The problem is that some of our more influential players are our older ones and they aren't as good
Coleman, Gueye, Doucoure, Young are all on the decline
We also massively overachieved last season with that squad of players
48 points which is more than Martinez got in seasons 2 and 3 with Lukaku playing up front for him
The squad has been beefed out a bit more especially in midfield but does that make the starting 11 any better ?
yes we sold 75 and spent just over 40 - Thing is, the squad is stronger than last year. Whilst we spent less than we brought in, the squad is better.
So far this season, the team who 'finished 11th' and strengthened in the summer, is pretty much playing like one of the worst teams in the league. We set up almost every game like we are away to Man City... snatch and grab... I think we are better than that.
I look at it like this, which teams overall, are objectively worse than us
before season started I'd have said
Southampton
Leicester
Ipswich
Wolves
Forest
Bournemouth
Palace
Brentford
Fulham
7 games in, only Brentford and Fulham have surprised me a little, but even then, I'm not that convinced by either over the course of a season.
11th, 12th, 13th - we should be around there with the squad we have, compared to the other squads.
Anything below that is underachieving for me
That said, we know Dyche teams start horrifically, so hopefully we got that out of the way, and can put a little run together.
unbeaten in the last 3 and the next 5 are...
Ipswich away
Fulham home
Southampton away
West Ham away
Brentford home
3 or 4 winnable games there, it wont be the end of the world if we lose 1 or 2, but we cant just be going away to Ipswich and Southampton and looking to sneak a win. Likewise we cant be sitting back at home to Fulham and let them have the ball for 70% of the game.
We should be getting a minimum of 7 points from those 5 games, and if I'm honest I'd be disappointed if we didnt win 3 of those 5
Dyche took over a side that had lost 8 of its previous 9 league games including being outplayed by Leics at home (who got relegated), Soton at home (who got relegated), Wolves and Brighton at home.
He also took over a side that sold Anthony Gordon the previous day and didn't replace
He kept us up largely without a striker
Last season we again made a profit in the transfer market, we reduced the wage bill, we had 2 points deductions and survived quite comfortably
Yet again this season we have brought in £75m and managed to make £40m stretch to 7 players - for context Brighton who finished with the same 48 points we got spent £40m on a championship striker and £200m in all
Its not pretty, although Saturday's game was intriguing, but I think its effective for what we have
Burnley tried to play football last season and got less than 30 points
I don't think we are currently playing as well as we could at the moment but the problem with a small squad is if a player is out of form there are usually few options to replace them
I dislike the way we play, & no Everton team should have 30% possession at home ever.
But, he can only play what’s in his ever-weakening squad, so not sure how that works.
I get the feeling other managers (in the past) would have got more out of them, but the game has moved on so now like4like now.
Hmmmmm, sounds like I’m a cop-out 5?
More worrying, players like Tarks & DCL were clearly not happy with him v Newcastle either & answered back to some of his instructions/criticism. I hope he’s not losing the dressing room.
Our first poll of the 24/25 season, as I forgot to poll on the eve of the first match as usual. Sorry again about that.
Last time out back in May, Sean Dyche polled a very solid 7.47 from 289 votes. This was SD's second best ever result and showed a high level of support from the fanbase for the job he had done in very difficult circumstances last season.
As we all know this season hasn't started well, with injuries and poor form contributing to a string of bad results and an early exit from the League Cup. Understandably this led to quite a notable shift in how the fanbase felt toward Dyche, with the low point being the back to back losses to Bournemouth and Villa despite being two goals up in both. Dyche wasn't helping himself either with prickly comments aimed at the fans as well as questionable team selections and substitutions.
Lately the ship has been steadied during a more favourable run of fixtures and we have even moved out of the bottom three already, but the football on display continues to be difficult to enjoy even when we win. With the years of off the field turmoil seemingly coming to a close with the Friedkins set to take over, and the New Stadium next season, the club appears to be finally on the verge of a new dawn, but will Sean Dyche be around to be part of it? Lets see what the People think at this early stage of the season?
(As always please use your own personal scale of 1-10 from poll to poll. The comment labels assigned to each value are meant as general guidance and not meant to necessarily accurately reflect your own opinion.)
Responses