I am no different from the vast majority of football supporters when I make judgements on footballers and managers more on “gut feelings”, and what I think I know about their abilities, than on actual facts.
I realised this nearly 12 months ago when I did a little exercise on the comparable merits of two Premier League managers.
It was when Rafa Benitez had been sacked and Everton were looking for a new manager. One of the names mentioned was a young(ish) up-and-coming and highly regarded manager in Graham Potter.
He seemed to be looked on favourably by many of our fanbase, but with the generally held notion: Why would he even consider applying to become the manager of a dysfunctional club like Everton when currently managing a well-run club like Brighton?
So the perception of Potter was extremely favourable for many (including me) but, at the same time, the perception of a manager such as Sean Dyche was negative (a manager who regularly flirted with relegation at Burnley). So I set about looking at their relative records.
Before comparing their relative performance metrics, you have to look at their respective clubs. Although polar opposites, both clubs have clear and precise strategies.
At Burnley, the strategy is to maintain Premier League status with the absolute minimum spending outlay possible. This would mean maximising the revenue that Premier League football brings but with the ever-present danger that relegation is always on the horizon. This would be acceptable.
In the event of relegation, the plan would be to regain Premier League status (with the help of the parachute payment) within one or two seasons. A dangerous but acceptable strategy for a club like Burnley.
The blueprint at Brighton is totally different from that of Burnley. Their sights are set far higher and their approach is totally different. It is far more progressive and they have developed into an extremely well-run club, both on and off the pitch, whereby their net spend is relatively high but with the clear intention of initially becoming a consistent Top 8 club which will eventually become a contender to be a Champions League club.
So how did the two managers' records compare (considering the expectations of their respective clubs)?
Season 2018-19
Dyche 40 points; net spend €25M
Potter 36 points; net spend €73.5M
Season 2019-20
Dyche 54 points; net spend €10.3M
Potter 41 points; net spend €53.24M
Season 2020-21
Dyche 39 points; net spend €-1.2M
Potter 41 points; net spend €7.9M
So, over the three season, Dyche outperformed Potter (133 points compared to 118 points) with a net spend of a quarter of that of Potter. Not what most of us would have expected…
Of course, not everything can be gauged on statistics. Dyche was sacked by Burnley in April 2022 (widely criticised by football pundits) when in the relegation zone (4 points behind Everton) and Burnley were eventually relegated on the final day of the season. It should be remembered that this was following a negative net spend in the transfer market prior to the season start.
On the flip side, when Burnley spent some money (a very modest €25M) their season ended with European qualification. A quite exceptional outcome.
Potter has gone on to manage Chelsea, a perennial Top 4 Premier League club.
Of course, this is all immaterial to us Evertonians as we do not have a managerial vacancy. However, if we did, he may be unfashionable but I would have Dyche in a heartbeat.
This in no way absolves the Board for the long-term mismanagement of our beloved club who have to take overall responsibility for our current plight.
Reader Comments (100)
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2 Posted 04/01/2023 at 18:42:59
3 Posted 04/01/2023 at 18:44:53
4 Posted 04/01/2023 at 18:49:27
However, I believe that had he not been sacked we would not be where we are now. I think we would be dull and safe with people like me demanding he be sacked. How good does dull and safe sound now?
Anyway, never go back, be it Roberto or Moyes or big Dunc. I had dismissed Dyche in a sort of snobby relegation tainted way. Your article has certainly made me think again.
We need a tough, focused battler, we need to get lucky and we need to start now. Frank looks shell shocked, battered, beaten, bewildered and needs to be led kindly away to punditry. Now.
5 Posted 04/01/2023 at 19:06:27
Those stats don't surprise me much as Hughton did well at Brighton but was hounded out for being “boring.â€
The problem is that people don't like watching boring football. I think Sam would have done better than the Rafa/Frank combo last year but people were hounding him out because he was boring. The boring style managers Sam, Pulis, Kinnear, Dyche can get a team to produce solidly but they never seem to win an actual trophy. So for perpetuity the club exists at a glass ceiling based on it's size. The entertainers like RM and Howe are more unpredictable they entertain may win a trophy possibly once in a blue moon or get relegated. I don't see us being successful ever with the former type and don't know if I want to roll the dice on the roller coaster of the latter. Moyes was kind of a halfway house between the two but couldn't win because of his own ingrained inferiority complex. If we could find a Moyes with a hint of optimism in his soul we would be golden.
6 Posted 04/01/2023 at 19:18:40
Perhaps now teetering on the edge of Walter Smith days the Dyche method might get a free pass as per Moyes but with such a schizo fanbase who knows?
7 Posted 04/01/2023 at 19:24:23
History tells you that an under-resourced team will eventually drop. Happened to Wigan, Norwich and eventually, Burnley. I understand relations between him and the leverage-buying owners was strained. And like these kind of owners always do, they got a 'big name' to replace him, after they went down.
