The footballing gods can be cruel and vindictive but, in Everton’s case this weekend, they have offered up gifts and opportunities in the form of defeats for the Blues’ relegation rivals Southampton, Leeds United, and Nottingham Forest. Add to that Wolves’s 6-0 defeat at Brighton (which still keeps them within reach of those struggling below them and also demonstrates defensive vulnerabilities that could be important when Everton go there in a couple of weeks) and things could not have fallen much better for Sean Dyche and his team this weekend.
Now they have to step up and make the most of it. They have to start delivering. The manager needs to start finding solutions to a run of form that has seen his side go winless now in six games. Indeed, it wasn’t all that long ago that it looked as though Everton under Dyche had enough to ensure they would be well clear of danger by crunch time in late May.
But three defeats in their last four matches, including two really damaging home losses to Fulham and Newcastle, have left them two points and two places from safety in the lower reaches of the Premier League, heading into an absolutely massive six-pointer against Leicester.
Dyche’s much-vaunted strengths were supposed to be around defensive solidity, dogged determination, a robust mentality, and his teams being hard to beat, but on all of those scores, he and his players have been woefully inadequate in recent weeks. The mental frailty of the players appears to have been a particularly damning weakness of late as Everton have collapsed in the second half in each of their last two home games.
Certainly, when you look at the pathetic way in which three players in Blue jerseys practically watched as Alexander Isak danced his way along the byline before setting up Newcastle’s fourth goal on Thursday evening, there can be no arguing that some players had given up.
However, it’s also hard to maintain a positive mentality when the manager isn’t making the right decisions to set you up for success and his team selection leaves you wide open at right back, a position in the defence that has been ruthlessly exploited by the likes of the Magpies, Fulham, Manchester United and Arsenal in recent weeks.
The hope is that Seamus Coleman will be back when the Toffees make the trip to the King Power Stadium on Monday evening or, if he isn’t passed fit, the nod goes to Nathan Patterson who is, at least, a natural full-back.
Regardless of who plays, though, the 11 that take the field need to stand tall, be brave and fight for the shirt from the first minute to the last. The away support will be there, just as it was in this fixture last season, when they sang themselves hoarse and inspired the Blues to a precious away victory. But the team can no longer simply rely on coach welcomes, blue-hued send-offs from Finch Farm and, when the time comes against Manchester City and Bournemouth later this month, the Goodison Park bear-pit.
This needs to come from the guts and the spirit of the players. We need more from Amadou Onana in midfield, a potential beast in the heart of the side who has been impressive at times without truly taking charge of matches. We need more from Idrissa Gueye, who has a propensity to switch off in the middle of the park. We need more from Demarai Gray if he plays. We need more from Alex Iwobi who is the side’s leading goal creator but who all too often lacks end product and only has one goal to his name this season.
We need more intensity, more crosses and better deliveries from the flanks, more numbers in the box when we’re attacking rather than having two central midfielders jogging purposelessly forward while the team is counter-attacking. We need to start winning more corners and being a threat from set-pieces again. And we need to put the ball in the 6-yard box for Dominic Calvert-Lewin… again and again.
Finally, we need more proactivity, decisiveness and imagination from the dugout. If you can predict a Dyche substitution to the minute — usually the 70th — and know exactly what he is going to do, then be sure the opposition will too. The manager has been one-dimensional in this thinking, too rigid in his team selection, and it is high time he started reacting once it’s clear a particular approach or formation isn’t working.
There is talent in this Everton team. There is – as they showed against Arsenal, Leeds and Brentford at home – fight, determination, heart and resilience. Now is the time to re-find that, to dig deep and make it count on the pitch. Victory at the King Power Stadium is eminently achievable; they have to believe it and follow through. The psychological boost if they can would be huge.
Monday night’s game might not be winner-takes-all on the night but any loser might well be going down. In that sense, it is almost like a cup tie; do or die; show up, fight for the badge, fight for the fans, and fight for this famous old club’s very survival.
UTFT 🔵⚪ï¸
Reader Comments (58)
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2 Posted 01/05/2023 at 07:20:57
I think a win tonight is essential. Whilst a draw is not totally disastrous, it will still keep us in bottom 3 and with two very difficult games to come where points are unlikely, you worry the fragile nature of the team then makes it even more difficult to pull themselves together for the last two winnable games. The weekend results have thrown us a lifeline ( though Leicester will feel the same). Leeds in particular have four very tough fixtures left. Forest will have their Waterloo against Soton next Saturday.
