Sean Dyche has outlined how he’s trying to improve his team as Everton battle to avoid their first relegation in 72 years as the season reaches crunch time.
Everton go into their game against Newcastle United tonight (7.45pm) second bottom of the table due to Nottingham Forest's 3-1 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion to end an 11-match unbeaten run.
And. after narrowly avoiding the drop last season despite what was the joint lowest equivalent points total in the club’s history, the Blues are currently on course for an even smaller total this term.
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It took Dyche seven games to reach three wins – the same total predecessor Frank Lampard achieved in 20 matches earlier in the campaign – but Everton have won just one of their last nine.
In terms of approaching the run-in, Dyche said: “It’s always big. Everyone calls it the business end of the season but the business end of the season is every game – that’s the business end. The start of the season is the business end, the middle of the season is the business end.
“It’s just when it gets to this stage, you have to take care of it. At the beginning you can sort of go. ‘well, they’ve got time, they’ve got this, they’ve got that’.
“Defining the moments of truth are the hardest thing as a manager. Putting the players in an organisation in terms of tactics, set-pieces, a fitness level that is correct, they’re the key moments of truth and the big moments, the hardest things as a manager and a coach.”
The Blues boss added: “You can only guide the players to get where they need to be. Those are the key moments and that comes down to the individual taking that key moment and taking it as their own and that’s what we want, everyone to make a difference, whoever it is.
“We’ve been trying to build that mentality, everything counts. The more you do that, the more you get better at it in theory, the more you win.
“We’re not a million miles away. I thought we were excellent at Forest, that was just a classic Premier League away performance and we made just one mistake, gave the ball away, stripped the midfield, which we didn’t need to do.
“Things like that change the perception, change the view, change the away view. So all these things are important but you can’t define every single moment, you just have to believe in the work you do and the process you go through with the players to go and trust themselves to go and find the freedom to go and score and affect games.”
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