Everton manager Sean Dyche comments on what he believes is one of the most important developments of his year in charge—the rise in resilience that backed two useful draws in an important week.
One of Sean Dyche’s most stunning successes with Everton was highlighted again last week, as his team grabbed valuable points in difficult circumstances.
Injuries to a number of important players forced the Blues manager to assemble a lineup for the trip to Fulham. The return of Idrissa Gueye was a boost for the encounter against Tottenham Hotspur, although Dyche’s strategy was still impacted by his frequent absences.
Despite the challenges in their tiny roster, Everton managed to earn crucial draws in both matches. The two points were insufficient to avert a tumble into the relegation zone, but their achievement demonstrated broader growth that Dyche hopes would benefit his squad in the long term.
The manager recently had a one-year assessment with his staff and players to commemorate the first anniversary of his hiring. One of the most significant gains in those 12 months, according to Dyche, was developing the psychological resilience of a group of players whose emotions he thought varied too significantly depending on results.
Dyche began his Everton tenure by distributing a questionnaire to the players, and he recently assessed his squad and its mood. Driving up the group’s expectations of themselves was a key goal for him and his aides, and he believes they have succeeded. The performances against Fulham and Tottenham provided some indication of this.
At Craven Cottage, a makeshift XI saw Dwight McNeil go into central midfield, Ashley Young push forward after having his injury recovery accelerated, and Ben Godfrey and Arnaut Danjuma make vital first-team appearances. While Gueye returned from the Africa Cup of Nations for the weekend match, Danjuma’s ankle injury in the final minutes against Fulham caused still another problem.
When asked about the resilience that underpinned the draw at Fulham, where the Blues rode their luck but also came close to a win, Dyche said: “You have heard me mention a lot, and I have spoken when I first came here about the improvement in basically taking low-level norms of mentality into high-level norms, and I think we are getting there.” I’ve mentioned the word attitude several times this season as various events have occurred – the deduction, injuries, the limitations of the fixture schedule – and we’ve had to adjust to all of them.
“It does establish mentality, but you must have it implanted before you face these obstacles, and I have been really delighted with that. I hope, and I don’t make excuses for any of the obstacles that come my way, and neither do the players, so I have high expectations of these players, so if it’s your moment to come in and affect the group, go for it. Dwight’s move to midfield was a big ask for him, but he handled it well. That was it: no questions, just ‘yeah, I’m ready’. Ben [Godfrey] comes in and gets right to it. And we’ve been trying to create a mindset in which nothing gets in the way of what the challenge is right in front of us, and we’ve been trying to peel that away and make it very plain to the players.”
Everton’s journey to Fulham seemed like a step too far for a depleted group missing several key players. Amadou Onana, Abdoulaye Doucoure, Andre Gomes, and Gueye were all unavailable, with Andre Gomes still out due to injury, and Young was inserted earlier than Dyche would have desired.
Despite this, Dyche expressed confidence that his team could win the game. Godfrey, Michael Keane, Beto, Joao Virginia, and Gomes – all fringe players – delivered standout performances over the Christmas period, and he expected the same last week.
Dyche said: “I went down to Fulham absolutely, wholeheartedly, looking at this team and saying, ‘Let’s go win a game.'” There were no question marks in my mind, and I am glad to see that there were none in theirs. I believe they approached that game with a really strong mentality to go and win, and I thought that was evident. I believe we had three chances in the last three minutes of the game, which is a very good sign of a team with the right mentality to keep going. No matter what the clamor is, we keep taking on whatever issue is in front of us, and I believe that is really essential.”