Lets see a repeat of last season, please🤞ðŸ»ðŸ¤žðŸ»ðŸ¤žðŸ»
3 Posted 01/05/2023 at 07:27:47
5 Posted 01/05/2023 at 07:54:35
6 Posted 01/05/2023 at 08:13:36
Get into them from the start like we did against Newcastle. Keep it up till the end. Stop blasting your passes Iwobi. And someone find a moment of quality up front. Get Demari back and let's leave the garden gnome at home. Otherwise it's 3-0.
7 Posted 01/05/2023 at 08:30:04
I don't care who is playing tonight, just show the same passion that will be coming down from that corner of the King Power stadium.
Bizarrely, results have gone our way and we are still in the game. We still have a chance.
Take it.
8 Posted 01/05/2023 at 08:42:53
It also comes down to something Frank questioned last season: ‘Do they have the b0llo0cks to play?'
So far the answer is no….
9 Posted 01/05/2023 at 09:02:39
10 Posted 01/05/2023 at 09:12:23
The effort cannot be faulted in most of those games, but we seem unable to create enough goal scoring chances and put games to bed, without defensive errors and unfortunate deflections allowing opposition players to punish us.
The away teams used to set up defensively and counter attack, which I think would be an ideal scenario for this game, because Leicester will use Vardys pace for the ball over the top. When we are in desperate need of points, we have to dig in and break fast on the counter attack. I hope Dyche uses this tactic, if we play an open game yet again, we will be vulnerable ourselves to counter attacks. I can't call the score in this game.
11 Posted 01/05/2023 at 09:44:03
Despite not knowing who we will be facing next season.
And I'm still on the waiting list.
Respect. Every single one of you.
12 Posted 01/05/2023 at 09:47:02
Sean has to pick a team prepared to fight and scrap and get stuck in for the whole game. Surely Mina and Coady will come into contention as their confidence has not been damaged sitting and watching the crap on the pitch and Seamus is a must if he can run. Young Garner has to play and perhaps Gray will feel he has a point to prove at his old club.
We're in for a nervous day and evening- please perform team, please!!!!
13 Posted 01/05/2023 at 10:01:24
So, despite what Lyndon says in his article, I have absolutely no faith in his ability to change anything WHATSOEVER!
He doesn't make subs earlier than the 80th minute (very often), he doesn't rotate the team and he certainly doesn't drop his favourites. Hardly ever, anyway.
Ask Burnley fans and they will tell you how ineffectual Ashley Barnes was over the last 2 seasons in the Prem and yet Dyche persisted with him week after week. It was bizarre.
Because of this, I fully expect to see Keane playing tonight and Holgate or Godfrey at RB as Dyche doesn't trust young, inexperienced players.
Last season, we had some bad results but Frank fostered a feeling of togetherness amongst all of us. I don't have the same feeling this season, at all.
I don't like our manager. He's old, tired, boring and predictable. But, obviously, I wish the best of luck to everyone tonight. I won't be there myself but I have got a ticket for the Wolves game...potentially our last away game in the Premier League for a long, long time.
15 Posted 01/05/2023 at 10:24:02
16 Posted 01/05/2023 at 10:46:36
17 Posted 01/05/2023 at 10:49:11
18 Posted 01/05/2023 at 10:52:09
19 Posted 01/05/2023 at 10:56:26
20 Posted 01/05/2023 at 10:59:47
21 Posted 01/05/2023 at 11:04:33
22 Posted 01/05/2023 at 11:08:09
Dyche claims there has been positive change since he replaced Frank Lampard, whose final 10 Premier League matches yielded five points with seven goals scored and 17 conceded. Dyche took six points from his opening three games but his record over the past 10 matches reads seven points won, eight goals scored and 20 conceded. Everton conceded four goals in Dyche's first four games but have shipped 18 in nine matches since he replaced Conor Coady with Michael Keane in central defence. Source:Gaurdian
I'll admit that I'm surprised that Coady hasn't featured at all since his birthday bash, he's not any better a player than the ones selected, however, he did seem to have an influential voice within the team, which is something we have lacked in the last few weeks.
