When Everton sacked Frank Lampard in January 2023, Sean Dyche was a name on many Evertonians' lips. He was available, he had a solid if unspectacular reputation, his teams were hard to beat but also hard to watch.

 

We were in disarray on and off the pitch, and he was viewed by many as a safe pair of hands. He would steady the ship, navigate us to safety and give us pragmatic but limited football.

 

Fast forward 2 years and we are arguably worse off than we were under Frank. We cannot buy a goal and the current modus operandi appears to be:- They shall not pass. The most we can hope for with this approach is a 0-0 draw (I have had my fill of these), while one mistake and we are consigned to a loss.

 

The players look as if they have absolutely no clue what to do going forward, they look completely uncoached and disjointed. They are less than the sum of their parts, devoid of any confidence, taking an extra touch when bravery and instinct is required. On top of this, having Dyche publicly criticise the players – in my opinion – will not help. This is absolutely a management and coaching issue.

 

There are 12 players out of contract this June. The significance of this cannot be understated. We need to clear out the current management team and give whoever we select the rest of the season to assess the squad and help us to hit the ground running come August 2025. There is so much work to be done between then and now.

 

I have been unimpressed with the names linked with one of the hardest – but most prestigious – jobs in English Football. Steve Cooper, Gareth Southgate, and Graham Potter are very different in their approach; I'm not sure any of them can steer us clear of relegation this season while preparing for the next.

 

We are used to a certain type of football, if not in the recent past, then certainly through the lore of the teams from the '60s, at times in the '70s, and definitely from the mid-'80s. Everton supporters are extremely demanding, we constantly compare current teams with those of the past. This is no bad thing, it just makes it an almost impossible task for any manager to deliver the success we crave given the current footballing landscape.

 

Sean Dyche will not give us the style of football we crave. We need someone who understands the club ethos, the fans, the footballing culture and the history. I would go with Lee Carsley and Seamus Coleman.

 

Based on the objectives outlined by the new owners, Carsley would be the ideal candidate to develop young players, give them a chance, and build for the longer term. Coleman can instil the ethos of the club and drill into them the privilege and responsibility that comes with representing this wonderful club. The respect his peers seem to have for our captain could give us the “new manager bounce”, a fresh impetus, to kick-start our season and drag us to Premier League safety and the Holy Grail of Bramley-Moore Dock, still a member of England’s top league.

 

Recent grumblings from Dyche, erratic and regretful comments at press conferences, point to a man who is under pressure, who is looking for excuses rather than answers. He may look back at his time at Everton as being at the right place, but the wrong time.

 

Evertonians will probably say it was a case of the wrong place at the right time. I wish Dyche well, but he is not the man to take Everton forward.

Reader Comments (19)

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Barry Rathbone
1 Posted 06/01/2025 at 20:47:48
An ex first division manager once told me you don't coach top flight players.

You tell them what style you want and practice drills but you don't coach passing, kicking, heading, tackling etc. If players want to hone these things they stay after training and work their own routines.

Fans just don't seem to know this.

Paul Kernot
2 Posted 06/01/2025 at 21:56:54
Interesting article, Alan, and thank you for taking the time.

A couple of observations:

1. Carsley has repeatedly said he doesn't want or isn't ready for a top-flight management role.

2. Seamus I assume isn't qualified as a coach or manager, as far as I know?

Finally, and surely I can't be the only one who's noticed but Dyche's last two post-match comments have trodden a well worn track of managers who've given up as they know it's when, not if.

Publicly blaming players for not doing what he told them to do? Really mate? Is that all our huge wedge buys us?

Colin Crooks
3 Posted 06/01/2025 at 22:16:57
Was it Jimmy Hill, Barry?
Derek Thomas
4 Posted 06/01/2025 at 22:34:48
There comes a time when 'you know' — we've reached that. Dyche will leave a day or two before his anniversary

"They shall not pass." Or, as it could be called, KITAP1. Keep it Tight... fair enough if you do — but too many times we don't! And Pinch One — we really fail on that.

Rewind 20 years… and I'm still writing about a manager with a Poor Plan 'A' and No Plan 'B'.

People were asking... why do we play 5 in mid-field? To which the answer was: because we don't have a '4' good enough to do the job and this clown is sometimes sending out a 2- or 3-man midfield.

10 years ago, I was writing about Rogers's Liverpool over-running us with their intensity...(and some might even allege inhalers).

"We've struggled to score goals for 2 years."

Well, Mr Dyche, you've had 2 years to fix the problem – care to comment?

No? Though not.

Taxi!