His teams play awful football? What have we been watching the last few years?
He's been out of work for a year? Didn't do Howe any harm, did it?
This isn't a time for 'the future'. We need results, points desperately. We need to be feared. We need to make other teams feel uncomfortable.
I'd take Dyche in a heartbeat. Best chance of keeping us up. Best chance of bringing us back up, if the worst happens. And you know when the next owners come in, they'll probably bin him for a 'big name'...unless he does such a good Job that even thick new money would keep him.
8 Posted 04/01/2023 at 19:25:58
I couldn't give a toss about how we get the ball from A to B just as long as it ends up in the net enough times for me to enjoys the moment of a goal being scored and a bif fat "W" on the board.
There is nothing wrong with power, pace, aggression and simplicity. At the recent World Cup some of the best goals were very simple, some route one.
If Old Dyche can get this lot up out of their composite confusion and give them some clear instruction, I will be happy and I think we would all be feeling better.
Frank and his massive crew of assistants have managed to cloud the minds of this group of lads. They seem to like him because he ain't there half the time. He is a nice guy, from a football dynasty, with celebrity friends and a TV wifey.
Our players probabaly love it.
In fact I know a few facts from a club employee regarding just how fucked-up some of our players are. It's no surprise to me to see the brittleness on the park.
Trouble is that the soft twats have relaxed into a torpor of xbox-induced lethargy.
How I would like to see big Sean squeaking commands at them.
They coud look a very different animal with the right preparation.
Get him in.
9 Posted 04/01/2023 at 19:36:14
It is currently embarrassing to be a blue. It shouldn't be.
Mid table mediocrity? I'd snap your hand off for that.
We need a management that fires players up.
Gets them on the front foot so that the crowd can become excited enough to cheer them on.
If we gone down whimpering and being hopeless and clueless like yesterday it will be a disgrace. If we go down fighting there will at least be some hope of a return.
Under Dyche, Burnley lost games because their players weren't good enough. NOT because they just didn't try.
If Dyche is the man top put a rocket up their collective arses, then get him in. But for God's sake. Do it quickly.
10 Posted 04/01/2023 at 19:46:19
Frank's failings have come when he's actually tried to turn us into a modern football team and we've not been good enough to do it. Last night was a crazy example of that, and it certainly hasn't been the norm.
If we button down with Frank and let him play the same kind of game we played at City last week then we'll get the exact same points return as if we appointed Dyche. Obviously, I don't know that for certain but I'm pretty confident.
Playing percentage football and grinding out results is pretty straightforward for a competent, Premier League level manager. And if Frank can do that away at City then he should be able to do it for the rest of the season and get us to safety.
We don't need Dyche.
11 Posted 04/01/2023 at 19:54:15
Lee#10
Even that Everton set up like that needs players engaging and tracking back.In the play prior to Brighton scoring there was no evidence of that .The players looked a spent force after the City game.They need to be consistently putting the effort into the training ground to do that., which looks as if they are not , even with Frank's odd tactics and set up on the Brighton game.
12 Posted 04/01/2023 at 20:22:32
He thought I was being a cheeky scouser, (it must have been my mannerisms!) and told me this was impossible. A member of staff was on the other side of the barrier, I shouted him over and he said their gaffer was busy, and that Stone & Woan where taking the two teams, so I said get me Stoney then!
The security guard was definitely thinking I was at it, especially because nothing happened for about 20 minutes, then this member of staff came back and said, they said you can come in if you pass a Covid test.
I was impressed with this because Dyche, who was overseeing the two games, came and had a good twenty minute chat, mostly going over old times, and then came back at the end, for another good laugh, something he didn't have to do.
Dyche, did a great job at Burnley, but constantly firefighting isn't a great job in the EPL, so it was no surprise he struggled last season with that squad.
Lampard has spent quite a lot of money, this season, but I was reading his net spend, is in the bottom four?
Dyche's teams play with aggression, Lampard says after every game that he's looking for more intensity.
Everton fans, love aggression, especially if their team can play on the front foot, so maybe Dyche, managing Everton isn't the silliest idea, especially in our current predicament.
Imagine getting the Everton job, and on arriving at finch farm, having me waiting to tell you all about the club. What have you done Dychie - this c**t Kenwright is gonna put you in an early grave, but if you play 4-4-2 and get plenty of crosses in, there's this fella on ToffeeWeb called Ian, and he will fuckn love you,
13 Posted 04/01/2023 at 20:27:41
* In the sense of setting a team up that is very hard to beat, organised, motivated and plays to its strengths in attack. In short trying to build a team with no weak links based on hard work. It could be the best route to get us to the BMD with Premier League status.
Maybe for a few years we have to stop reaching for the stars and settle for something more terrestrial. It goes against the DNA of an Evertonian but we need to learn to run again before we can fly.
You would hope that the club has done some contingency planning for this current situation. Especially considering the dramatic downturn in form prior to the World Cup.
