Carlo Ancelotti has said Alex Iwobi should tell him face-to-face where he prefers to play at Everton rather than resort to cryptic complaints on social media.
Iwobi marked his selection for Nigeria’s forthcoming internationals against Benin and Lesotho with an Instagram post on Tuesday that read: “Always an honour to get a call up to my national team. Hopefully I get to play in my preferred position.” The 24-year-old did not specify whether he was referring to club or country but posted the comment a day after being substituted in the 56th minute against Chelsea. He was also withdrawn in the 58th minute of Everton’s previous game at West Bromwich Albion, and has been substituted in his last six starts.
Ancelotti rarely criticises his players in public but has been bemused by Iwobi’s comment. The Everton manager, who has played the £34m signing in several roles, cited Andrea Pirlo as an example of the benefits of more open communication.
“I read the post. I want to speak to him, of course,” said Ancelotti. “I want to know his preferred position because usually I want to put a player on the pitch where they are comfortable to play, not where they are uncomfortable to play. If he has an idea of where he prefers to play I have to know, I want to know. I would be delighted to know his preferred position and I’ll put him in his preferred position for sure, no doubt.
“I am going to tell him: ‘Tell me, I am your manager, tell me where you want to play’. When I thought to put Pirlo as a holding midfielder I asked him: ‘Do you like to play there or not?’. ‘Yes’, he said to me, ‘I’d love to play there’ and so I put him there. If he wants to play number 10 or number nine I’ll put him at number 10 or number nine no problem. I can adapt the system.”
Ancelotti confirmed Everton will be without Abdoulaye Doucouré for eight to 10 weeks after the influential midfielder suffered a fracture in his foot. James Rodríguez also remains on the sidelines, with Everton deciding to rest the Colombia playmaker until he makes a full recovery from the calf problem that has hindered him for several months.
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The Everton manager explained: “James played really well against Manchester United and Liverpool but he was not 100% fit and had little problems. For the fact we are going to have really important games until the end of the season we decided to give him a proper recovery and don’t let him play at 70-80%. He has to recover and when he is 100% fit he will play again. We have taken this decision together, we have no problem with the player, the player has agreed.
“We don’t want him to play and risk a bigger injury. We want to avoid this kind of tightness he has after 45-60 minutes of a game so we have to do a proper recovery with special exercises for him to improve his calf condition.”
