2022/23 Sean Dyche

[Eggsyblueskin]

…as I’ve already said this morning, I wasn’t thinking about substitutions those last 20mins. It might have made a difference from an attacking perspective but it carries risk defensively in a game we couldn’t lose.

Taking Iwobi off, for example, would leave a totally new right side. He was up to speed in the game and at least he looks to link with his full back. For me, Gray is a maverick substitute, one you use when chasing a game. DCL could’ve been taken off but more because of injury fear with muscle fatigue.

I can understand why Dyche decided to stick rather than twist.

I understand what you’re saying and under normal circumstances would totally agree, but these are not normal circumstances.
Realistically we now have two games to secure our survival ( I am discounting our next two fixtures for obvious reasons).
I thought we had a reasonable possibility of securing a win last night with fresh legs on the pitch, but I admit it would have been a gamble.
As it stands now I think we have to gamble on the win v Wolves anyway.
Personally I think we will need at least 34 pts to survive.

 

[Little Ralphy]

A defeat last night would've sent us down IMO.

It was as much a point gained as two points dropped for Leicester. Keeps them in the thick of it with difficult fixtures.

I would've lobbed Gray on for DCL last 15 but you would then lose that presence up top which is a big risk.

But Leicester are the lowest ranked and arguably weakest of all the games we had left. It was the most winnable game of the those remaining, and they were there for the taking. A win would have leapfrogged us above 3 other teams at the bottom. IMO a better manager makes changes to try and win the game.

 

[Brett Angell Delight]

…as I’ve already said this morning, I wasn’t thinking about substitutions those last 20mins. It might have made a difference from an attacking perspective but it carries risk defensively in a game we couldn’t lose.

Taking Iwobi off, for example, would leave a totally new right side. He was up to speed in the game and at least he looks to link with his full back. For me, Gray is a maverick substitute, one you use when chasing a game. DCL could’ve been taken off but more because of injury fear with muscle fatigue.

I can understand why Dyche decided to stick rather than twist.

We were in the ascendancy and creating the better chances. I think it was negligent for him not to roll the dice.

Four games spring to mind recently - Leicester, Forest, Spurs and Palace. All draws, all involved spells of dominance by us. All (to my mind) could have been won with more proactive game management. Even if I'm wrong though, and we'd have won 2 and lost 2 (for example) that's still 6pts as opposed to 4.

I don't agree that last night was "must not lose"; given our past results and remaining fixtures I think we were past that. It was "must win" and that fuzzy little plantpot froze on the touchline once again.

 

[Saint Domingo]

Form since Dyche came in.

So we’ve outperformed all of the other relegation candidates, despite no first choice striker.


View attachment 209890

Point per game. 38 points over a season and that’s with no real striking option available to him in that time.

People have to be realistic, they’re just expecting one of the worst squads in the PL to go away from home and turn teams over as though it’s in our gift to just ‘have a go’. It doesn’t work like that. We’ve not got much pace in the defence, we’ve not got much pace in the midfield when Onana doesn’t play, we don’t have crossing ability from full back. We can’t just put the hammer down on other team’s grounds anytime we want to, we’re just nowhere near good enough.

As usual though the expectation on here is that Dyche should outperform all his counterparts despite having less resources, and if he doesn’t then he must be the problem and should be fired.

Imagine if Dyche had Tilemans Maddison Vardy Barnes Daka etc. available to him rather than relying on some of the cloggers in our team. I think he’d have probably guided Forest to safety by now as well. We just have an extremely poor squad no two ways about it.

 

[Little Ralphy]

Let's be honest here, anyone who watched that game last night and tries to claim we play for a draw has an axe to grind and isn't making any attempt to hide it.

I don't hide that I don't rate Dyche as a manager at all and nothing he has done since he came in has changed my mind. He had the new manager bounce and then wasted the best chances of points with strange selections.

Last night we had the lowest ranked of our remaining games and he either didn't want to upset the balance as some have said, or felt we were going to win with what was on the pitch, as others have said. Some of the lads on the pitch were dead on their feet. On the bench we had lads who can move with the ball at pace, and as McNeil showed, there was plenty of space to drive with the ball. McNeil unfortunately for him was goosed or didn't have the pace to utilise it as well as he'd perhaps hoped. Nothing against McNeil, but Gray and/or Onana for Dacoure/iwobi could have utilised that and really put pressure on Leicester.

In his interviews he talks of averaging a point a game and seems quite proud of that fact, I suspect that was his target for staying up. My argument is that in a league with 3 points for a win, then sometimes it pays to make the gamble. But I totally get it's easy to say when you're not in that position. But as a football manager at the top level you'd expect a manager to be able to make changes to positively influence a game of football and so far he hasn't shown that in any of the games.