14 Posted 04/01/2023 at 20:34:15
15 Posted 04/01/2023 at 20:36:24
16 Posted 04/01/2023 at 20:43:29
17 Posted 04/01/2023 at 20:46:00
The only evidence of that I've seen recently was Mr Kenwright heading for the exit last night - well before full time - and presumably to avoid any cool headed supporters who may have hung back at full time to offer him constructive observations in the interests of the Club they love - as much as he does.
18 Posted 04/01/2023 at 21:10:33
I think under Sean Dyche we would get a consistent approach and not change formations according to the opposition. We would have strong defensive set up and look to pinch a goal on the break. Isn't that what we do now but without the strong defensive base? Dyche would certainly not put up with the attitude of Gana who I thought showed that he didn't care at the end. I might be wrong about that.
So after another defeat on Friday with 2 hugely important games against Southampton and West Ham coming up who do you fancy to get us 4 points or even right now I would take 2 points.
19 Posted 04/01/2023 at 21:30:47
I can't believe how big a price Martinez is to get the job.
20 Posted 04/01/2023 at 21:33:01
21 Posted 04/01/2023 at 21:34:52
22 Posted 04/01/2023 at 21:42:31
Under Dyche, we would get a consistent approach and not change formations according to the opposition. Whoever gets the job, has got to identify our strengths and try and forge a team that is difficult to beat, whilst also having the ability to go and cause problems at the other end of the pitch.
If Lampard remains does anyone think he will try and do this?
23 Posted 04/01/2023 at 21:47:44
Beat bottom place Swansea.
Drew nil - nil with Chelsea.
Lost to United.
4 points out of nine from Sam's boring arse football. We need saving, pure & simple. Wolves & Forest are improving. If we carry on as we are, we're gone.
24 Posted 04/01/2023 at 21:59:38
Dyche is far and away the best candidate for our present status as a cash strapped club. He got Burnley promoted and kept them up year on year with a side and budget that is mid Championship level.
He turned Keane, Trippier, Pope and Tarkowski into internationals.
He does not get a look in for bigger jobs because of the agricultural style of play but also, let's be very honest, because he has a silly voice and a ginger goatee.
I would take crap football for the rest of the season. Again, let's be very honest, we've been watching almost exclusively crap football for 30 years.
To organise, to motivate and to keep a club in the Premier League Dyche is an overwhelmingly better bet than Lampard.
As a manager, Lampard now has a consistent track record of underperforming the level of investment in the playing squad - at Derby, Chelsea and now Everton.
So if we aren't going to back him, sack him and give ourselves a chance.
25 Posted 04/01/2023 at 22:06:34
26 Posted 04/01/2023 at 22:16:08
Not much I'd say
27 Posted 04/01/2023 at 22:28:27
The owner and the chairman should be laying down the law to the players after we all witnessed the debacle against Brighton.
28 Posted 04/01/2023 at 22:30:13
29 Posted 04/01/2023 at 22:37:14
30 Posted 04/01/2023 at 22:37:18
I'm not saying he's a good manager but from what I've been told he puts the hours in.
31 Posted 04/01/2023 at 22:42:34
32 Posted 04/01/2023 at 23:25:25
33 Posted 04/01/2023 at 23:50:36
34 Posted 05/01/2023 at 08:05:36
You may as well just reappoint Martinez.
Bielsa is great when he has energetic dynamic runners, imagine him working with our wasters that can't run, won't run?
Dyche had 11 workhorse players at Burnley, again he wouldn't have that at this club, none of our players consistently work hard enough, not to gain enough points in this league anyway.
Also you think the fans at this club now that are so impatient (understandably so) would tolerate more Sam Allardyce lite standard football?
I'm not against Dyche as a fella or Bielsa, I'm just realistic that it can't be managers that are the problem when so many have failed in the last six years.
The problem is the likes of Silva was never given the chance to turn around some poor form, I think to this day if we had backed Silva then he would have come good at this club as he's proving at Fulham now.
The lack of patience here now means no manager is ever going to be allowed a poor run of results, but the players that create them will continue getting wheeled out weekend after weekend.
35 Posted 05/01/2023 at 08:24:36
Shearer and Ian Wright, were both talking about Everton's problems the other day, and whilst I've never been so impressed before with how Shearer spoke (he normally puts me to sleep) it was Ian Wright who said the thing that resonated the most.
Everton's foundations have been built on sand, and after reading the views on this thread, I would argue that Burnley under Dyche, made incredible strides, and have been built on proper foundations. (I remember first going to that training ground years ago, and the difference the last time I was there, was massive - it's been built over time)
This could be because Burnley have had a lot of stability, and stability only happens when you keep the same manager in charge for a few years, and you have also devised a plan, like Brighton look to have done.
If Everton's board would have listened to Ian Wright, they would have saved themselves a lot of time money and effort, on their strategic review, because the obvious answer is that our club has been built on quicksand for years.
