Sean Dyche admits he can’t be sure his struggling Everton side will be confident going into their relegation ‘six-pointer’ at Leicester City on Monday as such emotions have to be built.
Everton suffered a second successive home defeat on Thursday as Newcastle United thrashed them 4-1 despite a passionate Goodison Park welcome from Blues fans. The result leaves Dyche’s side second bottom of the Premier League with five games to go having picked up just one win from their last 10 matches.
Everton’s players started well against Eddie Howe’s high-flying Magpies but their morale seemed sapped after falling behind and they were emphatically dismantled in the second half. With a crucial trip to the King Power Stadium next up against opponents just one point above them, Dyche acknowledges he can’t offer any assurances when it comes to the mentality of individuals within his team.
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He said: “Confidence is built from performances, you can’t guarantee confidence, it’s got to be built. It’s built on the training ground, it’s built on performances, it’s built on each other and it’s a constant process, that’s how you turn teams around.
“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.”
Dyche believes that Everton’s last opponents Newcastle offer a tangible example of how a winning mentality can be installed within a previously struggling squad. After being embroiled in a relegation battle themselves for the first half of last season, they climbed to mid-table and are now on course for Champions League qualification this term.
He said: “Does fear in belief get affected by goals? That’s what football is about, that’s how quickly it changes.
“Teams that are rolling, they don’t get as affected for obvious reasons as they have a confidence that is high. The confidence comes from playing, it comes from training, it comes from delivering.
“So when your confidence is high, you believe in everything you’re doing and when your confidence changes – which it has done – it’s like, ‘I wonder what we can do to make it change?’ You wait for things to happen rather than make them happen.
“Newcastle are a side, I’ve seen them a year-and-a-half ago, and they were nothing like that. They’ve signed some very good players to be fair but also they’ve built a mentality.
“We’ve been trying that since we got here and there have been good signs of it in some situations. Now we’ve got to remind ourselves of how we did it and then take on the next one, it has to get parked, not in the case of dismissing it, but it has to get parked because the next one is most-important.”
Dyche added: “I’ve been trying to build a consistent level so therefore whatever game it is, my mindset is to always take it on, that’s been the thing I learned as a player. Regardless if it’s a big game or not, your standards are the key – standards and consistent standards.
“We’ve been trying to achieve that and it is fair to say there is a feel of what’s going on, with the tightness if you’re not doing as well, the openness and the freedom if you are doing well, these are the things that are affected. So the next one will be saying ‘right lads, a lot of the basic principles we’re doing are correct but the details are massively important and every detail counts, every hard yard has to be done.
“Every time you go into the box, you have to believe you’re going to score a goal. They’re the things that add in the details to getting a win.
“The stakes have been high ever since we got here. The stakes should be high by the way – a club like Everton, the stakes should be high – that’s what the players need to remember, they should be high at this football club.”
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