Everton looking at 4-3-3 “genius” to upgrade on Sean Dyche

There’s light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a long tunnel though, admittedly. Everton have claimed one point from their opening five Premier League matches of the season and the pressure is on Sean Dyche‘s back like a boulder.

The Toffees’ 14 goals conceded stands as the highest tally in the division, alongside bottom-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers, who have an identical record to the Merseysiders. Moreover, capitulations and a lack of backbone have been prominent themes so far, themes that are atypical of a ‘Dyche’ team: gritty, organised, and determined.

Everton fans are understandably frustrated, and Dyche will know that defeat and a poor performance at Goodison Park against Crystal Palace – who are also winless in the top flight – on Saturday could see tensions boil over.

Sean Dyche is on his last legs

It’s a damning thing when the fans turn against a manager. But the Merseyside blues are fed up and rightly so. However, respite may well be arriving in the form of The Friedkin Group, who are set to purchase Farhad Moshiri‘s majority stake in Everton.

There’s every hope – the most important thing in football – that this could serve as a watershed moment in the modern trajectory of this proud football club, ending several years of turbulence and lifting the Blues to former heights, at the top end of the Premier League, pushing for a spot on the continent.

There’s a growing sense that Dyche will not be the man to lead the new project. The craggy-faced manager is well known for enforcing a brand deemed unfashionable by most, but this “direct and defensive” approach is tried and tested for a team treading water above the depths of the league table. Only now, it’s not.

Jarrad Branthwaite’s injury absence throughout the opening phase of the 2024/25 campaign has been damning, an indictment of the issues presented when he is not in the fold. It’s no wonder that the newly-blooded England international, hulking and Herculean, has been hailed as an “absolute monster” by talent scout Jacek Kulig, still only 22 years old.

Traces of the former Burnley boss’ fundaments have been discernible. Everton have won 111 tackles this year, more than any other Premier League team. They’ve also completed the fewest backward passes (247) while creating nine big chances as a team, putting them ninth in the rankings.

This is a brand that the board felt was apt to lift Everton away from the relegation fodder, and it worked, for a time. Now, though, Everton have found a cyclical ring to Dyche’s system, pulled right back into the danger zone.

Change is afoot at Everton, and Dyche’s departure must be part of the process. After all, TFG are keen on appointing a successor, having lined up Maurizio Sarri.

Why Maurizio Sarri should replace Sean Dyche

According to Italian outlet Corriere dello Sport, Everton chiefs have earmarked unemployed manager Sarri after the Friedkin Group expressed their interest in replacing Dyche with him in the Goodison dugout.

To say that Sarri and Dyche are diametrically opposed on the stylistic scale in football would be correct. Where Dyche implements grit and forward-moving steel, Sarri enforces smooth and complex ball-playing movements.

Tactically, Sarri is an intelligent manager, to the point that ‘Sarriball’, coined during his one-year tenure with Chelsea, became something infamous, with former players since relaying with mirth the Italian’s overscrupulous training regimes.

This fine-point attention to detail is something that could work wonders at Everton, however. The 65-year-old has been described as a “genius” who “sees things others don’t” by centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly,

Former Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has previously said that: “Sarri’s side play the most beautiful football in Europe.”

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If the Everton squad pick up his control and ball-retention-focused football, the fans could very quickly get on board with the change.

There’s a sense that Dyche’s style has its limitations and that even if success is found this term and the table is climbed, he will not cement a place at the upper end of the Premier League.

Dyche traditionally sets his team up in a 4-4-2 formation but has settled on a 4-4-1-1 shape at Goodison Park, supplementing the central striker with a more dynamic and roving option – Dwight McNeil has impressed in such a deployment this year.

Sarri, conversely, is unyielding in playing a 4-3-3 formation, aiding the focus on keeping the ball and enjoying short, triangular passes to shimmy up the pitch and into the danger area.

He won the Europa League during his sole season with Chelsea – in 2018/19 – and guided the Stamford Bridge side to a third-placed Premier League finish – which remains their joint-highest across the past eight campaigns.

They kept an average of 63% possession that term, behind only Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. Contrast that to Everton’s average this year, 20th-placed with 37%, and the polarity is stark.

What’s more though is that Sarri brings about a delightful, easy-on-the-eye brand that will have the Toffees fanbase gushing. Indeed, legendary manager Arrigo Sacchi has praised Sarri’s set-up in the past and proclaimed that it begets “spectacular football“.

Making this kind of transition would not be easy after several years of being drilled into playing the directest of direct football, but Everton have some dynamic and adaptable players at their disposal and this could be the move to make a real difference and bring some glory back to the Merseyside outfit.