DYCHE IS PERFECT AT BLUES
IF last weekend’s brilliant win over Arsenal is anything to go by, it’s perhaps easier to explain where Everton went wrong by looking in the past.
There has been a lot of talk about mismanagement at the boardroom level and even more talk about some of the crazy decisions made by owner Farhad Moshiri (below) in signing both players and managers.
And I think questions have to be asked about Moshiri – he doesn’t seem to get the Goodison fan base at all.
But the bottom line is that this team is good enough to have brushed the Premier League leaders aside. And they deserved to win – created the better chances, played the more compelling football and looked the more organised.
That’s the key. Organisation. I have to say, for maybe the past two years I’ve looked at Everton teams and wondered what exactly the managers were trying to do. I never really understood the plan. And I suspect the players didn’t, either.
Under Sean Dyche, there was no such confusion. And I think coming in, simplifying things to a certain extent, making everyone clear about what their role is and what is expected of them has helped massively.
I said I thought Dyche was the right manager at the right time and I think he showed that with the miraculous turnaround he produced in his first game, after working for just five days with his players.
They are a decent squad and, at Goodison, can beat anyone. I’m not so sure that’s the case away from home – at least that’s what I’m telling myself when they come to Anfield.
But if Dyche gets the same out of them against Liverpool, they’ll be a handful, especially against a team wrestling with their own identity.
It will be the key to Everton’s survival this season. If the new manager can keep getting that tune out of his squad, they will stay up, easily. And if they do, then I expect him to take them on a level with some new signings and a summer to work with his players.
I’m a great believer, as a coach, in building a solid base: ensure you don’t concede many and then build flair and threat on top of that. It seems Dyche has already started to do that, which can only be encouraging for Everton fans.