 

[Little Ralphy]

Point per game. 38 points over a season and that’s with no real striking option available to him in that time.

People have to be realistic, they’re just expecting one of the worst squads in the PL to go away from home and turn teams over as though it’s in our gift to just ‘have a go’. It doesn’t work like that. We’ve not got much pace in the defence, we’ve not got much pace in the midfield when Onana doesn’t play, we don’t have crossing ability from full back. We can’t just put the hammer down on other team’s grounds anytime we want to, we’re just nowhere near good enough.

As usual though the expectation on here is that Dyche should outperform all his counterparts despite having less resources, and if he doesn’t then he must be the problem and should be fired.

Imagine if Dyche had Tilemans Maddison Vardy Barnes Daka etc. available to him rather than relying on some of the cloggers in our team. I think he’d have probably guided Forest to safety by now as well. We just have an extremely poor squad no two ways about it.

The argument is based on last night's game though and Leicester are in a lot worse a state than we are currently, despite the players they have. In the second half last night, proactive changes could have gained us an extra 2 points which may well have led us to safety.

 

[TheBigIguana]

Point per game. 38 points over a season and that’s with no real striking option available to him in that time.

People have to be realistic, they’re just expecting one of the worst squads in the PL to go away from home and turn teams over as though it’s in our gift to just ‘have a go’. It doesn’t work like that. We’ve not got much pace in the defence, we’ve not got much pace in the midfield when Onana doesn’t play, we don’t have crossing ability from full back. We can’t just put the hammer down on other team’s grounds anytime we want to, we’re just nowhere near good enough.

As usual though the expectation on here is that Dyche should outperform all his counterparts despite having less resources, and if he doesn’t then he must be the problem and should be fired.

Imagine if Dyche had Tilemans Maddison Vardy Barnes Daka etc. available to him rather than relying on some of the cloggers in our team. I think he’d have probably guided Forest to safety by now as well. We just have an extremely poor squad no two ways about it.

I think it's realistic to expect the manager to actually attempt to get more out of the players though. He's incapable of that no matter how bad they might be.

 

[COYBL25]

His blindspot for Keane is what really worries me.

You can`t go into your last four games, fighting for survival, with a defender that is so woefully out of form and error strewn.

Especially, when you have two fit and healthy competent centre halves on the bench, that for some reason, you just won`t play.

 

[Lanolin]

I don't hide that I don't rate Dyche as a manager at all and nothing he has done since he came in has changed my mind. He had the new manager bounce and then wasted the best chances of points with strange selections.

Last night we had the lowest ranked of our remaining games and he either didn't want to upset the balance as some have said, or felt we were going to win with what was on the pitch, as others have said. Some of the lads on the pitch were dead on their feet. On the bench we had lads who can move with the ball at pace, and as McNeil showed, there was plenty of space to drive with the ball. McNeil unfortunately for him was goosed or didn't have the pace to utilise it as well as he'd perhaps hoped. Nothing against McNeil, but Gray and/or Onana for Dacoure/iwobi could have utilised that and really put pressure on Leicester.

In his interviews he talks of averaging a point a game and seems quite proud of that fact, I suspect that was his target for staying up. My argument is that in a league with 3 points for a win, then sometimes it pays to make the gamble. But I totally get it's easy to say when you're not in that position. But as a football manager at the top level you'd expect a manager to be able to make changes to positively influence a game of football and so far he hasn't shown that in any of the games.

Personally I just think we're a really poor side and putting things down to strange selections etc is just ignoring the elephant in the room - that whatever side we put out is going to struggle to win games. You'd think we were leaving out top class players all over the place the way people talk about it but the truth is there is very little evidence that playing Patterson or Coady or Simms more would have seen us pick up more points. I thought McNeil was excellent in the last 10-15 minutes last night and can't imagine the Demarai Gray i've watched for the last 2 years doing more than he did. Onana has shown nothing whatsoever to suggest that he's a player capable of making a matchwinning contribution from the bench.

There's an argument that it was worth making a sub just for the sake of trying something else, I totally get that. On balance I just don't think it was a massive issue though, because the players out there were doing well and ultimately are probably better than the players on the bench.

