Unbalanced Everton Try Once Again To Avoid Fall From Premier League

Everton manager Sean Dyche spoke ahead of this weekend’s crunch game against Leicester City about a well-documented imbalance within the squad that has contributed to Everton winding up in this precarious position.

The club has five games left to save its season and move out of the relegation zone in which it currently sits alongside Leicester.

Though this imbalance may have been well-documented outside of the club, it was telling to hear the manager speak about it in such a frank manner. And it wasn’t a complaint. It is what it is and is something they have to deal with.

Having used a number of players outside of their usual positions during the past few months, sometimes very effectively, other times not, it is obvious on the pitch that this is not a squad whose construction has been well thought out.

The club’s sporting and financial troubles have been caused, or at least compounded by a lack of direction in the transfer market. Lots of money has been spent in recent years but without much of a plan.

The number of new managers—seven in seven years since Ronald Koeman replaced Roberto Martinez in 2016—has seen numerous transitions in style and personnel, which could have been avoided if the director of football model was used properly.

It appears the Everton board has appointed someone in this role merely as a box-ticking exercise, simply because it is something other clubs do, but there have been no continuations of playing style nor consistent, coherent squad management that someone in this role is supposed to provide.

Each manager has been allowed to bring in their own players above the head of the director of football, while the club’s ownership has overruled the director of football on a number of occasions when appointing said managers.

Dyche joined Everton at the end of the January transfer window this year, and with each passing month has further realised the hodgepodge nature of the squad he has to work with.

“There is only so much we can change—everyone knows the squad here,” Dyche said ahead of the game against Leicester.

“There are certain things we can change and certain things we can’t.”

One of the things he has not been able to change is the makeup of the squad.

He arrived at the club in the final moments of the January transfer window, and even if he had players in mind he would have liked to have brought in, the club’s financial situation means players would need to have been sold first.

There was no time for any of that and, again, the director of football was apparently not able to act in January.

“I don’t think it’s under-documented that there’s an imbalance in the squad here,” added Dyche in his pre-match press conference.

“I think there is an imbalance in the squad here and everyone knows that. That’s a transitional period from all the money that was spent, to bringing more money back in.

“That transition of events has led to an imbalanced squad. I think everyone knows that. And that will be corrected going forward, but you can’t correct it like that [clicks fingers], it doesn’t work like that.

“Usually, you need money to correct it. That’s another thing.”

All of this points to a problem at the top of the club with the board and overall leadership that fans have been speaking about for some time, but it’s one that managers or staff currently employed at the club have, understandably, not been able to speak about.

Dyche is only able to work with what he has, and once there is an injury here or there in one of the positions that have no backup players, that isn’t much.

Managers can take some of the blame for results and team performance, but neither Dyche, Frank Lampard nor Rafa Benitez are the main culprits of this downfall as Everton and its unbalanced team teeters on the brink of relegation for the second season running.