Talking Point: Chris Beesley discusses Everton’s ability to play expansive football following the goalless draw with 10-man Brentford.
Sean Dyche himself acknowledged what thousands of Evertonians are fearing when he came out after the goalless draw with Brentford.. “We’re not winning as many as we should be,” said the Blues boss.
Based on the positions of where opponents finished last season, Everton were calculated as having the so-called ‘easiest’ start to the current campaign, according to the number-crunchers. If there’s actually anything in that, then the Blues, with less than a point per game after a dozen Premier League matches, are clearly ‘below par.’
Given they had such a shocking start, losing their first four on the bounce, including back-to-back 2-0 leads being surrendered for 3-2 defeats, the ship has been steadied. However, many are frustrated that enough progress has not been made, including, it would seem, even Dyche.
After failing to break down a Brentford side, who had lost captain Christian Norgaard to a red card before half-time and had lost all their previous away games this term, the Everton manager said: “Supporters have been concerned before I walked in the door.
“We’ve been talking endlessly about us trying to change the story. We’ve had spells when we’ve done that, then we’ve dropped away.
“Even this spell, one loss in eight, but it doesn’t mean anything because we’re not winning. I don’t shy away from that.
“I want to play winning football, and we’re not winning as many as we should be, in my opinion. So the work just continues… how many different ways can we affect games, how many different players can we use, how many different styles can we use?”
One of Dyche’s many stock phrases is that “your eyes don’t lie.” Unfortunately, beleaguered Blues aren’t witnessing much variation on this score, other than Iliman Ndiaye being temporarily moved into the middle following the sending off, a couple of days after his Goodison gaffer seemingly poured cold water on the clamour to deploy him in a number 10 role to match his shirt, claiming there was “no evidence” he should be playing there.
As already hinted when referencing Everton’s, supposed ‘easy start’, there’s lies, damned lies, and statistics, but as Ell Bretland observed online in the aftermath of the team’s back-to-back stalemates: “Ndiaye has made more interceptions in three months than Jack Harrison made in the entirety of last season. There is looking busy and energetic and then there’s being effective. Ndiaye can absolutely defend from the front, and he excels at it and doesn’t chase shadows.”
Indeed, Ndiaye, the brightest spark in what has felt like a mostly gloomy campaign to date, looks in the words of the Daily Telegraph’s Chris Bascombe, “like he trained at Hogwarts,” when he’s on form, yet as this correspondent pointed out in my post-match analysis, Everton could do with a few more of his team-mates taking a leaf out of his book. Another of my regular duties on matchdays is to compile the player ratings and while I felt that nobody individually necessarily let the Blues down with their display against Brentford, collectively they just did not have the strategy or imagination to cut through their opponents.
Dyche suggested that the lack of cutting edge was down to the financial constraints the club has been under in recent years. While it’s true that Everton’s net spend has been one of the lowest in the Premier League since the PSR issues crept up upon them, Kevin Thelwell still brokered a £25.8million transfer for Beto on his watch.
Dyche said: “I’ve been at a club like this previously, where it’s not about the chequebook, we have to constantly work with the players to try and develop them to have more moments, more talent in the front third. I’ve told you before, Arsene Wenger pulled me once, he said: ‘Sean, you tell your chairman this, you do the back, the sides and the middle, and he does the box’.
“That was Arsene Wenger, he’s a pretty handy fella when it comes to developing and winning. So, there has to be a truth in the pattern of the club.
“But that being said, I think we have got very good players here, and it’s my responsibility to make them better, or if I can’t make them better, make them as a unit, win. I’m absolutely clear and have clarified that moment, it’s my responsibility and I have no problem with it.”
Dyche also went on to namecheck Youssef Chermiti when talking about additional attacking options who could return in the coming weeks, but there has to be serious question marks over the potential to improve things when the cavalry consists of the Portuguese youngster and on-loan Chelsea striker Armando Broja, who failed to score in a combined 28 club appearances between them last season.
Although Dyche performed an admirable job for almost a decade at Turf Moor, keeping heads above water for a long time on the Premier League’s smallest budget, comparisons between Everton and Burnley generally do not sit well with significant sections of the Goodison fanbase.
The 53-year-old himself has acknowledged he might never have got the call from the Blues if they weren’t at their lowest ebb, but having steered the team to safety having been heading for a first relegation in 72 years under Frank Lampard, there was a reasonable expectation that things would have progressed by now.
‘Fireman’ Sam Allardyce was drafted in to try and fan the flames of a relegation battle that was quickly extinguished, but despite finishing a comfortable eighth, he was unwilling/unable to take the handbrake off and become more expansive, with an attritional approach that left his team bottom of the table for shots, seeing him sacked after less than six months in charge.
In contrast, Dyche is now Farhad Moshiri’s longest-serving manager. His job has been secure while the wantaway majority shareholder looks to offload his entire stake in the club, but the Friedkin Group, who hope to complete a takeover by mid-December, are already on their fourth head coach this year at Roma.
While many Evertonians have never warmed to Dyche’s tactics and others have viewed them as a bad tasting but necessary medicine at a time when the club has been in poor health, the danger now for him is that even some of his backers are feeling concerned.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, one Blue called Michael who uses the handle @greenallefc, wrote: “I like Dyche, he’s clearly good at coaching certain elements and has given the team an identity which is more than others have managed over the last eight years.
“But Saturday proved the ceiling is low and when given the opportunity to prove he can progress us into more we have fallen flat. My biggest complaint after nearly two years of Dyche is that we still have very few ways to win football games.
“It’s overpowering opponents, either from set-pieces or transitions. But that was evidently a strength for us under him from day one, it’s not really developed into more.