23 Posted 01/05/2023 at 11:14:55
24 Posted 01/05/2023 at 11:21:50
25 Posted 01/05/2023 at 11:29:29
26 Posted 01/05/2023 at 11:34:17
27 Posted 01/05/2023 at 11:38:47
Coleman Mina Tarks Cody Miko
Onana Guye Duke
DCL Simms.
Shut up shop and play it long.
28 Posted 01/05/2023 at 11:45:32
Dyche tweaked the structure against Fulham in the first half and it yielded a goal. The simple fact of the matter is that we have one truly functional right-back. We have zero left-backs who are fit for purpose. We have central defenders who are all highly inconsistent and error prone (Tarky excepted largely).
We have no natural width with the exception maybe if McNeil who doesn't have the pace to be an effective out-and-out winger. We have no real creativity especially in the middle. And we have one reliable goal scorer whose fitness is totally unreliable.
It's the worst squad in the Premier League and it must be incredibly difficult to select a team from with any confidence in being able to put the ball in the goal at one end and keep it out at the other.
29 Posted 01/05/2023 at 11:46:09
Dyche needs to get in their faces, read the riot act if players fail to press, run and go full in for 50-50s. Usain Bolt would vomit after training he'd worked so hard, that's the level of commitment we need tonight.
30 Posted 01/05/2023 at 12:10:00
31 Posted 01/05/2023 at 12:15:00
I am so angry at our current situation and I blame the whole club. Not one of the current team or management get what they have.
32 Posted 01/05/2023 at 12:35:54
I hate these lot. I really do
33 Posted 01/05/2023 at 12:50:23
COYB.
34 Posted 01/05/2023 at 13:15:54
35 Posted 01/05/2023 at 13:22:50
Is Dunc available, Kevin #30?
36 Posted 01/05/2023 at 13:28:38
4-3-1-2
Pickford
Coleman Mina Tarks Myko
Iwobi Garner Davies
Gray
DCL Simms.
Go long and pressure their weak defence.
37 Posted 01/05/2023 at 13:33:21
Davies & Gray to save the day 🤣.
38 Posted 01/05/2023 at 13:33:43
The rot set in long, long before he joined. A lucky escape from relegation last season and a team shorn of attacking endeavour this season after sales and injuries despite which, he wasn't given the chance to sign a single player and he has had to work with what's the worst squad in the league.
Yes, he's stubborn and makes mistakes (Godfrey at right back being the most obvious) but who doesn't?
He doesn't make subs sooner because there is the square root of f-all on the bench most games to change things. When your attacking options have largely been Maupay or Simms or indeed playing Gray as a striker then how on earth do you positively change things?
Talk of Mina as some sort of defensive saviour is also fanciful. He has the heart of the lion in the wizard of oz. He breaks down more than the 20 year old Skoda above.
The reality is that we are where we are not because of Dyche but the fact we are there is also why we have ended up with someone like Dyche.
Our greatest chance tonight is to keep it tight and knick one. We don't have the players to control games and nor do we have the ability to out-football Leicester as bad as they are. They just passed round our midfield as though it wasn't there when they thrashed us at Goodison earlier this season.
Backs to the wall and counter attack or a set piece remains our viable routes to a goal and coming away with a point isn't a disaster either.
I'm off to pump up the tyres on my Skoda ready for Silverstone.
39 Posted 01/05/2023 at 13:35:33
40 Posted 01/05/2023 at 13:38:53
41 Posted 01/05/2023 at 13:51:00
We're not in trouble because Dyche chooses/replaces one unreliable player over another. It's because over seven years, the people 'running' the club have failed to notice that their employees including a 'world-renowned director of football' have only bought two players capable of scoring goals.
42 Posted 01/05/2023 at 13:55:06
We will win
We will win
We will win
We will win
43 Posted 01/05/2023 at 14:02:46
44 Posted 01/05/2023 at 14:05:43
45 Posted 01/05/2023 at 14:33:15
46 Posted 01/05/2023 at 14:44:56
47 Posted 01/05/2023 at 14:47:23
Games won't be won when we consistently play with what are essentially three Defensive midfield players: Gueye, Onana, Doucoure.
Gueye O goals 1 assist
Onana 1 goal 2 assists
Doucoure 2 goals 2 assists.
