Sean Dyche acknowledges that he cannot guarantee the confidence of his struggling Everton side as they prepare for their crucial match against Leicester City on Monday, writes the LiverpoolEcho.
Dyche’s side suffered a second consecutive home defeat on Thursday, as they were thrashed 4-1 by Newcastle United, despite a warm welcome from the Goodison Park faithful. Everton currently sit second-bottom in the Premier League, having only managed one win in their last 10 matches.
Although they started well against Eddie Howe’s Magpies, their morale appeared to evaporate after conceding the first goal, and they were ruthlessly taken apart in the second half. With a vital away trip to the King Power Stadium coming up against opponents who are just one point ahead of them, Dyche concedes that he cannot be certain of the mental state of his players.
According to Dyche, confidence cannot be guaranteed, but it must be developed through performances. Building confidence requires a continuous process that involves the training ground, on-field performances, and the team’s dynamic. This is how struggling teams can be transformed, he added.
“It happened pretty quickly when we got here and then we had a few injuries and suspensions and that kind of altered it a little bit so we’ve got to re-find it pretty quickly. It’s part of football, it’s part of life when freedom comes from a change.
“They bring in a new manager – which was me – they play Arsenal and we win and everyone thinks it’s all solved. If you remember, I didn’t, I said ‘no, no, it’s one step, it’s a good step but it’s one step.’
“I knew it wasn’t all solved, there are problems here that are deeper than that and it’s going to take time but we’ve been trying to fast-track it and we’ve made some strides but now we’ve got five big games to make sure we get the job done.
“There’s only so much we can change, everyone knows the squad here, there are certain things we can change and there are things we can’t. I think if you add Seamus (Coleman) into the group, that’s the same team that played Arsenal (other than Michael Keane coming in for Conor Coady at centre-back) and I don’t think many people would want any changes after the Arsenal win.
“There is a format here that can work, and is proven to work. We need a sharpness to our performance, I took Ama (Onana) and Dom (Calvert-Lewin) off to protect them and that comes from Dom but I thought he was alive again against Newcastle.
“It’s a funny thing about football, when you’ve got someone to score goals, you defend better and when you’ve got someone to score goals, you score more because you’ve got someone to score goals, so that’s important as well.
“We’ve got people who we believe can score goals but they’ve got to score them to make it happen. We can’t wait for it to happen, I’ve said that every week.”