to succeeding in it.

____________________

Aston Villa v Liverpool player ratings