36 Posted 05/01/2023 at 08:58:58
Vincent Kompany has a plan about how he wants his teams to play. If he had gone to Southampton at the beginning of the season the media would be waxing lyrical about them. Its unfair to say any foundations were left for Kompany, as what little was there has been ripped up and (rightly) binned.
37 Posted 05/01/2023 at 09:12:35
Do you think Kompany could have came into Everton this season, and found it easy? I don't, and this is what I'm trying to say.
Burnley have made giant strides as a football club, over the last ten years imo, and this is because they had a plan Imo, although you will obviously know more about this Joe, but I'm talking about the foundations, and the way they have built their club up?
They came up and down a couple of times, and never panicked or decided to go and just throw money at it, and although they went down again, maybe they are getting their reward with Kompany and the exciting brand of football they are playing, because they have had a plan and appear to have had a very professional outlook behind the scenes, although I don't know anything about these new owners.
Im aware the last owner made a fortune, which would normally back up what I'm trying to say, but so has William Kenwright, so that fucks up this argument right away!
38 Posted 05/01/2023 at 09:24:55
To follow a trend, they have acquired a lot of low cost young (mostly) foreign talent + loans / frees / low cost acquisition from City and Chelsea reserves / academy which they are developing alongside the bulk of the settled, hard working Dyche side.
This is possible because of the stable spell in the Premier League that Dyche gave them against considerable odds.
Kompany has done really well - but this is not from a standing start.
39 Posted 05/01/2023 at 09:29:38
40 Posted 05/01/2023 at 09:32:35
To answer your question about Kompany doing well if he came to Everton, the answer would be only if he could have done what he's done at the Turf and bring in about 10 new players. The money they got from losing Pope, Cornet, Wood, and (ahem) McNeil has been wisely used. Tarks and Mee left on a free, but that was also addressed.
This is I feel it went wrong at Everton with Koeman, money was ridiculously wasted on players without a specific plan or vision. Our ownership is killing the club.
Robert @38 I do agree, Dyche keeping them in premier league for a few seasons helped enormously, its just there is a feel good factor I've never known there before.
41 Posted 05/01/2023 at 09:50:44
Imagine acquiring a football club, and your first managerial appointment was someone who never really showed much appetite for the club?
I think we have just gone from bad to worse since that appointment (although I will always maintain that Marcel Brands, helped to destroy Marco Silva's appetite) and now we are probably keeping hold of our current manager (already to long) because we have sacked that many over the previous 8/9 years?
42 Posted 05/01/2023 at 09:53:28
On the Dyche - Kompany discussion, you can flip it to the other end of the spectrum.
I believe most managers of successful teams come in on the foundations built by those they succeeded. Guardiola at City, Mourinho at Chelsea. I could even suggest Klopp over there.
Mourinho on the back of Ranieri going close, who himself profited from the gradual progression Chelsea made in the 1990s. They've rivalled us for managerial changes since Mourinho MK1, but the foundations were in place for those who came and went and the expectation bar raised.
Pep succeeded title winners who had themselves profited from the foundations City gradually started to build during the 2000s. They have gradually upscaled in their quest for Champions League success. Their strategic plan.
I remember watching a documentary about City a while back and there was a boardroom meeting, where they went through their strategy, targets, objectives and players they needed. I don't think the manager was in the room.
Lord knows how the conversation went in our strategic review, but I'd liked to have been a fly on the wall.
But manager after manager was supported by those clubs who had a plan. I know some disagree and that it is all down to the manager, but for me, there are many moving parts and it starts at the top. Yes they have to improve on what they inherited and get results on the field, but they had the foundations, which extended way beyond the dugout.
Your quicksand reference gave me a worry Tony. As positive and optimistic as I am about Bramley Moore, it is, quite literally, built on sand!!
43 Posted 05/01/2023 at 09:55:04
It's 3 from Leicester, Leeds, Forest, Bournemouth, West Ham, us, Wolves and Southampton for the drop. We have 15 points from 18 games, 1 more than we had after 7 games last season. We would get just over 30 points over a full season at this rate of point accumulation.
The run we are on is starting to look very similar to the one that we went on under Rafa and he was not able to arrest the situation.
I want Lampard to succeed, I want his team to go on a long unbeaten run and put any worries of relegation to bed sooner rather than later. I was in the stick camp a couple of weeks ago, the defeats on the south coast shock my confidence and manner of the capitulation on Tuesday night really scared me.
I don't want our club ever to fall through the trap door not even if it resulted in the ousting of the current owner and chairman. Nottingham Forest took over 20 years to make it back to the top flight so there is no guarantee that we would make an immediate return.
My only calculation at this stage is short term in nature, will a change of manager gives us a better chance of staying up.
So given a straight choice between Lampard and Dyche, I would have to pick Dyche at this stage.