Paul Kernot
5 Posted 06/01/2025 at 22:47:01
Chinny Hill. Now there's a name that takes me back to Match of theDay, 10 pm Saturday nights. I had to get my younger brother to sleep in our shared bedroom before I was allowed to come downstairs and watch it.

Rarely have I felt such frustration, hearing that theme tune when the little shit, who wasn't into football BTW, wasn't asleep, so I had to wait til he was!

Martin Mason
6 Posted 07/01/2025 at 08:00:10
Barry, rather than any fan not understanding that I see it as a statement of the obvious.
Mark Murphy
7 Posted 07/01/2025 at 08:48:03
Barry - 100% understand that. In fact I wouldn’t think that only applied to top flight players.
Any professional footballer should be able to do those basic skills.
Even my vets team recently had coaching from an ex pro (Craig Brewster - replaced Big Dunc at Dundee and scored the winner in the Scottish FA cup final) and he told us the same. He even applied it to us, saying if you can’t trap or pass a ball go and play rugby.
Len Hawkins
8 Posted 07/01/2025 at 09:04:47
Mark it seems the inability to pass is a prerequisite for the recruitment of Everton midfielders. Perhaps a Rugby League team in Liverpool may return.
Mark Murphy
9 Posted 07/01/2025 at 09:07:17
Len, May they all go to play for Wigan!
James Hughes
10 Posted 07/01/2025 at 09:08:19
Dyche, when still at Burnley, said that we had forgotten how to win. Well he has certainly enforced that distant memory and turned it into amnesia.
Len Hawkins
11 Posted 07/01/2025 at 09:18:10
Jasper Carrot said Goldfish only have a memory span of 3 seconds our Ginger Leader has some of those traits then.
Colin Glassar
12 Posted 07/01/2025 at 09:19:06
It will be interesting to see who he blames at todays presser. “It’s not me, I’m fine, it’s the players, the club, the staff at Goodison, the the fans, the weather. It’s all been shit well before I got here”.

A last minute penalty to beat Peterborough 1-0, after another drab performance, will hopefully be enough to see him ejected from the club.

Mike Doyle
13 Posted 07/01/2025 at 09:35:10
Colin # 12] I was thinking the same thing. Dyche's press conference / interview explanations are sounding increasingly like Paula Vennells at the Post Office enquiry.
James Hughes
14 Posted 07/01/2025 at 10:45:19
mike, except Paula Vennels shed a few (crocodile) tears. Dyche looks like he doesn't care
Dave Abrahams
15 Posted 07/01/2025 at 11:38:20
James (14), Unlike Paula Vennels I don’t think Dyche deserves to go to Jail!
Alan J Thompson
16 Posted 07/01/2025 at 15:06:36
So if you are DC-L or one of our other lone strikers I suppose staying behind and practicing passing to players who aren't there has some sort of purpose, if only practice could make you dribble passed every opposition player then we probably wouldn't need Managers or Coaches, just some sort of video technician, substitutions at given times or do we do that already and a bingo caller to name the team, we already have Directors of Football.
Si Cooper
17 Posted 07/01/2025 at 21:09:30
What are we defining as coaching? Surely it includes instructions on how you want the team to play and drills to make it second nature?

Makes sense you don't devote your ‘team' sessions to sorting out certain individuals' weaknesses, but those weaknesses must be noted and the coaching team will back up any work individuals want to take on. Otherwise, there is no ‘management' going on.

Jim Bennings
18 Posted 07/01/2025 at 21:25:02
Nothing at all personal against Dyche but his record speaks for itself – it's abysmal.

21 victories in 76 league games.

4 months without a win last season, from before Christmas right up to Easter weekend.

It's my feeling that, if he hadn't won that derby in April, I think he'd have been sacked last summer.

It was that spell in April which kept him in a job – what has happened either side of it has been God-awful.

Mike Gaynes
19 Posted 08/01/2025 at 01:08:53
Alan, a well-presented article, but I am totally unconvinced by the case you make for Carsley and Coleman. Between them they have absolutely zero experience in managing a top-flight football club, let alone a club in a relegation fight.

Developing young players for the longer term and "installing the ethos" of the club are nowhere on our list of priorities right now. All that matters -- and I mean all that matters -- is winning enough games to stay up and be a Prem club entering the new stadium. Unless ethos can put in a good free kick or finish at the back post, time enough for values when the primary mission is accomplished.

We need a management team that has done it before. Choosing one that hasn't seems to me to be the likeliest ticket to opening at BMD against Millwall or QPR instead of Spurs or Chelsea.

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