Everton squad may have checked out on Sean Dyche as huge question marks arise on manager
Sean Dyche may have already lost the faith of his Everton players as he continues to leave Jarrad Branthwaite out of the starting XI, says Michael Ball.
The former Toffees defender said in his 4 November Liverpool Echo column that there are “huge question marks” surrounding the Goodison Park boss currently, with the club’s form suffering a dip with a poor 1-0 defeat to the previously-winless Southampton on 2 November.
Since star centre-back Branthwaite returned to fitness Dyche has continued to stick with Michael Keane, and Ball believes such behaviour is only going to devalue the sought-after defender when the club spent all summer holding out for a full fee from transfer suitors, and bemuse the rest of the squad.
Ball said: “You can’t keep a player who you value at over £70million among the substitutes when you’re not winning games. Everton can’t afford to pick and choose matches and let them pass us by.
“There are huge question marks over Sean Dyche now. He’s getting paid big money to win football games and he’s not winning enough of them.
“He’s got Jarrad Branthwaite, the best defender at the club sat on the bench for most of the game so he’s leaving himself open for criticism and asking for trouble with the fans if he doesn’t win games.
“Unless there are changes, I fear he could start losing the fans and even losing the players, if he hasn’t done so already.”
Sean Dyche devalues Everton start Jarrad Branthwaite
A major part of Dyche’s issue when it comes to popularity with his own supporters, and the potential to keep his job beyond the end of his current contract in the summer, is a perceived stubbornness in his choices.
He absolutely has some right to point to his record and say he has done the job he was appointed to do – keep Everton in the Premier League amid extensive turmoil around the club.
And yet it sometimes feel like there are times that he is so caught up in refusing to bow to pressure that he undercuts himself and the team.
His long-standing commitment to using the likes of Keane and Ashley Young has backfired enough to only make it worthwhile if there aren’t any alternatives, such as during the injury crisis he started the season with.
But after Keane came under fire again during the miserable run of games to start the season he rounded into some form as the team did, highlighted by his stunning strike in the 2-0 win over Ipswich on 19 October.
Young had also improved, having been something of a liability previously in getting sent off in the opening-day 3-0 loss to Brighton (17 August) despite being the only right-back available, and then having a nightmare off the bench as Everton were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on penalties by Southampton exactly a month later.
But some vindication of Dyche’s faith in the pair of veteran defenders doesn’t mean he has to play them forever more, especially when it keeps arguably the Toffees’ best player on the bench, let alone the long-lost Nathan Patterson.
With The Friedkin Group’s takeover on the way the new owners will have a big decision to make on the manager, and while logic dictates they will want to make a change for the new era sooner or later, Dyche reportedly has a chance of convincing them to give him an extension [TEAMtalk, 24 October].
But bleak defeats to the league’s bottom side, or a lucky escape with a point in the dismal 1-1 draw with Fulham a week earlier (26 October) won’t convince anyone, if he is making decisions that fans, and other players, disagree with.
In other Everton news, a confirmed update on a star man’s potential transfer exit within weeks has been issued at Finch Farm.
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