Sean Dyche is the manager who famously ended Liverpool’s 68-game unbeaten run at home but while he acknowledges his latest trip to Anfield comes in rather different circumstances, he’s encouraging his Everton players to embrace their underdog status on this occasion.
Back on January 21, 2021, Dyche’s Burnley side triumphed 1-0 at Anfield to inflict a first home defeat on Liverpool since another future Blues boss Sam Allardyce secured a 2-1 comeback victory with his Crystal Palace side on St George’s Day 2017. The Clarets’ win was behind closed doors because of coronavirus restrictions and without their fans to cheer them on, the Reds would then go on to suffer six consecutive home losses including being beaten 2-0 in the Merseyside Derby for what was Everton’s first success across Stanley Park since Kevin Campbell’s goal secured them three points back in 1999.
In his pre-match press conference for Monday’s game, Dyche, who once hit out at a reporter for remarking he was overdressed at a press conference after previously been spotted without his jacket while out on the Turf Moor pitch when Burnley’s home game against Tottenham Hotspur was postponed due to heavy snow, quipped that his tunnel spat with Jurgen Klopp on the day he defeated the Liverpool manager was also related to his choice of attire. The 51-year-old said: “It’s just two managers playing against each other’s teams. There was nothing in that.
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“I think fans want to see two managers for their teams standing up and after the game for me it's done. He didn’t like my coat but I told him John McGinn got there first!”
Dyche spoke more seriously about what happened on the pitch that day but even though their neighbours are without a Premier League win themselves so far this calendar year, he knows they remain favourites. However, he believes the Blues have a chance if they show the same kind of commitment as they did against Arsenal.
“I thought we did perform well on that day (when Burnley won at Anfield) and they were a bit quiet on that day but their record at home was amazing until that period”, said Dyche. “It’s a different group of players, they understand the derby more than me in many ways, not all of them but some of them.
“I have a fair understanding of going to Anfield obviously and being an underdog in my previous life at Burnley so I think that mentality is right for this moment in time. We don’t want to speak of ourselves as underdogs all the time at Everton Football Club, that’s for sure, but currently we are so use it to your advantage with a bit of freedom and that competitive nature, spirit and organisation of the team.
“The hard yards, there were a lot of good stats came out of the game against Arsenal. Even the best need to run around and if we want to be the best then we’re going to have to work to be the best and then layer the talent on top of that but you need the work ethic to be right before you worry about the talent, that’s for sure.”
Having not won a game since the 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace on October 22 before Dyche’s arrival, the success against Mikel Arteta’s table-toppers now enables Everton’s players to approach this test against their neighbours with a more positive mind set. Dyche said: “The fixture list is there for all to see. I’ve always been a great believer in how the team performs as a start point.
“To get the win is really the icing on the cake. Forgetting about the win, the performance was what I wanted to see from the group of players after such a short window working with them.
“Getting the win reinforces all that you and the staff think is right and proper for them and then you go into the next one. Beating anyone in the division is hard enough but when you beat the big guns, especially Arsenal currently with the season they’re having, then it just locks in the work that you’re doing and the belief in the work that you’re doing and you want that to build.
“It’s a derby, it’s another big game and they’re still good players. Our players are definitely not looking at it being naïve, they’re looking at it thinking ‘we have to perform again.’
“I don’t go singing from the roof tops, I go ‘it’s another start point lads.’ We have to keep building that mentality and it does reinforce it, any win but particularly when you beat the big guns because it reinforces all the good work they’re doing against some of the best.”
Ironically, the man now tasked with keeping Everton in the Premier League and avoiding what would be a first relegation in 72 years, spent most of last season trying to send them down with Burnley. Dyche’s nine-and-a-half year reign at Turf Moor came to an abrupt halt with his sacking on Good Friday 2022 with a 3-2 comeback victory over Lampard’s side proving to be his final three points.
Dyche hoped his lengthy tenure with the Clarets, who he steered into Europe for the first time since 1966/67 with a seventh place finish in 2017/18 (the club’s highest position since 1974) would always provide him with another opportunity in the Premier League when the time was right and while he has arrived at Goodison Park in a difficult moment, he shows great pride in being given the chance to revive Everton’s fortunes. Asked if he ever had a wobble during his time out of the game and feared he might have to take a job outside of the top flight, Dyche said: “No. I think I afforded myself a window after so many seasons in the Premier League.
“There are 20 Premier League clubs and as a British manager you’ve probably got the chance with 12 say. The top six or eight they might say ‘no you won’t get that for whatever reason.’
“Then you look at the ownerships of those clubs, whether they’re foreign owners or English owners or influences and you start narrowing it down. Everton Football Club have thought that I’m right for this moment in its history to manage it and I’m proud to do so.
“On another day they might not feel that. Would I have got the chance if these were sixth and Frank went to wherever, abroad or something to manage? Possibly not.
“You’ve got to add all that into the melting pot. So that’s why I’d have given myself time, it’s not like there are 100 Premier League jobs and they go ‘oh well, here’s another one Sean.’
“You have to wait your time sometimes and be in the right place at the right time. I certainly think I fit here that’s for sure but other people think I fit here and a lot of you thought I would fit here – this time – but maybe a few years ago you might not have done.
“I don’t overthink football management in that way. It’s not like a sudden breakthrough thing that managers in football are managers in football.
“Other businesses have different managers for different roles at different times in their history. I’m quite open about that.”
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