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2023/24 Sean Dyche

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I can't say I was thrilled with Dyche's appointment when it happened, but he has totally earned my backing. I'll even grant some credit for future missteps. Being a Blue is fun again.

Comparing the teams I follow that succeed with those that don't, the successful organizations have two things in common - an identity and some sense of stability. Dyche is beginning to build the former. The change in ownership will hopefully bring the latter.

Will Dyche get us to the promised land? Is Dycheball perpetual stodginess? Or is stodginess simply what it takes to survive a relegation dogfight with a limited squad? Will Dyche evolve with a different talent level available to him in the future? Who knows? Who cares?

Dyche seems the perfect man for this moment, which is more than the club has had in a long time.
 
Not strange at all. If we press high and recover the ball higher up the pitch, it’s less distance towards goal and so much easier to break open an unprepared defence.
People tend to overlook the benefits of high press but in reality it’s the easiest way to score goals for a team with lesser technical qualities as the hurdles are very much reduced.
You wanna play Dycheball you gotta be Dyche-fit.
 

The corrupt football establishment of this country tried to bury us. Many football managers would have folded under the pressure of that.

I can't thank Sean Dyche enough for what he has done for our club.

I'm also immensely proud of these players. They work their socks off every game and have just hammered two teams whose players are on literally tens of millions of Pounds a year.

Special mention also to the fans. I was at both the Newcastle and Chelsea matches and the atmosphere was electric.
 
I can't say I was thrilled with Dyche's appointment when it happened, but he has totally earned my backing. I'll even grant some credit for future missteps. Being a Blue is fun again.

Comparing the teams I follow that succeed with those that don't, the successful organizations have two things in common - an identity and some sense of stability. Dyche is beginning to build the former. The change in ownership will hopefully bring the latter.

Will Dyche get us to the promised land? Is Dycheball perpetual stodginess? Or is stodginess simply what it takes to survive a relegation dogfight with a limited squad? Will Dyche evolve with a different talent level available to him in the future? Who knows? Who cares?

Dyche seems the perfect man for this moment, which is more than the club has had in a long time.

I admit I have not enjoyed our style of play for many years now.. including the hey day of Carlo, I found us unwatchable even when results were going our way. No possession, minimal chances created and the hope to knick one while trying to defend 20 shots on goal..

But with Dyche this less possession still seems to have purpose, press and intent. Intent was the word I used to gripe about. It is clear that without possession we are still creating and not just hoping for a miracle. That 29 pass goal shows he is beginning to win the mentality war of self belief that this team has so far been lacking for too long..
 
What's next? I'm loving the run em to death, press em into juice, current tactics, is that what we'll be forever with him? Or will he look to refine the side with a super specialist midfielder, think the way Moyes got Arteta in and how the football evolved.

It's not just that though is it? When we have the ball, we look to get it forward quickly - and that doesn't necessarily mean pumping it long - which requires players to be good on the ball. I think this is something which has been unfairly overlooked over the last few weeks.

Off the top of my head… Doucoure's goal against Chelsea and Gana's goal against Palace came from through balls from midfield. Im sure there are more, and when given the opportunity Onana and Garner look to play similar passes forward from the middle.

My point is, we already have players who can do that… I think McNeill is our best option for this at the moment, coming in off the left he has the vision and ability to pick a pass.

If we were to get a more specialist midfielder, they’d still need to put the hard yards in to get into our side.
 
He was right wasn't he, we genuinely were just incredibly unlucky in those first 4-5 games.

Obviously no club should ever start a season without a striker, yet we did - again.

Even with that, we should have won our first two home games comfortably and probably beat Sheffield United too, as we dominated the chances in all three games and it was miraculous how we didn't take enough of them. 1 point from those 3 games when we should have had 7 or 9.

I don't ever remember another team going several games into a new season without a striker available to them.

We've played really well all season, but only in the past month has it started to pay off.

We should (excluding the deduction) be sat around 10th now, and 5th if the league wasn't corrupt.
 
He was right wasn't he, we genuinely were just incredibly unlucky in those first 4-5 games.

Obviously no club should ever start a season without a striker, yet we did - again.

Even with that, we should have won our first two home games comfortably and probably beat Sheffield United too, as we dominated the chances in all three games and it was miraculous how we didn't take enough of them. 1 point from those 3 games when we should have had 7 or 9.

I don't ever remember another team going several games into a new season without a striker available to them.

We've played really well all season, but only in the past month has it started to pay off.

