Sue Smith has praised the job that Sean Dyche has done at Everton over the past year.
The 52-year-old was appointed as Frank Lampard’s successor back in January before helping retain Everton’s Premier League status on the final day of the campaign.
There were calls for Dyche’s sacking only games into the current campaign, with Everton losing their opening three games – conceding six goals and scoring none.
However, the Toffees quickly turned it around and have now won nine of their last 13 games in all competitions.
The Merseyside outfit were left deflated when they were handed a ten-point deduction after breaching financial fair play rules, however it wasn’t long before they clawed their way out – now sitting in 17th place ahead of today’s meeting with Burnley. Everton could have even reached the top half of the table if they hadn’t been docked the ten points.
Despite the antics off the pitch, things are looking very positive around Goodison Park.
‘Perfect’ Sean Dyche
When asked whether the club’s season had been ‘transformed’ on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday, she said: “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.”
It’s hard to pinpoint what turned things around for Everton, but they look a completely different team to the one that started the campaign.
Ten points added and the Toffees would be sat in tenth place right now. It’s very frustrating, but it only seems to motivate the players to work even harder and push up the table once again.