 

[TheBigIguana]

Personally I just think we're a really poor side and putting things down to strange selections etc is just ignoring the elephant in the room - that whatever side we put out is going to struggle to win games. You'd think we were leaving out top class players all over the place the way people talk about it but the truth is there is very little evidence that playing Patterson or Coady or Simms more would have seen us pick up more points. I thought McNeil was excellent in the last 10-15 minutes last night and can't imagine the Demarai Gray i've watched for the last 2 years doing more than he did. Onana has shown nothing whatsoever to suggest that he's a player capable of making a matchwinning contribution from the bench.

There's an argument that it was worth making a sub just for the sake of trying something else, I totally get that. On balance I just don't think it was a massive issue though, because the players out there were doing well and ultimately are probably better than the players on the bench.

There are still right and wrong ways to do things. I'd appreciate if he did the right things more even if it didn't always work.

Different club but that's what Marsch was doing for Leeds. The plan was sound even if they lost some. Now the plan isn't sound and they're hiring Big Sam. I'd like for Everton to just one time have a good setup with players being asked to do things that make sense. I won't complain when we lose then because that happens.

 

[Wat Tyler]

Interesting that Gracia is seen as doing a diabolical job but has 11 points in 11, same point ratio as Dyche’s 14 in 14, and more than Dyche in his last 11, who has only picked up 8 points in our last 11 games.

 

[TheBigIguana]

Interesting that Gracia is seen as doing a diabolical job but has 11 points in 11, same point ratio as Dyche’s 14 in 14, and more than Dyche in his last 11, who has only picked up 8 points in our last 11 games.

Leeds play has been very very bad. I'm not even a Dyche guy but he's done better than Gracia

 

[Lanolin]

We were in the ascendancy and creating the better chances. I think it was negligent for him not to roll the dice.

Four games spring to mind recently - Leicester, Forest, Spurs and Palace. All draws, all involved spells of dominance by us. All (to my mind) could have been won with more proactive game management. Even if I'm wrong though, and we'd have won 2 and lost 2 (for example) that's still 6pts as opposed to 4.

I don't agree that last night was "must not lose"; given our past results and remaining fixtures I think we were past that. It was "must win" and that fuzzy little plantpot froze on the touchline once again.

This is the key for me. I think he did roll the dice, by hoping that we would continue to be in the ascendancy and would eventually take one of the chances we were creating. He effectively did take a risk, but just not the one people think he should have taken (because we didn't win, obviously if we'd lost having made subs then people would have said why on earth did he do that we were on top absolutely no need to change it etc, because that's what we do). I think it's fine to say he made the wrong call, just daft to make out like it was negligent or too risk averse or unfathomable. It was totally understandable to keep it the same precisely for the reasons you yourself have stated, but when it doesn't work of course people will question it.

There are still right and wrong ways to do things. I'd appreciate if he did the right things more even if it didn't always work.

Different club but that's what Marsch was doing for Leeds. The plan was sound even if they lost some. Now the plan isn't sound and they're hiring Big Sam. I'd like for Everton to just one time have a good setup with players being asked to do things that make sense. I won't complain when we lose then because that happens.

I think pretty much every Leeds fan would disagree with you but i'm sure you know best.

 

[Little Ralphy]

Personally I just think we're a really poor side and putting things down to strange selections etc is just ignoring the elephant in the room - that whatever side we put out is going to struggle to win games. You'd think we were leaving out top class players all over the place the way people talk about it but the truth is there is very little evidence that playing Patterson or Coady or Simms more would have seen us pick up more points. I thought McNeil was excellent in the last 10-15 minutes last night and can't imagine the Demarai Gray i've watched for the last 2 years doing more than he did. Onana has shown nothing whatsoever to suggest that he's a player capable of making a matchwinning contribution from the bench.

There's an argument that it was worth making a sub just for the sake of trying something else, I totally get that. On balance I just don't think it was a massive issue though, because the players out there were doing well and ultimately are probably better than the players on the bench.

Don't get me wrong, bar Pickford and possibly DCL none of the players should be anywhere near Everton as none of them are up to standard. I'd struggle to name 10 good signings at Everton since we signed Lineker, that's how far back the mismanagement and poor recruitment goes.

But having said all of that, judging on last night's game alone and the position we are in, I'd have liked to have seen the manager do something to try and win the game. I know he changed the triangle in the centre of the park but I felt that just left us more vulnerable to the counter if I'm honest. I think it was crying out for fresh legs.

On McNeil as I said in the post, I thought he did well but it was he who showed how to get at Leicester and we had players on the bench who arguably could have done the same but with fresher legs and more pace. I wouldn't have swapped McNeil for them, but Dacoure and Iwobi whose influence on the game had gone.

 

[Azza]

Why ignore all the good quality ones though? Bit weird that.

Good quality = goal.

There was two good quality shots.