Dyche satisfied with a point but Tarkowski calls for more from forward line

Sean Dyche appeared to be relatively happy with the point that his Everton side earned at Crystal Palace yesterday, particularly in light of Mason Holgate’s red card 10 minutes from the end which meant the Blues were hanging on somewhat for a draw.

Dyche admitted that he no complaints about Holgate’s dismissal, even if he thought they were harsh bookings, but took the positives from a result that ended a two-match losing run.

“The shape was good, the commitment to it was good,” the manager said after the goalless draw at Selhurst Park, a match that saw Dominic Calvert-Lewin finally return to the side and come through 90 minutes. “We were on the edge of finding the moment, but didn't quite find it. You've got to be careful with those decision. Sometimes the hardest thing to do in football is nothing.

“When you go down to 10, it's not easy here anyway. They had a tough run before they won three, but generally it's a tough place to play at. They're the in-form side.

“To keep them to real minimal chances — they had one chance from distance, Jordan made a really good save, but we kept that side of it pretty clean from our point of view, defended well. The keeper and two centre-halves played well, I thought.

“To go in and take that on and be as secure as we were, I was pleased with that side of things. I still think we can play better, I think we can create more. We have got injuries, we have had injuries, we've got suspensions.”

Dyche said he isn’t concerned by the fact that Everton dropped back into the relegation zone on the back of their draw at Palace and Leicester’s win over Wolves, preferring to focus on the present and the games remaining in the Toffees’ battle to beat the drop.

“It's just the reality, that's the league table,' he said. “I don't really bother with it until the end. The most important table is the one at the end of the season. Nothing means anything apart from that one.

“The bit in between is the performance level, the fitness of the players the, organisation, the strategy, the process we go through to make sure that table looks right for us.

“I hope [performances like this can keep us up].”

Meanwhile, in comments that have been wildly overblown by at least one newspaper, James Tarkowski expressed the team’s disappointment at not getting all three points and pointed at a lack of confidence in Everton’s forward players as a contributory factor.

Tarkowski, together with Holgate, Michael Keane, Vitalii Mykolenko, substitute Ben Godfrey and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford earned their first clean sheet since the win over Brentford last month but the Blues drew a blank up front for the fourth time under Dyche and are now the lowest-scoring team in the top seven tiers of English football.

"We were quite disappointed,” the former Burnley mad said. “We’re in a real battle and we need more. We had the opportunity to pick up three points. To grind it out with 10 men is nice but there's way more from us. We defended well, we had conceded a few goals recently so that's a plus but we need to do more and expect more from our forward players.

"We have some really talented boys but we need more from them. It has been a tough season and maybe we are losing that confidence. The players we have got are super super talented boys. The season has not finished now so I don't look at the table. There [are] six games to go."

 

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