Sean Dyche had a simple answer when asked what he demanded his team do better on Sunday: “Everything.”
That same answer applied to his own work, he added, in a turn of honesty at the end of what has been a difficult week at Finch Farm.
Shellshocked by what he had witnessed on Monday night at Chelsea, it is clear recent days have involved reflection on all potential factors behind how his team capitulated so dramatically, so quickly.
For Dyche, that has meant looking at himself as well as everything else. He remains confident in his ability to see Everton through this latest crisis. Two key pieces of evidence back up that belief – that he was able to steer the club to safety in tough circumstances last season and that, this season, despite a long list of problems that have undermined his efforts, his players have somehow managed to earn enough points to be well clear of a survival fight. Eight deducted points for matters outside his control prevent this season from being acknowledged as one of progress thoughand events at Stamford Bridge highlighted the complexity of saving Everton.
Dyche was critical of his players on Monday after the game, responding to questions from the ECHO by suggesting there had been a lack of desire to tackle, that his tactics had not been followed and that all but Dwight McNeil and Vitalii Mykolenko had come close to delivering.
Dyche has been through similar experiences with this group of players – most notably 12 months ago, when a 4-1 home defeat to Newcastle United felt like a hammer blow to the club’s hopes of staying in the top flight. Yet that collapse was met with a reaction and Everton lost just one of the five games that followed, which was against eventual champions Manchester City. Hard-fought draws against Leicester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers provided the foundation for wins over Brighton & Hove Albion and Bournemouth to take Everton over the line.
Asked whether that provided him with hope for the coming weeks, he said: “Sometimes, it is a weird thing about football, you get these weird games that level everything out and they just remind everyone ‘right, that is nowhere near it’. The response is the key, straight after the points deduction we lost to Man Utd, we played well and how we lost that is a head scratcher and we have had a few of them this season, but this one we didn’t – we got the points knock and this time we didn’t respond even with the performance. The performance is really important, performances bring wins, you can’t perform like that and expect to win games. You can expect not to lose 6-0. Sometimes you get the odd lucky one over a season, but you don’t want lucky ones – ideally you want to design how the team wins. You take a lucky one and I don’t think we have had many but you don’t want to rely on luck. But the other night was miles off.”
Since then it appears that focus has not just been on his players but also on his preparations for the Chelsea game, which followed an important win over Burnley that was Everton’s first Premier League win of 2024 and only league victory in 15 games. Planning for Nottingham Forest has therefore taken on additional importance, particularly with the side deep in the same relegation battle that Everton are part of.
Asked what improvements he wanted to see at Goodison Park on Sunday afternoon, Dyche said: “Everything better – physically better, running better, that edge that I talk about endlessly because it is important, the shape of the team – every detail has to be better because that was miles off – miles off my own expectation of me, my planning and preparation, and making sure the team are in the place they should be.
“The responsibility does lie with me but I think here we have been trying to build a squad mentality where everyone plays their part and that was a big reminder the other night, certainly to myself, that there are no shortcuts, there is no easy way through any of this, you have to win games, you have to be ready and prepared mentally, physically, tactically, technically to go and deliver and we quite obviously fell short.”
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