Sean Dyche is overseeing a costly new Everton trait as…

Sean Dyche is overseeing a costly new Everton trait as unlikely answer to goalscoring woes found

Your evening Everton headlines for Wednesday, March 8

Sean Dyche is overseeing a costly new Everton trait that could be all worth it

'Run, run, whoever you may be' goes the famous Everton battle cry from the terraces of course and, while nobody is seriously advocating violence, Blues fans will no doubt be encouraged by the thought that Sean Dyche’s players are up for a fight.

When you’re toiling near the foot of the table, they don’t call it a relegation scrap for nothing and after several years of loyal but long-suffering Evertonians being concerned that their players were a soft touch, those same supporters who back the team both home and away can take heart that those wearing the royal blue jersey might be capable of showing at least some of the passion for the badge that they possess. After picking up FA fines for mass confrontations in their games against Liverpool and Leeds United last month, there was more fisticuffs – albeit on a smaller scale – in Everton’s tempestuous 2-2 draw at Nottingham Forest on Sunday.

Many of Everton’s successful teams had a steely side to them. The Holy Trinity of Howard Kendall, Colin Harvey and Alan Ball – aided by the likes of Johnny Morrissey, one of the hardest wingers in football – were flexible enough to spray it around when the occasion required or mix it up if an opponent wanted a fight.

The same went for the Blues’ greatest side of the mid-1980s with the former two of that aforementioned trio by now in the home dugout at Goodison Park. The Grand Old Lady’s most-glorious night, the 3-1 comeback victory over Bayern Munich that steered the club into its only European final to date, famously featured the x-rated response from the Everton bench when the Bundesliga outfit’s coach Udo Lattek complained, 'Mr Kendall, this is not football', because the likes of Andy Gray and Peter Reid were getting stuck in.

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Sean Dyche may have just found an unlikely answer to Everton's goalscoring issue

Everton manager Sean Dyche has challenged his players to find different ways to find goals and Demarai Gray did just that when coming in from the cold and starting for his new boss for the first time against Nottingham Forest. But can he prove a viable option up front for the Blues in the weeks ahead?

Despite 4-4-2 being by far his most-used formation during nine-and-a-half years in charge of Burnley, Dyche has only deployed a lone frontman so far since he took charge of Everton within a 4-5-1 set-up. Dominic Calvert-Lewin started his first game at home to Arsenal but was withdrawn after an hour due to a hamstring injury.

Since then, Ellis Simms led the line for the Merseyside derby at Anfield before Neal Maupay got the nod for the subsequent three matches against Leeds United, Aston Villa and then Arsenal away. None of these players scored but at the City Ground the Blues boss turned to Gray for his first start of his reign.

The 26-year-old had been an ever-present under previous manager Frank Lampard this season, starting every Premier League match and even two of the three cup ties, coming off the bench to score in the other, the 4-1 Carabao Cup exit against Bournemouth. Even before the game on Sunday, he was Everton’s top scorer this term with five goals in all competitions and despite the taunts from the Forest fans that he was supposedly a 'Leicester reject', Gray, who has a Premier League title medal from his time at their East Midlands rivals, held his nerve to send Keylor Navas the wrong way from the penalty spot in front of the Trent End.

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