44 Posted 05/01/2023 at 09:58:52
45 Posted 05/01/2023 at 10:06:11
46 Posted 05/01/2023 at 10:26:56
He's always impressed me as a no nonsense upbeat manager, forget how his team played when at Burnley. It was a case of needs must, play to your strengths.
In any case he could no doubt play attractive football given better quality players, its not rocket science!
We desperately need points, I don't give a dam how we get them.
City et al can play pretty football because they have the class of players to do it, we don't.
Supporters need to stop living in the past, the Prem. is far more competitive from top to bottom now than it ever was.
Its more important to win than look pretty, who cares if we play well and lose.
I like Frank but as it is its not working is it.
47 Posted 05/01/2023 at 10:32:29
48 Posted 05/01/2023 at 10:37:40
Last year I listened to an episode of The High Performance Podcast (worth a regular listen, by the way), which featured Sean Dyche.
Speaking with friends around the UK who support other teams, I was clearly one of many who were impressed with how he came across. His views on tactics, transfers and man-management were clear, coherent and made perfect sense.
I couldn't help thinking that if, say, Joao Goodnumbers from Poirtugal spoke like that, with a different face and accent, people would be crawling over each other to appoint him.
49 Posted 05/01/2023 at 10:49:32
50 Posted 05/01/2023 at 11:00:12
Moshiri wanted a 'big name' manager that he had heard of, so got it into his head that Koeman was the one. What I'll never understand is, if Moshiri thought Koeman was such a good manager, why did he allow a situation where Koeman, Walsh, Kenwright, Moshiri (and Kia?) were all running around buying players without seemingly talking to each other?
And this is after he sat on his hands for a year, allowing Lukaku and Stones to slip away.
'Successful businessman', or oligarch's mate? Discuss.
51 Posted 05/01/2023 at 11:04:50
Then still on red button, when you go to yesterday's results it has Crystal Palace 0-4 Tottenham
Another organisation run by idiots.
52 Posted 05/01/2023 at 11:13:17
Yes, they called out fans from several clubs including Everton, Liverpool and United for chants.
I was irked about the Everton one. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but the victim chant has been around before the tragedy of Hillsborough and related to Heysels when that club came out and tried to claim it wasn't Liverpool supporters and that the NF Chelsea fans were present and to blame. I was young, so I'm going off memory.
I hate how that club airbrushes that from its history and saw how the Juventus supporters in the Anfield Road snubbed their gesture by turning their backs a few years ago.
The Liverpool Munich chants and the United fans' reference to the Sun being right are out of order.
Bizarrely, I found myself agreeing with Klopp on his interview Dale; ignore it. You're more likely to stoke the flames if you poke the fire.
Calling for points deductions? A bit extreme in my opinion. Football has come a long way since the 70s and 80s when racism, violence and what we now call vile chants were much worse. Can it improve? Of course, but let's not go over the top because of a minority.
53 Posted 05/01/2023 at 11:19:59
54 Posted 05/01/2023 at 11:43:01
A points deduction, for supporters shouting obscenities or a points deduction for your players backing someone who had made racist remarks?
It's Liverpool fans who have twinned the victim shouts with Hillsborough, because whilst they have short memories and an agenda, some of us have memories like elephants, and can remember how much Everton Football Club and our supporters, helped our neighbours, in one of their darkest hours
55 Posted 05/01/2023 at 12:03:02
56 Posted 05/01/2023 at 12:21:06
I think there is a little of both in there somewhere. He certainly isn't a football man but I simply don't get the hammering he gets on here.
Moshiri has made a couple of howlers. The first: being duped by Uncle Bill. The second: appointing Benitez, but he has tried everything to get this club moving. By my reckoning, he has had about a dozen directors, half a dozen managers, three DoFs, and multiple coaches.
He as paid them all handsomely to run the club, recruit and develop players and manage match days. They've all failed, but some are giving Moshiri the flack?
I don't get why a guy who is taking us to a shinny new Everton Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock after stumping hundreds of millions of his own money gets hammered while so many others walk free?
Roberto Martinez left this club with bubbles coming out of his mouth. Yet this week we see a spate of posts calling for his return.
Carlo Ancelotti cost this club around 㿞M in wages, signings and staff. He left us in a free fall we still haven't recovered from, yet barely a day goes by without somebody lamenting his departure.
There are directors who get away with murder. Grant Ingles barely gets a mention... Marcel Brands was apparently hard done by.
Kenwright deserves what he gets... but Moshiri? Are we not throwing bricks at the fire brigade as the arsonists slip away into the night?
57 Posted 05/01/2023 at 13:18:07
Alex Ferguson was on the verge of the sack before he went on a massively successful run winning everything in sight. Kendall the same except his dynasty was cut short by Liverpool and European ban they won for us.
I watched Silva's Fulham on TV and they are playing a type of football Everton used to be famous for; they are just outside the top 4 and I bet a ٟ to a pinch of shit Fulham supporters would be outraged if Silva went.
