Sue Smith waxes lyrical about ‘perfect’ Sean Dyche impact live on Sky Sports after ‘massive’ Everton results
Sue Smith has praised the impact Sean Dyche has had at Everton this season and says he is “perfect” for the club after “massive” results in recent weeks.
The Sky Sports pundit speaking live on air (16 December) on Saturday afternoon ahead of the Toffees’ evening clash against Burnley at Turf Moor, believes much of the credit at the club must go to the former Clarets boss for galvanising the squad and remaining calm even after the 10-point deduction.
The Toffees have been in tremendous form in recent weeks, currently on a run of three wins from three games with no goals conceded as they go on the hunt for a fourth successive win against Vincent Kompany’s men.
And Smith, asked by Soccer Saturday host Simon Thomas live on Sky Sports, whether the club’s season has been transformed, claims: “It does, two massive results against Newcastle and Chelsea and I think huge credit has to go to Sean Dyche in terms of everything that’s been happening off the field, he’s remained calm, he’s managed to get that team galvanised really because that must have been psychologically difficult.
“You lose ten points, you drop into the relegation zone, you’ve then got to just say to the players you can only control what you can control and that’s on the football field.
“He’s perfect for it and you can see that the players really respond to that and you know, they’re not all about possession, it’s when they get the ball, it’s about taking those opportunities.
“Early on in the season when Everton weren’t picking up points, he kept saying look at the amount of chance we’re creating, we’re just not putting the ball in the back of the net.
“They are doing that now, they’ve got a good foundation of Jordan Pickford, Jarrad Branthwaite and James Tarkowski has been absolutely brilliant.”
Miracle worker
The way Everton are performing right now, one of the form teams in the Premier League in recent weeks, this game against Burnley may not be too close to call as the table may suggest.
In fact, if not for the Toffees’ 10-point deduction, right now, Dyche’s men will be sitting pretty inside the top half of the table, a point behind West Ham United and five points from the European spots.
Dyche has indeed galvanised and kept the squad’s spirits up after a demoralising punishment from the Premier League for breaching the rules but that hasn’t affected them but totally woken up a monster in them and they look unbeatable.
The former Burnley boss has simply worked miracles at Goodison Park up until this point and long may it continue on. No way does this group of players look like relegation candidates but European hopefuls, that’s where they should be if not for the deduction.
Everton are currently on a tremendous run of three successive victories but one of the reasons why they are in such form is because of their brilliant defensive work, with successive clean sheets also but losing Branthwaite on Saturday will indeed be a big miss.
Dyche has become a master tactician at Goodison Park this season but now has to cook up a plan to ensure his team are solid without Branthwaite’s presence.
In other Everton news, Ian Herbert has sent a new “extreme” message to Sky after what they did to the Toffees in recent weeks