Simms and particularly Maupay get stick but that midfield does absolutely nothing for them.
McNeil and Gray's stats as wing men are almost as bad.
48 Posted 01/05/2023 at 14:47:59
"My first home game was the famous Everton v Sunderland FA Cup Replay and I have been an Evertonian for 88 years. I was at Sheffield Wednesday 72 years ago when we were last relegated and at Oldham when we returned to the then 1st division
The current squad is the worst of my long life and if we are relegated, it is self inflicted by the current management. If there are any more nonagenerian Evertonians out there, please get in touch for somebody has to save us."
DM me if possible and I'll pass on any nonagenerian contacts to my uncle.
49 Posted 01/05/2023 at 14:56:28
Don't believe Onana's offered much more than we may have gotten from Gomes tbf. Don't think there will be any chance of paying his wages next year in championship so he'll be loaned out again or sold for nominal. If we stay up we might see a cameo final season of him. If we could get £35m back on Onana that could be used for some attacking threats I'd chance that trade.
50 Posted 01/05/2023 at 15:12:27
Field Marshal Haig has formulated a brilliant new tactical plan to ensure final victory in the field.
Blackadder:
Ah. Would this brilliant plan involve us climbing out of our trenches and walking very slowly towards the enemy?
Captain Darling:
How could you possibly know that, Blackadder? It's classified information!
Blackadder:
It's the same plan that we used last time and the seventeen times before that.
Melchett:
Exactly! And that is what is so brilliant about it! It will catch the watchful Hun totally off guard! Doing precisely what we've done eighteen times before is exactly the last thing they'll expect us to do this time! There is, however, one small problem.
Blackadder:
That everyone always gets slaughtered in the first ten seconds.
Melchett:
That's right. And Field Marshal Haig is worried this may be depressing the men a tad. So he's looking for a way to cheer them up.
Blackadder:
Well, his resignation and suicide seems the obvious choice.
Melchett:
Hmm, interesting thought. Make a note of it, Darling.
51 Posted 01/05/2023 at 16:45:44
I do want us to win but we need to see something different happening, which I can't see without a complete fire sale. Catch 22 for me.
I'd take a chance on Coady and Mina tonight and play 3-5-2 with Simms and DCL up front. Hoping..
52 Posted 01/05/2023 at 17:13:55
53 Posted 01/05/2023 at 17:21:41
You were spot on in everything you said. Hope Sean Dyche and his coaches and most importantly all the Everton players would read your article.
Now there is the time Everton must deliver on the pitch in all our remaining games. If we can stay up, superb; but if we go down, it´s better to do it with an honourable way: fighting to the last minute. What we may nowadays lack in skill, we must compensate with the "never-say-die" attitude.
Our players must find and show the mental strength which enables them to produce the desire and commitment and resilience and belief and work rate for the whole 90-100 minutes in every match we still have. We can´t crumble under pressure; have no more collapses if we are trailing, instead we must believe that we can still get a result, preferably a win.
Yes, it´s easy to say and demand. But it´s also a fact that without those mental and physical factors we have no chance to survive. And on the other hand, we can rightfully claim that the fans have given their all lately, so the players must start doing the same right now.
54 Posted 01/05/2023 at 17:30:42
An end to Iwobi charging at the opposition in their own half. It's not effective in terms of closing down, and leaves us exposed.
Less width from our attacking players; we're making it easy for the opposition.
Us sitting deep and not committing too many players too far forwards.
55 Posted 01/05/2023 at 17:44:17
If Everton win tonight, please fuck off.
If Everton lose tonight, please fuck off.
Thanks.
56 Posted 01/05/2023 at 17:49:46
I guess Dyche doesn't inspire the kind of quality vehement vitriol that Carlo did. Ah, good times.
57 Posted 01/05/2023 at 18:18:58
Any player that gets brought in from the cold is rusty, very few hit the ground running, and this has also been a major problem as we have continued to downgrade our squad.
58 Posted 01/05/2023 at 18:26:23
59 Posted 01/05/2023 at 18:36:24
60 Posted 01/05/2023 at 19:39:59
If we can't control midfield and stop them coming at us relentlessly,we lose! Simps !!
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1 Posted 01/05/2023 at 07:08:36
Very well put, Lyndon.
We're now entering do or die territory.