Winning is absolutely vital in how I work
Everton travel to Burnley tomorrow under different management than last time we met at Goodison Park back in October. Then it was Ronald Koeman but he’s been replaced by Sam Allardyce who is now managing a seventh different club in the Premier League.
Ahead of tomorrow’s game, Allardyce looked back at the things that aren’t working for his team. He said: “We’ve struggled to win games recently so there’s an opportunity for us to go and play better than we did at Watford. I think that’s an absolute necessity for tomorrow and be good enough when you are defending correctly and don’t slip up like we did last week.
“One, we haven’t had a clean sheet for a long time and two, away from home our shots on goal and our shots on target tally and our goals are far too low.”
Sean Dyche will be in charge of Burnley for a 250th time tomorrow. That is made up of 105 games in the Premier League, 125 in the Football League, eleven FA Cup games and nine in the League Cup.
He’s particularly proud of the progress some of his players have made during his time at Turf Moor. He admitted: “The journey here is about winning, but what often gets overlooked is the amount of good work done by my staff and the players themselves.”
With Nick Pope being talked about as a potential England goalkeeper, he added: “Nick is a case in example. A very short time ago he was playing at Charlton and they were relegated from the Championship. Now, we ready he is being considered for England and a possibility for a World Cup.
“The work that Billy Mercer has put in, also with Tom Heaton, and all my staff here with players like Michael Keane, Kieran Trippier, Danny Ings, Charlie Austin, Andre Gray and, to bring it up to date, with Tarky, Ben Mee and Corky.
“All these stories are just as important to me. Not more important, by the way, because winning is absolutely vital in how I work and what I believe, but alongside that, playing our part in player development is very, very important.
“Sometimes that goes under the radar, but it certainly doesn’t with us because we watch these lads closely and try and help them, with the environment and culture, to be successful, not just in their own rights, but also for Burnley Football Club.
“The good thing is that we are trying to achieve here with this group is there are a lot of players who, all of a sudden, look to be in the thoughts of the national set up, and that wasn’t always the case at Burnley Football Club, so we should all be proud of that.
“If they make it into the national squad, that’s great and if they make it to a big tournament, then that’s out of this world, from where we were five years ago. There are certainly individuals here who have earned the right, but being picked is a different thing and that’s up to Gareth.”
Looking forward to the Everton game, Dyche added: “The implication, after spending a lot of money, is that Everton have to be successful, but we all know that in football it’s very rarely like that, dependent on the enormity of the finance.
“A team still needs to come together and they had a tricky start with that, moulding a new team and making it work. They changed their manager, and their style, which can happen, and they’ve got a very, very good manager with a brilliant track record for many years at many different clubs.
“So, what I see there is still a very strong group of players, who have just had more ups and downs than Everton have in the past few years, but they will be fighting, and they will want a result, as we do.”
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