The Blues boss Sean Dyche has placed renewed emphasis on his plan to build a cohesive side that creates enough chances for those who get them to have the “freedom to miss”.
His opening games have already seen Everton create significantly more chances, a crucial part in building towards progress.
And two wins in his first three matches will also raise confidence among his players in their own ability to cause opposing teams problems, he believes.
While Everton have only scored two goals in Dyche’s opening three games the side has created notably more opportunities and should have won more comfortably against Arsenal.
The same was true against Leeds United, a game that had seen the hosts clock seven efforts on goal, three of which were on target, in the first half alone.
While it took a wonderful effort from Seamus Coleman for Everton to win the match, Dyche’s initial exploits have shown it is possible for this Everton side to create more without completely sacrificing its defensive responsibilities – Leeds did not have a single shot on target on Saturday.
©aptain ©lutch. pic.twitter.com/BVlcT4PTTY
— Everton (@Everton) February 18, 2023
Asked about the squad and the goalscoring issues faced by his side, Dyche once again explained his intention to build a team that is effective whoever is leading the attack. He accepted the balance of the squad he had inherited is “not quite right” but said he believed in the players he was working with.
Dyche said: “A lot of noise has been made about striking options but I believe in the players here… I have been talking about the group, the players, how we can find a way. I think that is important to remember – it is about how we can find a way to be productive and win matches. It is not just about one player but how the team can find a way and I was pleased with that [against Leeds] In my opinion we had some very good chances, I think we had one cleared off the line, the keeper makes a couple of saves, things were flashing across the box.”
“We want to ask more questions of the opposition. We want to mix our play, we have never been too worried about styles as long as they are effective, I want to play effective football and I want this team to play effective football and I think it was [against Leeds]. I think just that freedom, I spoke to the players about it, that freedom to miss. I said to them before, ‘don’t get tight in the box’. It doesn’t bother me if you miss – if you miss you miss, that is just the way it goes, you won’t be hearing from me.
It doesn’t bother me if you miss, that is just the way it goes… You will only be hearing from me if you are not in there to score and you are not shooting
“You will only be hearing from me if you are not in there to score and you are not shooting, you are not finishing with a deliberate manner to score a goal. That is the only time you will be hearing from me. But if you miss a chance it is no problem to me so long as you are in there to take that chance or create a chance, that is the key to me. And then the freedom comes on the back of that – and of course results, which give everyone that extra bit of confidence to feel a bit freer and go and score a goal.”
Seamus Coleman’s stunning 64th-minute strike handed Everton their first back-to-back wins at Goodison Park this season. They climb two places to 16th in the Premier League table, with another home game — against Aston Villa — now on the horizon.