Perhaps we should realise, no matter who comes in, they are on a hiding to nothing (1) from the players and contracts inherited, and (2) the supporters who demand success from Day 1.
The clueless board and the supporters demanding immediate success are driving the club down. No industry on Earth can succeed swapping the leader every few months.
As worried as I am about relegation watching Everton, it is obvious to anyone that a reset of the club has to happen from the top down.
We have no divine right to reach the heights of Fulham, Brentford, Brighton, and anyone else who show us up for what we are — a bloody shambles.
58 Posted 05/01/2023 at 13:40:02
Dyche gets my vote for one simple reason: he plays 4-4-2 and that is what we need right now to stay up.
We are too open with the 4-3-3 system and the 3-5-2 system has never ever worked for us over a period of time. Sure, we can get a one-off draw against Man City or Chelsea, if we get a bit of luck, but we will soon hit a brick wall with it.
But the 4-4-2 formation has a second-to-none track record.
Moyes got us to 4th with the 4-4-2 system (using Cahill to make it 4-5-1 a lot of the time) and Martinez had us unbeaten for half a season using 4-4-2 (only when he started his squad rotation did we stall).
Liverpool's most successful period was when they used the 4-4-2 system in the '70s and '80s. Same with Alex Ferguson's Man Utd.
And Everton's great team of the mid-'80s was never anything but 4-4-2. Kendall changing the system to a back 3 or 5 was unthinkable.
No team should need 3 central defenders. If your team is struggling in a game an extra midfielder is the solution – not another central defender.
So Dyche gets my vote but I would have a clause in his contract that he must play the 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 system!
59 Posted 05/01/2023 at 14:24:52
Bollocks to that notion based on who we have and who he has bought. Transfer window impending with no sign of anyone coming in. Who would want to come in to this shit show and be part of a relegation battle which we are surely in?
Dyche might seem a managerial dinosaur but kept little old Burnley in the top flight for a number of years with basically no cash. Takes no shit and insists on battling for points as a minimum commitment from average players.
Some of the tossers we have masquerading as top-flight footballers, earning fortunes for doing naff all other than turn up, I'm sure would get the shock of their lives under him.
He stands for nothing but commitment and effort which may not be good to watch but it mainly keeps his charges in the Premier League. Five at the back until the end of the season is a must as we have no alternative other than to pick up draws or sneaky wins. Carlo did it while nobody complained and he was a Hollywood draw.
Rooney, Martinez, Moyes, Silva back would be yet another sign of boardroom lunacy – as if we haven't had enough. The lunatics running the asylum has gone on long enough so let them stand back and give an autocrat the room to assemble some order in the place. To stay up is an absolute necessity with the new ground under construction.
New ground or not, who would buy a dysfunctional under-achiever mired in so much debt that they couldn't afford to finish the ground anyway? We could end up like Everton Ladies – playing on Walton Hall Park.
Get shut of Frank now and get a hard-nosed, hard-arsed, no-nonsense, straight-talking realist in to try and save us. Smooth-talking, soft-centered, quiet-man Frank is not the answer. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
60 Posted 05/01/2023 at 14:55:14
I know if I was an Everton player now, I'd be telling the manager to sit down and watch both the City and the Brighton games again.
With 4-3-3, the team that are 8th were constantly cutting through us like a knife going through butter. But 5-4-1 and the manager of the best team in the country was heard to say "I'm not moaning, but Everton's system made it really difficult for us to create chances today."
61 Posted 05/01/2023 at 15:51:02
And soft power means something – it gives you a chance of getting the occasional manager of quality - an Ancelotti, or, back in the day when Everton meant something - we could have had Clough or Robson (though poor decision in the boardroom by the blessed Moores and Co blew it).
More than our recent flirtations with relegation, I'd say it was the Dogs of War stuff, The People's Club, and the appointment of Allardyce that had eroded much of what made Everton Football Club what it once was. It wasn't a club of snide and aggression; it was associated with style and glamour.
Appoint Dyche and you have another Allardyce, an anti-football, "results are all that matter" bloke whose teams have no swagger, nothing to fall in love with.
Call me a romantic fool, but I'd sooner Everton were beautiful losers than ugly winners.
62 Posted 05/01/2023 at 16:02:20
I enjoyed the season we lost to Fiorentina and think we might have gone further if we would have had a more savvy manager who trusted his team that little bit more. But mostly we have just been very ugly losers and we haven't even had any beautiful football to keep us entertained.
63 Posted 05/01/2023 at 16:03:46
There is nobody at our club that can kick lumps out of defenders like Ashley Barnes or Chris Wood.
64 Posted 05/01/2023 at 16:19:06
I couldn't fathom why he thought he should match formations with a team who love the space to play. Lampard must know after one year that this group of players are not capable of controlling an open game.
