Everton boss Sean Dyche has been speaking to the media before Sunday’s Premier League game at Manchester United (kick-off 13:30 GMT).
Here are the key lines from his news conference:
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Armando Broja and Youssef Chermiti will play for the under-21 side on Friday as they continue their recoveries from injury, while Seamus Coleman is back in training but unlikely to feature on Sunday.
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On the team’s recent struggle to score goals: “You work with them constantly on goal threat and it’s not just the strikers. A lot was made of our set-pieces and that’s still absolutely valid. We want to be a threat from those and [also see] how many different ways we can affect the opposition from open play. We found it tough against a compact defence against Brentford – when they went down to 10 men, we couldn’t find those key moments. In other games we have and not finished it. At the end of the day, it’s the scoreline that you’re looking for to get that right.”
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He added: “We’ve obviously made a considerable difference to the defending stats from the opening part of the season, and then it’s finding that balance between defending well as a team and attacking well as a team. The final moment of truth is the hardest as a manager – you can’t kick it in for them.”
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On facing a United side under their new boss Ruben Amorim: “Everyone talks of a ‘new manager bounce’ and the rest of it, so it’s more difficult in that way of thinking, but they’ve still got good players. A new manager to the Premier League will maybe give a different feel to it. I’m sure he’s been working with the players and trying to get his thoughts across.”
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As well as United, Everton face all of the Premier League’s current top four clubs during December. Dyche said: “You’ve got to play them all. The fixtures have given us this run and it’s a tough run, but everything’s tough in the Premier League. We’ve shown before that we can take these teams on and that’s what we’ve got to do again.”
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