Carlo Ancelotti is anticipating a busy summer to ensure Everton have a “better… more competitive” squad in 2021/22.
Manager Ancelotti’s side were beaten at Manchester City on the final day of the 2020/21 campaign, slipping to 10th position and missing out on European qualification.
The Italian oversaw improvement in his first full campaign in charge, Everton gaining more points and victories than in 2019/20.
The Club’s best away form since the title-winning season of 1984/85 represented another tick in the positives’ column.
But enduring difficulties at an empty Goodison Park undermined ambitions of a top-six finish, the optimism for next season on that count provided by a 100-per-cent winning league home record with supporters in the ground.
Ancelotti is keen for his side to return for next term playing a more positive brand of football and capable of sustaining a presence in the Premier League’s higher reaches.
“We have to work hard in the summer to have a better squad and be more competitive next season,” Ancelotti told evertontv.
“When we defend with a low block, we are really strong, when we try to play the line higher, it is more difficult.
“There, we have to improve for next season.
“The season was positive. We had some fantastic away results. But we didn’t have a good home run.
“We improved on last season, now we have to look forward, to be more competitive and get more points next season.”
Everton went to Premier League champions City still in with a shot of qualifying to compete in European competition next season.
The extremely tough task of winning at City grew even harder inside the opening 14 minutes, however, with Kevin De Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus both scoring for the home team.
Everton, who had a chance to go in front when Dominic Calvert-Lewin was denied by Ederson on five minutes, came back into the contest and on 36 minutes were presented with an opportunity to halve their deficit.
But Gyfli Sigurdsson’s penalty after Richarlison was felled in the box by Ruben Dias was too close to City goalkeeper Ederson.
And the home team increased their advantage when Phil Foden drove home eight minutes after half-time.
Sergio Aguero came on for his final Premier League appearance to add a double and condemn Everton to their heaviest defeat of the campaign.
“We played against the best team in the Premier League,” added Ancelotti, whose team’s 59-point tally is 10 higher than they managed last term.
“We tried to push a little bit higher [from the beginning] because we wanted to win.
“But we weren’t clinical on the counter-attack, we lost some easy balls.
“When we started to build-up, we had a possibility to come back in the game with the penalty – in the second half [after Foden’s goal] there was no chance to come back.
“It is almost impossible for us to compete with them, they are the best team.
“It was difficult. We tried to compete but today was not the day.”
