2024/25 Sean Dyche

Lads,

I hate to break this to you.

But the players we have are crap.

They were crap before Dyche, and they're still crap.

There's no pace, and a criminal lack of goals/creativity across that final third.

The squad we have dictates pragmatism - a low block, play the margins and get over the line.

We don't like it, but that's the reality. We can blame Michael Keane, and Sean Dyche but it doesn't escape the fact we're turd. Like others, I reckon I could find you both posting that we're definitely down the weeks prior he rocked up. We've not adequately improved the team since.

There's a reason the bookies have us as joint 4th favourite to go down.

There's a reason our form and results have dictated we've been looking at relegation for 3 years. Look at 2022 as a calendar year, and only Southampton earned less points than Everton. Has our squad improved since then?

Only when we sign some ability/pace in the final third would those criticisms carry weight.

As is, we have McNeil, Doucoure and Harrison in the final third, and a striker who wants off. With 0 Premier League assists Mykolenko at left back, and Young at right back - who can blame him?

Until we bring in pace/ability, I expect a manager - as I do in any walk of life - to manage the resources he has. And that, is undoubtedly, trying to make the team hard to beat and nick a goal.

I was fuming with Lampard for style/substance for a long time, and the biggest single criticism I've had of Dyche is how he set us up to go to Chelsea away - we weren't good enough to take the game to them and it showed.
We had gray,Who’s not the best player I agree, but dyche didn’t play him and was happy to see him go, is he any worse than McNeil or Harrisonit’s his choice to get Harrison for the 2nd season it’s his choice to keep picking doucoure in the 10. And gana and garner. When Onana technically is better than all of them, if he wanted to play better football keep iwobi and sell doucoure.

It’s his choice to get young and constantly play him, was his choice to play Godfrey at RB and not Patterson. What did he do differently when we went nearly 4 months with out a win

Yes we all know, we don’t have the best players and limited funds, but it utter nonsense that he’s doing the best he can with what we’ve got.

Look at palace and how glansner changed them straight away and how they became a better side, they started to attack and score goals. This mateta look a poor striker under hodgson , under glanser he couldn’t stop scoring.
 
The key moments in the game, especially defensively, were player mistakes. Nothing tactical.

Having said that, we desperately need a better player in the 10 spot. And one of the new guys has to be given a shot there to start. I don't think you even need to change tactics, someone like Ndiaye (who is a reclamation project) will naturally change the way we advance the ball forward.

Players that were selected by the manager. If we’d swapped our managers around, Brighton’s first goal wouldn’t have happened because Minteh wouldn’t have been on the pitch. We also wouldn’t have gone down to 10 men because Ashley Young probably wouldn’t have been on the pitch. It’s quite insane to suggest that the managers have no influence on a game of football.
 
Fair suggestion. If they are good enough to address the issues, week in week out, they should play. If they were ready though, I do believe we would have seen them, in part, already.

Dyche knows and trusts his own methods, they did very well for us last season, given our predicament. He has players who he also trusts, with his methods.
Eg I reckon he believes Doucs will score a couple of winners a year, so he picks him on that basis, regardless of the weak areas of his game, as he sees him as being worth 9 or 12 points, or whatever. He knows Young was an integral part of the 4th best defence last season, so he picks him... Keane, barely played last year, though the stats posted on here were shocking, one can only assume Dyche doesn't think the new lad is ready....

I think trying some younger players (and the new signings) and even optimistically assuming one or two actually become starters, that still won't really address the serious lack of depth, pace and guile we have. It needs a total overhaul tbh.

Yes, starting with the manager.
 
The key moments in the game, especially defensively, were player mistakes. Nothing tactical.

Having said that, we desperately need a better player in the 10 spot. And one of the new guys has to be given a shot there to start. I don't think you even need to change tactics, someone like Ndiaye (who is a reclamation project) will naturally change the way we advance the ball forward.

Tbf they made a tactical adjustment after 20 minutes were we'd looked pretty bright, the long diagonal from Keane to Harrison, they started doubling up on him and after that we created nothing via that, yet we persisted in doing that same ball over and over all game long even when it was blindingly obvious that they'd removed any threat from it.

For me that's down to one coach adapting and the other failing to see the adaptation and persisting with something that no longer worked.

Entirely down to coaching
 
We had gray,Who’s not the best player I agree, but dyche didn’t play him and was happy to see him go, is he any worse than McNeil or Harrisonit’s his choice to get Harrison for the 2nd season it’s his choice to keep picking doucoure in the 10. And gana and garner. When Onana technically is better than all of them, if he wanted to play better football keep iwobi and sell doucoure.

