They definately aren't suited to it and it takes away from work in other areas that they are suited to, but I understand why its being done right now.I absolutely agree about the issues up top but then neither of those players are suited to playing up front. It absolutely removes what Onana is good at - he isn't Fellaini - and Doucoure needs space to run into.
But ultimately it's up to the manager to make tweaks and if he needs a physical presence up top then the only one we have is Simms. He's not good enough, we know that, but then maybe he should be a little less kind on the board and useless DoF in his press conferences.
Dyche has made mistakes IMO. The Keane one is a huge red flag to me. Lampard did also waste fixtures against Wolves and S'ton. Draws, even,out of those games and we're in a much better position right now.
It's not really ridiculous to compare however. The squad is lacking one key player from last year - Richarlison. You could argue it's stronger, numbers wise, in defence and midfield, but Richarlison's impact can't be overlooked. Throw in Gordon but all that was was hard work, there was little quality there, and I'd say right now we're getting as much out of McNeil as we did Gordon last year - hard workers with little quality end product.
The opposition I'd argue is generally worse as in there's more teams that are all poor. However, there's not two standout poor teams like Norwich and Watford. But Leeds lost their two best players, S'ton are still reliant on JWP, West Ham can't get a run together and Leicester are all over the place.
Both managers joined at the same stage of the season, both will have had 18 games and if Dyche doesn't keep us up then he's failed. If he does then well done, but his agent has of course ensured his nice fat bonus for simply doing his job.
FWIW I like Dyche, and right now he's the right pick. Had he been in a few games earlier stuff might look a lot better. But we're 6 games in and we're still shipping dreadful goals - it's actually getting worse, too. We've conceded sloppier goals and chances in the last two games than we had in the previous four. That needs to improve.
Agree on Keane, Coady is terrible also but if Mina is fit you have to start him. I think he only started one game in the survival run last season but he was a real leader in that game against Chelsea and dominated their forwards. It worries me that dYche just wants bread and butter british CBs.
The comparison isn't at all suitable for me. He started on less points, Leeds actually have more players available despite sales due to last season having an injury crisis, they also have a better manager now. There are no whipping boys, the bottom 2 finished on 21 and 22 points, that isn't going to happen this season and it its without question a more competitive bottom half. Losing Gordon and not replacing him is more significant that Evertonians will admit and not having Richarlison available is gigantic, the single biggest factor and massive difference maker between the two situation. You are talking about a 60 million Brazilian international compared to no one, no one at all. You can argue Dyche has failed if we go down as he was brought in to keep us up, but comparing it to last season is a complete fantasy