Everton aren’t “as far off as everyone thinks” says Dyche

Everton manager Sean Dyche has insisted that his side aren’t “as far off as everyone thinks” after going a record 13 Premier League games without a win.

Ahead of Saturday’s fixture at home to Burnley, Dyche assured fans that a win against the 19th place Clarets is not off the cards.

This comes after the dismal new club record of going 13 games without a single win.

In Tuesday’s match Everton left St James’ Park with one point after drawing 1-1 to Newcastle thanks to a late penalty by Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

The draw was welcomed by fans after going three games with no points after suffering from three back-to-back losses to Bournemouth, Manchester United and West Ham United.

“I don’t think we are as far off it as everyone thinks”

Dyche spoke to the media ahead of the game against Burnley reassuring fans that his side are performing in matches despite not having a recent win.

Dyche said: “[Managing] 500-odd games teaches you about the game. You are still searching for the answer, we all are, and probably you will never get there. We only use it as a benchmark, we are not naive. We don’t just look at performances and don’t bother about the win, of course you can’t. But there has to be something reliable, a way of measuring what is going on.

“With all the noise and all the challenges and everything that goes on at Everton Football Club ever since I got here and before I got here – the finances and the like – we want to have a benchmark and a baseline of what we judge. It can’t just be about winning and losing.

“There has to be a point where you go ‘right, where are we at with the actual performance levels?’ I don’t think we are as far off it as everyone thinks but the winning bit does change the viewpoint.

“An average performance when you win becomes a very good performance snd a good performance when you lose becomes a below average performance. That is the way football is.”

“You would take an ugly, horrible win”

Despite his reassurance that his side are performing despite not winning, Dyche admitted he’d take “an ugly, horrible win” instead of another well-played loss or draw.

Dyche added: “Our job is to look beyond and measure it the best we can – with stats, facts, analysis and your eyes and your feel. Myself and my staff have got thousands of games between us. I can assure you there is no naivity to it. We are not going ‘oh well, we played well again’. Of course not, you would take an ugly, horrible win. Sometimes you need that, but ideally you do it by design. Ideally you do it by the team forcing results through their quality of performance.

Everton will play Burnley on Saturday at 3pm at Goodison Park as either sides relegation battle continues.