It’s his choice to get young and constantly play him, was his choice to play Godfrey at RB and not Patterson. What did he do differently when we went nearly 4 months with out a win

Yes we all know, we don’t have the best players and limited funds, but it utter nonsense that he’s doing the best he can with what we’ve got.

Look at palace and how glansner changed them straight away and how they became a better side, they started to attack and score goals. This mateta look a poor striker under hidgson, under glanser he couldn’t stop scoring.

The point on Gray was at least he had some pace so if we had that in our team we could at least have some counter threat, but he wanted off. We blocked the first transfer to Fulham an he was a pop about it/he was in sulk mode so he was always off. We should have sold him, but we should have brought in some pace.

You say Dyche could have kept Iwobi and sold Doucoure. It's this type of thinking that misjudges the reality. Iwobi wanted off, and the club said he was going. Dyche is on record as saying he wanted to keep him.
 

Players that were selected by the manager. If we’d swapped our managers around, Brighton’s first goal wouldn’t have happened because Minteh wouldn’t have been on the pitch. It’s quite insane to suggest that the managers have no influence on a game of football.

Confusing. If we'd swapped managers, Gana would have given the ball away many more times. Same with most of the players out there.

I never said the manager doesn't influence the game. But it's not as if Dyche told Gana not to tackle Mitoma before he released the ball to Minteh. It's not as if he told Gana to give the ball away. It's not as if he told Young to try and trap the ball with their best player on his back and no one between them and the goal.

I'm not even defending Dyche, but this idea that he's holding this squad back from playing better football is not rooted in reality.
 
Confusing. If we'd swapped managers, Gana would have given the ball away many more times. Same with most of the players out there.

I never said the manager doesn't influence the game. But it's not as if Dyche told Gana not to tackle Mitoma before he released the ball to Minteh. It's not as if he told Gana to give the ball away. It's not as if he told Young to try and trap the ball with their best player on his back and no one between them and the goal.

I'm not even defending Dyche, but this idea that he's holding this squad back from playing better football is not rooted in reality.

It’s not confusing at all though is it if you really think about it. How do you know he would’ve done? He played for PSG for years and seemed to be able to pass the ball just fine there. He plays for an international side where he’s used in an advanced more creative role. There is no way I buy into this idea that all this group of players can do is sit on the edge of its own box and clear it’s lines, hoping to nick a corner at the other end.

No he didn’t “tell” Young to do anything, but he’s a 40 year old fella playing Premier League games against lads literally 20 years younger than him, so what do people actually think is going to happen? What do they think he’s capable of? He should never have been brought to the club, should never have been given an extension, the manager is the sole reason either of those things happened. So yes, the fact he was on the pitch to get sent off is entirely on the manager as it turns out.
 
It’s not confusing at all though is it if you really think about it. How do you know he would’ve done? He played for PSG for years and seemed to be able to pass the ball just fine there. He plays for an international side where he’s used in an advanced more creative role. There is no way I buy into this idea that all this group of players can do is sit on the edge of its own box and clear it’s lines, hoping to nick a corner at the other end.

No he didn’t “tell” Young to do anything, but he’s a 40 year old fella playing Premier League games against lads literally 20 years younger than him, so what do people actually think is going to happen? What do they think he’s capable of? He should never have been brought to the club, should never have been given an extension, the manager is the sole reason either of those things happened. So yes, the fact he was on the pitch to get sent off is entirely on the manager as it turns out.

Seriously? After what you saw on Saturday? I could be a good passer in the PSG side.
 
Seriously? After what you saw on Saturday? I could be a good passer in the PSG side.

Well you couldn’t, that’s not how it works. Anyway I don’t really know how it’s debatable that we play the way we play because of our manager, and Brighton play the way they do because of their manager. And when they came up against each other, Dyche got his pants pulled down.
 

Why do we even bother having managers then? Why don’t clubs just buy players and throw them on the football pitch and whoever’s better will win. What an absolutely bizarre thing to say.
In matches where there's a result, has the manager of the losing team been 'schooled' by the manager of the winning team? That's my point.
 
In matches where there's a result, has the manager of the losing team been 'schooled' by the manager of the winning team? That's my point.
I think the phrase is particularly apt when a manager is able to alter the pattern of play to neutralise the opponents tactics and thereby gain a result .
This appeared to occur on Saturday , and it once again highlighted Dyche’s inability to demonstrably manage ingame tactics to our advantage.
 

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