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Burnley's Dwight McNeil (centre) and Everton's Seamus Coleman battle for the ball. Anthony Devlin
experiment

'I enjoyed it' - Seamus Coleman on new role under Carlo Ancelotti

The Ireland captain was deployed as a right-sided centre-back in the Everton manager’s first game in charge.

SEAMUS COLEMAN HAS lauded Carlo Ancelotti’s influence in the first week of his tenure as Everton manager. 

Ancelotti left Napoli earlier this month after a fractious start to the season, but he was only out of work for a couple of weeks before heading to Merseyside to replace the outgoing Marco Silva.

The Italian, who has won the league title in four different countries as a manager, secured a win on his debut at Goodison Park thanks to Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s late goal against Burnley.

Speaking after the match, Coleman talked up the first impression that Ancelotti has made on the squad.

“He’s a manager who, when he speaks, you listen,” the Everton captain said. “When he walks into a room, you perk up.

He’s made a few tweaks and I think our performance today deserved the three points.

“Me, as a player, I listen and learn from every manager and respect them wholeheartedly, but a manager with his track record, what he’s done in the game…as a club we should be very proud. We should embrace it as players, soak it all up and learn from the best. And hopefully this can really kick us on.”

Ancelotti made a tactical tweak in his first game in charge, using Coleman as a right-sided centre-back in a fluid back three so that he could form a double threat with wing-back Djibril Sidibe.

Asked about his unfamiliar role, Coleman was similarly enthusiastic.

“I enjoyed it,” he said. ”It was something the manager worked on during the week – when we have the ball to drop into a back three.

“I was happy to do it. We did it for a few days in training and I really enjoyed it actually.”

Three points against Burnley saw Everton climb to 13th in the Premier League, two points behind Sean Dyche’s side.

Coleman was also keen to praise Duncan Ferguson for his work as interim manager over the previous few games, in which Everton were much improved compared to the dying days of Silva’s tenure.

The atmosphere was great today and I think we have to thank Duncan for that as well. He got the spirit back a little bit after a disappointing start to the season,” Coleman said. 

“He lifted the place, lifted the crowd and then, obviously, when the crowd are feeling good and they see Carlo Ancelotti coming out today it’s a massive boost and it was set up for us to win today.

“But we still had to go out and do it and Burnley are a good side and doing well for themselves.

“But I think momentum’s been building from the few games that Duncan had, so we’ll rest up, get ready to go again and hopefully it will be another three points [at Newcastle on Saturday] and we can keep climbing that table.”

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