Chris Sutton: Sean Dyche should be up for an award after what he has done for Everton
Chris Sutton has claimed Sean Dyche would be a contender for a “Manager of the first half of the season” award if one were to exist after what he has done with Everton this season.
The former Chelsea striker was full of praise for the boss after many wrote Everton off when the club were handed a ten-point deduction by the Premier League.
He went on to explain the way Dyche sets his team up, the organisation which he gives to them and the threat they carry going forward should earn him high acclaim
Taking to Twitter following the game [16 December], Sutton shared: “Sean Dyche up there in the mix for manager of the first half of the season (if that was an actual award)… So many people wrote Everton off.”
Then, live on BBC Radio 5 Live [16 December, 19:35], he clarified: “Ange Postecoglou would be on there, Unai Emery would be on there, but just because of everything which has gone on at Everton…
“He sets his team up brilliantly, they’re organised, they carry a threat.”
Dyche has worked miracles
Given where Everton were when Dyche arrived following a chaotic end to the Frank Lampard era, having kept them up on the final day of the season, and now putting together a four-game winning run in the Premier League, Dyche has worked wonders at Goodison Park.
Not only have the Toffees won four in a row, but they have kept four clean sheets, including in games against high-flying Newcastle, money-bags Chelsea and Burnley and Nottingham Forest sides who are fighting for scraps down the bottom of the table.
A 2-0 win against Burnley in isolation isn’t anything special, it’s a solid win and a very good performance, and that’s what Dyche is all about. Putting together a number of solid wins and seeing how far they take you.
It sounds silly to say given the circumstances, but without that points deduction, Everton would be on 26 points – a tally that would put them in the top half. That’s all you need to know about the job Dyche is doing at Goodison Park.
In other Everton news, a Sky Sports pundit raged live on air during Everton v Burnley.