Michael Ball: 'Dyche is turning us into Burnley'

He is setting up teams to be defensive against average opposition, showing little courage to set his team up to get the best or optimum from the players.

Nor he is making effective substitutions that impact the game positively. It's criminal we are not winning games against Fulham, Brentford and Bournemouth.

We just twat the ball 90 yards to one striker and don't get bodies around him.

His next step will be to get us relegated if he is left in charge.

It's rigid, boring tripe and he's not shown that he's brave enough to try anything else. We are a chore to watch, but we keep coming back hoping for more.

Eat, sleep, shite, repeat...

Everton at Goodison next and another defeat from another game in which we should have got something. We went in front too but then somehow managed to concede three goals in a six minute spell from which there was no return.

The big news coming out of Turf Moor in the following week was of Sean Dyche signing a new contract that would see him remain at Burnley until the end of the 2024/25 season. “We are huge fans of what Sean Dyche has achieved at this club,” chairman Alan Pace said. “It was important for everyone to get this deal over the line and look towards the club's future starting with this current Premier League season. I look forward to working closely with Sean and his team over the coming seasons as we seek to raise the bar and build on the solid foundations that have been laid over the past nine years.”

Later in the season:
Everton, who had cried off on Boxing Day, were next and they were finding themselves in trouble too. We led 1-0, fell behind to two soft penalties, but then, in a storming second half, won the game 3-2. Collins, who had done well since replacing Mee, scored his first goal, Jay Rod got the second and Cornet, who hadn't scored since the game at Leeds, netted the winner.

We were only a point behind Everton now. They had Manchester United at the weekend and we had Norwich. This was, everyone thought, a real opportunity for us. Everton beat United and we lost at Norwich in a performance best described as feeble.

As shocking a performance as it was, no one could have expected the news that came five days later on Good Friday. Dyche was sacked alongside Ian Woan, Steve Stone and Billy Mercer. We had eight games remaining with Alan Pace reportedly set to bring in an interim manager. Until then, it was Michael Jackson, the club's interim under-23 coach, in charge with Paul Jenkins, the academy director, Mee, the club captain, and Connor King who is the transition goalkeeping coach. That was to be the set up for all of the remaining eight games.

Highlights of the season? There haven't been too many but I suspect most would point to the last few minutes at Watford alongside that home win against Everton. Lowlights? Too many of them but I still shudder at the defeats at Newcastle, Leeds and Norwich.

A season to forget

The "Turning us into Burnley" accusation has been levelled at Dyche by a fair percentage of fans in and around Goodison since he got here. There are 2-3 lads (from that area) who have been posting the same thing on here all season.
Once this jibe started to gather legs it was only a matter of time before it found it's way into one of Bally's articles.

Nice work if you can get it, but hardly revelatory.

Never seen Dyche on matchday (cept in his technical area) but see Michael nearly every game. Would love to be there if they ever meet face to face. There is clearly no love lost between them.

He managed to survive and keep them in the Premier League for several seasons despite the lack of funds, ambition shown by the owners and having to sell their best players every season.

Despite this, he is generally perceived as a dinosaur of a manager with a one-dimensional playing style from the '80s.

Kompany on the other hand stunk the Premier League out with a bigger budget and more ambitious owners. He consistently kept blind faith in trying to play pretty football out from the back and now manages Bayern Munich.

I didn't want Dyche but, with the squad and cards dealt, Dyche is doing a decent job.

But have a word with the groundsman, our pitch is too nice and giving visiting 'footballing' teams an advantage.

At Everton it’s a slightly different story. Our wage/transfer bill probably indicates an expectation of finishing around 15/14th. Last season he bettered that expectation (if you include deductions) but this season he has us performing below expectations and is consequently under pressure.

However, it sort of made sense at the time, and he proved to be the right appointment, when post Lampwick it looked like relegation was a strong possibility.

Then again, last season amidst the adversity of points deductions, not once but twice, he somehow got the players to pull off some tremendous results, again resulting in safety for another year.

That ' other year ' is now approaching midway, and it doesn't look good with the fixtures already played, and what is to come. I'm afraid Dyche can't just pin hopes, on any sort of repeat escape, especially when the football is saying something entirely different.

The take-over dragging on is no help either, and not only puts pressure on Dyche, the team, the fans, and the new owners to prevent the almost unthinkable possibility of relegation. Not a good time to be an Evertonian.