He should revert back to 4-5-1 for the FA Cup tie, and stick with it for however many games he has in charge this season.
65 Posted 05/01/2023 at 17:54:03
But repeated failings in recruitment and an unwillingness to make sure that the place is run professionally is in my view, negligent. It's his money, his club, he's free to do what he chooses with it. A well-run club/business wouldn't have the number of managers we've had, three directors of football and a relationship with an agent known for wasting clubs' money on poor players.
By all means we can blame the highly-paid non-achievers, but the real issue is the people repeatedly recruiting non-achievers and not removing the people/things that get in their way.
66 Posted 05/01/2023 at 17:56:36
I said on this or another thread, that no matter what formation he uses, our centre forward, is generally isolated, and this is the bit that I couldn't understand. The formation (4-3-3) doesn't really make us anymore of an attacking threat, but it definitely weakens us defensively, whilst the way we played at City, definitely has some merit for this team, because I think it makes us a lot harder to score against?
The only thing that is definitely apparent, is that Everton are in real danger. If our squad was full of quality, I'd say we might be able to play ourselves out of danger, but because it isn't, I think the only way we are going to get ourselves out of trouble is by being horrible, and very hard to play against by constantly frustrating the opposition?
This might change if we gain some confidence, but confidence is very, very low right now, and I don't think it's going to get any better, by trying to go toe to toe, with teams who have got a lot more nouse, and appear to understand what they are trying to do, whilst we simply look bereft of ideas.
67 Posted 05/01/2023 at 18:06:51
68 Posted 05/01/2023 at 19:01:31
1. Godfrey had not recovered enough to play in a 5 at the back despite the fact that Seamus or Mina could have played on the right side of the back 3.
2. Frank's philosophy of changing tactics/formations depending on his assessment of the opposition.
3. Frank was surprised to see that Di Zerbe was going to play an 18 year old alongside Trossard. His thinking was that 4 at the back could deal with Trossard and the threat from Brighton would come from their players running through our midfield and we would need 4 or 5 in midfield to deal with this. As it turned out we couldn't deal with them.
To be fair to Frank, he could not have foreseen us giving up 3 goals in 6 minutes 15 minutes into the 2nd half. Take away those individual mistakes, we are 0-1 down with the chance to get back into the game in the next 30 minutes.
69 Posted 05/01/2023 at 19:11:12
Everyone was happy after the Palace game, but the players got a lot of praise, especially for the ten pass move that led to a goal, and things just haven't been the same since then?
70 Posted 05/01/2023 at 19:17:45
71 Posted 05/01/2023 at 20:12:44
David that was a clear 4-3-3 against Brighton the other night. Frank's fave and and easy 3 points for whoever we're playing.
De Zerbi is a modern manager with a clear idea of what he's doing.
All night long Brighton toyed with us, yes toyed with us. Short passing into seemingly tight spots to invite us to press, pulling us around the place and opening spaces. A couple of times they actually stopped moving waiting for the press, and that opens up options as we rush at them. Cat and mouse, except turning the press against itself, very smart. Watch that game again, that is the modern game. We need that kind of thinking.
72 Posted 05/01/2023 at 21:22:44
I'm convinced that the tactics didn't help Brian, but we never had any of the things I described above. This is highly embarrassing, and also very stupid, when you consider that as the home team, you will only really get a genuine home advantage by working hard, because this helps to really engage the crowd?
73 Posted 05/01/2023 at 21:34:14
Maybe this was the first real time that Frank had a chance to play both McNeil and DCL from the start. Wasn't the reason we got McNeil was his ability to get the ball into the box for DCL?
74 Posted 05/01/2023 at 21:43:35
Could you imagine trying that with our full backs and midfield? We can't string three phases together, never mind doing it while inviting a press.
75 Posted 05/01/2023 at 23:34:19
Had he been available Dyche would have been my choice twelve months ago. He knows the league and how to get the best out of a squad. Although the playing style would not be to the taste of many, any style which puts points on the board is preferable to the rubbish we have suffered over the last fifteen months.
I still hope Frank can bring himself to adopt a pragmatic formation and tactics in every game, as he did at Manchester City and some of the crucial matches towards the end of last season.
76 Posted 05/01/2023 at 00:04:04
Wayne Rooney 11/8 Paddy Power
Sean Dyche 3/1 BetVictor
Roberto Martinez 8/1 BetVictor
Marcelo Bielsa 12/1 Paddy Power
Mauricio Pochettino 12/1 BetVictor
Duncan Ferguson 12/1 BetVictor
Ange Postecoglu 14/1 Paddy Power
Brendan Rodgers 16/1 BetVictor
John Terry 25/1 Paddy Power
*Odds correct as of January 04, 2023
Wayne's D C record.
12 July 2022 Present P14 W2 d3 L9
win /%14.3.
77 Posted 06/01/2023 at 00:30:11
Dyche I could just about stomach...Rooney and I'm truly finished with this shambles of a club.
