Can underrated Dyche keep Everton up?

The ability to inspire: Dyche has a reputation of being an astute tactician and motivator who can squeeze every ounce of potential out of his squad. Photo credit: Getty Images

Modern tactics: Dyche coaches a compact defensive philosophy, but it is a proactive style based on high-intensity pressing. Photo credit: Getty Images

Sean Dyche wasn’t the preferred choice at Everton — maverick tactician Marcelo Bielsa was courted before talks broke down — but the 51-year-old Englishman’s hiring already seems like the best piece of business the historic club has conducted in recent years.

Only Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal have won more English top-flight titles than Everton’s nine. But the last of those came in the 1986-1987 season. The club has not claimed silverware of any description since 1995 and is seemingly spiralling towards the second tier of English football — it’s mired in the Premier League’s drop zone.

The morale at the Merseyside club was at rock bottom before Dyche’s first match in charge, with the fans at war with the board. The fear that a 69-year stay in the top tier was heading towards an end and the fact that the club only escaped relegation by the skin of its teeth last season led to the sacking of Frank Lampard after just less than a year in charge. Dyche could hardly have chosen a bigger challenge than answering the ailing club’s emergency call. 

Desperately needed win

With no signings in the January window and Everton in a horrendous run of form, the omens were not good for Dyche as he began his rescue mission at Goodison Park. But the side stunned Premier League leader Arsenal last weekend, earning its first win in 11 games. It also ended a run of four straight league defeats at home, a welcome close to a series of unfavourable home results that the storied club had not experienced since 1958.

Prowling the sideline, barking orders to his players and upsetting the big boys, it was as if Dyche had never gone away. Battling the odds with limited resources, he masterminded Burnley’s promotion to the Premier League, kept it in the top flight for six seasons and even qualified for Europe. These results earned the former centre-back a reputation of being an astute tactician and motivator who squeezed every ounce of potential out of his squad. 

Everton certainly produced a performance that Dyche often used to inspire from his men during his long spell in Lancashire. There was even a trademark headed goal from one of his former Burnley players, defender James Tarkowski, to give the new manager a winning debut.

It is early days, but Everton looked a different proposition against Arsenal. The relentless pressing and commitment also engaged the Goodison Park crowd as the pall of gloom was lifted, although Dyche knows the real hard work is still to come.

“The minimum requirement is maximum effort and we saw that today,” said Dyche after his first game in charge. “We’re laying down the fibre of what we want to be as a group but this is only a start point, that’s all it is, no matter who you beat. That one [win] doesn’t guarantee the next one.

“We’ve got very good players here and I want to give them that freedom to play but the game has a certain way: you have to do the basics and it’s about putting in the hard yards. We have to run harder, we have to work harder, we have to tackle, we have to fight and on top of that the tactical layers, the technical layers and on top of that the freedom.”

Eyes wide open

Dyche said he had walked into the situation with his eyes wide open but called for everyone to pull together to haul the club out of relegation trouble. “The message is clear — unity,” he said. “Even the most disgruntled Evertonians, give us a chance to stick by the team. I’m reaching out to them — we’ll give you honesty, work ethic. All we ask is, give us a window to breathe.”

Everton’s first win under Dyche will have earned the new manager some more breathing room. He said there was no “magic dust” to keep winning, but hoped that claiming three points would prove to be the catalyst for the club to climb up the table. “Wins are marvellous things in football, they seem to solve everything but you have to earn that,” he said.

Dyche’s appointment represents another shift in strategy by a club that has had two Champions League-winning managers in the last four years: Carlo Ancelotti and Rafa Benitez. The club’s fifth manager in five years, Dyche inherits the job at a deeply significant moment. 

Having already splashed £600 million on players over the last seven years, with precious little to show for it, and having posted £373 million of losses between 2018 and 2021 alone, the club is constrained by financial fair play controls on what it can spend to dig itself out of trouble. Everton is also set to move into a state-of-the-art new stadium soon, but needs extra investment to complete the project, further tightening the purse-strings for investment in players.

Dyche’s success at Burnley on a shoestring budget was presumably why he was chosen by Everton, hopefully as a saviour from relegation or as a manager capable of leading the Toffees back up if the worst should happen and they fall out of the Premier League for the first time. 

With five points separating the bottom six, it’s shaping up into a real nerve-jangling scrap, but there is no doubt the 51-year-old has the tools to lift Everton out of 18th place to safety.

A first-rate man-manager, his tactical nous is often underappreciated. He has been portrayed as a ‘park the bus’, ‘long ball’ merchant, but that could not be further from the truth.

For although Dyche coaches a compact defensive philosophy, it is a modern, proactive style. It’s based on high-intensity pressing, the mantra of those on the tactical cutting edge. Dyche employs it as a disruptive strategy, to make the game extremely uncomfortable for opposition teams and knock them off their rhythm — “fight football”, he calls it. 

Against Arsenal, Everton often played a vigorous, stifling mid-block, and created chances. The side didn’t merely sit back and defend. To be able to get a squad to buy in so quickly is already a win for Dyche. Although he wasn’t able to strengthen in January, he has players with enough quality, on paper, to stave off relegation. This battle for survival under Dyche will be one of the Premier League’s more captivating storylines over the remainder of the season.