Pranav Shahaney

Thu 4 May 2023 18:10, UK

Sean Dyche has not admitted that Michael Keane has been underperforming for Everton and in fact, went on to praise him for his performance v Newcastle.

Ahead of the Brighton game on Monday, 7 May, Dyche was asked the question about Keane and his willingness to play him while someone like Yerry Mina has been on the bench and Conor Coady has also been dropped for the former Manchester United defender.

His response to it, rather than being a sympathetic one and backing the Englishman to regain his form, was that he thinks he’s one of the better players at the club.

Via the Liverpool Echo’s Joe Thomas, he labelled the defender as Everton’s best player v Newcastle, “I have faith in all the players, I can only pick 11. At the end of the day the ups and downs… all go into the melting pot.”

“He is a very good player amongst many good players here.”

Everton are in a relegation battle and shipped four goals at home to the Magpies so it’s pretty evident that their defence is not as good as it should be.

Rather than finding where the problems are and making the desired changes, he’s continuing to persist with the same team.

They conceded four goals against Newcastle and any sane manager would question his full-backs and centre-backs and with Yerry Mina on the bench, who’s clearly a better defender and better on the ball than Keane, it makes sense to play him.

While he may not be there next season, he can at least put in a shift for the team and solidify this defence which will keep Everton up.

If they get relegated, the board may not decide to stick with Dyche either and his unwillingness to play Coady or Mina could be the main reason for that.