I won't sleep now thinking of that.
78 Posted 06/01/2023 at 09:26:00
I am not at all enamoured by the idea of us having Dyche though it's likely the safest option. If we do hire him then I hope its on a rolling contract (having learnt from the past, also a very un-Everton thing to do). I have stated previously a preference for Moyes but I am not totally averse to the brown shoed one returning, though right now that would present the biggest risk.
79 Posted 06/01/2023 at 09:49:55
I have only really met him once. I had already left Forest, but was in Nottingham for some reason, and he gave me a lift back home to Liverpool. I'm not doing this to name drop, but to sing his praises as a very decent lad. His parents lived on the Wirral, but he drove me right to my mothers house in Norris Green, and was dead genuine, considering he had never even met me before.
He told me he was going to sign for Harry Rednapp at Bournemouth, but then Forest came in for him, but his biggest disappointment was when the Everton manager, Colin Harvey went to watch him playing for Runcorn, because he had a stinker, and he would have loved to have signed for the blues. I don't know if Woan, was a boyhood Evertonian though.
80 Posted 06/01/2023 at 10:01:38
We need a solid, pragmatic, experienced manager who knows how to organise the basics and who will solidify us and make us difficult to beat to help ensure our safety. Rooney, much like Lampard, isnot any of these things.
81 Posted 06/01/2023 at 10:18:34
The last two failed appointments have been made in distressed circumstances (Benitez and serious financial issues; Lampard and looming relegation).
This time it is an even more distressed situation. Financial issues and looming relegation.
That is why Rooney might be in the running - because the club is readying the fans for relegation, rather than seriously making a fist of survival.
Rooney then performs much the same role as he did at Derby, taking the club down but in circumstances which leave his reputation relatively unscathed.
If he shows promise then he gets the chance to take us back up. If not, he leaves.
There is even a chance he gives us enough of a bounce to keep us up, who knows.
The more logical choice is Dyche in my view - but this would be the rationale for Rooney.
82 Posted 06/01/2023 at 10:19:51
83 Posted 06/01/2023 at 10:23:25
Dyche is the only option at this stage to give us any hope of survival, unless Pochettino or Tuchel can be persuaded to take the poison chalice which is extremely unlikely. Just watch Moshiri and Kenwright fuck this right up and land us in the championship!
84 Posted 06/01/2023 at 10:23:49
But what you can see happening is Southampton will appoint him next week they will then beat us next week and we will then be bottom and floundering around for a new manager
WE SHOULD APPOINT DYCHE NOW
85 Posted 06/01/2023 at 10:54:37
He actually spoke really well in his recent interview, but I don't think he's a gamble we can take.
He would be another Lampard for different reasons. Gets the club, managed Derby but hasn't met the standard.
It's interesting when you look at the current young crop of British coaches. Just as those who went before them, they are not setting the world alight and are in danger become the Dyche's, Moyes and Pardew's of their generation.
Potter could become a Moyes if we use the Everton to United "what could he do at a big club" theme.
It pains me to say it, but years of neglect at grass roots has led to decent players but the successful teams are full of foreigners and led by foreign managers and foreign owners.
No surprise to me that England's one and only World Cup success was 66 bordering on 67 years ago.
86 Posted 06/01/2023 at 11:24:42
87 Posted 06/01/2023 at 13:28:20
88 Posted 06/01/2023 at 13:31:17
No hesitation get Dyche in this weekend
89 Posted 06/01/2023 at 14:12:48
I had thought that any managerial changes (if any) would be made after the West Ham game, giving Frank the optimum chance to redeem his reputation as being able to stave off relegation.
However, the nature of the debacle against Brighton has, in my opinion, made that timescale impossible.
More than the defeat, it was the response of the crowd and, more importantly, the response of the media, in condemning the Board more than the Manager that has made change necessary in an attempt to deflect criticism from themselves.
I think Frank's time is up and we start the "merry-go-round" again.
90 Posted 06/01/2023 at 14:43:51
91 Posted 06/01/2023 at 20:00:21
For that reason, I'm not against this.
92 Posted 07/01/2023 at 09:47:06
93 Posted 07/01/2023 at 16:01:59
94 Posted 07/01/2023 at 16:03:00
Former Everton manager Roberto Martinez has a 'verbal agreement' in place to become the next man in charge of the Portugal national side.
Martinez left his role as Belgium manager after they failed to make it out of the Group Stage of the World Cup, but he now looks set to take over another international role.
TFFT
95 Posted 07/01/2023 at 16:09:57
96 Posted 08/01/2023 at 11:12:44
97 Posted 08/01/2023 at 19:49:14
What's the betting one of those six replaces Frank ? '
98 Posted 08/01/2023 at 19:53:19
99 Posted 08/01/2023 at 20:07:25
100 Posted 08/01/2023 at 20:12:02
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