We should (excluding the deduction) be sat around 10th now, and 5th if the league wasn't corrupt.
The stats and what we were seeing was saying this, but I think for a lot of people (harshly) there's nothing which they'll focus on other than the result and you can't win every game. Obviously at the end of the day, results are what really matters but you usually have to play better than the opposition to win a game. It's difficult to keep your head when you're losing at home to Luton etc, but there's v little in the results lately where I feel performance levels have changed from earlier in the season.

Obviously the Villa game was unacceptable, but that's genuinely the only game where we've played really badly. Even the Arsenal game, while we were poor on the ball, if you look at the chances in the game it was one moment where their player pulled off a great finish which was the difference between 1 point and none.

I think, generally speaking, we've been good all season.

And just one final point for all the xG lovers...

We all know that without our points deduction we would currently be 10th - to take that a step further, if you look at the balance of the games we've had in terms of xG etc and look how many points we should have had on average (and do the same for everyone else), we'd be sat 8th (in other words we've been a bit unlucky)

Untitled.jpg
 

The stats and what we were seeing was saying this, but I think for a lot of people (harshly) there's nothing which they'll focus on other than the result and you can't win every game. Obviously at the end of the day, results are what really matters but you usually have to play better than the opposition to win a game. It's difficult to keep your head when you're losing at home to Luton etc, but there's v little in the results lately where I feel performance levels have changed from earlier in the season.

Obviously the Villa game was unacceptable, but that's genuinely the only game where we've played really badly. Even the Arsenal game, while we were poor on the ball, if you look at the chances in the game it was one moment where their player pulled off a great finish which was the difference between 1 point and none.

I think, generally speaking, we've been good all season.

And just one final point for all the xG lovers...

We all know that without our points deduction we would currently be 10th - to take that a step further, if you look at the balance of the games we've had in terms of xG etc and look how many points we should have had on average (and do the same for everyone else), we'd be sat 8th (in other words we've been a bit unlucky)

View attachment 238331
This table highlights the difference between Sean Dyche pragmatism and David Moyes pragmatism.
When Moyes is working with limitations, he is happy for his teams to properly sit back and keep everyone behind the ball (see West Ham's XG points) but still nick the wins due to a drilled back five. He used to get Stubbs, Weir, Hibbert etc doing 2 hour 'attack v defence' matches didn't he. When Dyche is working with limitations, he still wants his teams to spring forward in numbers when the opportunity presents.

Obviously Moyes' Everton reached levels way above the current Everton in terms of attacking prowess and quality togger because he was given the time and freedom to build a side, whereas he is probably never going to get that patience at West Ham so it will be pragmatism til the day he is inevitably sacked.

The big question is can Sean Dyche create something like that lovely Baines, Pienaar, Arteta side later on if the pressure is lifted and he has time on his side? It's impossible to know because he has never really been in that situation in the Premier League.
 
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So many people backtracking on Dyche.

I've said it from the start. He is boss.
It doesn't take long in football for opinions to change.

Look at Iwobi Doucoure Mcneil Beto threads.

If we got beat by Burnley and then knocked out by an in form Fulham which could be followed up by defeat at Spurs then im sure people will change their mind again on Dyche. I dont see that happening btw but it could.
 
So many people backtracking on Dyche.

I've said it from the start. He is boss.
He is precisely what is required. Evertonians amaze me sometimes. We've won nothing in a generation, yet we have a sense of entitlement that we play a certain type of - largely unsuccessful - way. Allardyce, who did what he was hired to do, was punted for finishing 8th being Big Sam. That decision could only be justified if we brought in a managerial upgrade. But we brought in Marco Silva. At a huge cost. Madness.

We have always been better when we have appointed a pragmatic manager - not an ideologue. Howard Kendall was pragmatic. His teams played with passion and skill, brain and brawn. They didn't play a system or to any philosophy - unless that philosophy was of winning. They could out-pass you and out-fight you. Pick your poison. Moyes, who was not in Kendall's class, was still a very good manager who played pragmatically, with a nice mix of physicality and flair, when time allowed him to add that latter ingredient. Joe Royle, an excellent manager who we got half a decade too late, was also a pragmatist. The Dogs of War was his response to dire straits. But it had a touch of Limpar and Kanchelskis to go with Ferguson.

Dyche did a wonderful job at Burnley. To bring European football to Turf Moor is a landmark achievement, but to even survive there for 10 years is success in itself. It tells you this fella knows how to operate in waters with much larger fish. He's doing us proud. Compared to where we were this time last year, this fella has worked the oracle. There will be difficult days ahead - we have a fight on our hands, make no mistake, and Burnley will be intent on dragging us down with the dead men on Saturday - but I have seen enough, regardless. I have total confidence that he will get us safe and beyond, with any kind of fair wind at all.
 

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