Sean Dyche sack: Sources issue update as Everton speculation mounts and obvious replacement speaks out

Sean Dyche is in no immediate danger of being sacked despite Everton’s defeat to Southampton in the League Cup on Tuesday, TEAMtalk understands.

The loss means Everton have won just one of their first six games of the season and that victory came against League Two outfit Doncaster Rovers.

They currently sit bottom of the Premier League table on zero points and, perhaps most worryingly, have the worst defensive record in the league, conceding nine goals in four games.

This is in stark contrast to last season when Everton had the fourth-best defence in the division. Jarrad Branthwaite is currently sidelined with an injury, and it’s fair to say that they are missing him.

“We’ve created enough to win the match but we haven’t taken the chances and come out on the wrong side of penalties,” Dyche told BBC Radio Merseyside after the game.

“I thought the team played well, we created chances and we looked mostly solid defensively. Some young players did very well so there’s positives out of that.

“I’m pleased with a lot of the performances because we patched together a team. We had three go down with illness this morning so we had one morning to organise the team.”

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Everton back Sean Dyche to turn things around

Sources have informed TEAMtalk that Everton have no immediate plans to sack Dyche despite the team’s poor start to the campaign. No meetings discussing Dyche’s future at Goodison Park have been held by club’s decision-makers.

We have been informed that there is a confidence behind the scenes that results will begin to improve when key players, such as Jarrad Branthwaite, recover from injuries. The centre-back is expected to return to action by early October.

Vitaliy Mykolenko, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and James Garner were also unavailable on Tuesday due to a sickness bug that has been going around the Toffees’ camp.

But regardless, Everton’s loss on penalties to Southampton was a dismal watch. They had 25% possession at home to a Saints side who, like them, haven’t won a Premier League game this season. The game ended 1-1 in normal time.

Everton did create some chances, with Jesper Lindstrom missing a couple of one-on-ones which would have put Everton in front had he converted them.

But as time went on the atmosphere inside Goodison Park turned sour, culminating with boos when Dyche decided to substitute Beto – Everton’s only fit, senior striker on the night – for Ashley Young, who ultimately missed the decisive penalty.

David Moyes tipped to replace Dyche by ex-Prem star

Football is a results business and despite Everton’s reluctance to make a managerial change, there will come a point where Dyche’s position becomes untenable if the Toffees don’t start picking up points.

David Moyes, who spent a successful 11 years with Everton between 2002 and 2013, is one of the managers currently available and would be an obvious replacement option should Dyche leave.

In what could be described as convenient timing, Moyes spoke about his time with the Toffees in an interview with the Liverpool Echo on Monday.

“We were competitive, and nobody was enjoying coming to play us at Goodison, that was for sure. You have to look back to that time about the force of Goodison and how important it was,” Moyes said.

“The crowd were alive because the team were alive as well. We didn’t win every game, and we didn’t play the best all the time, but I think in the main, the crowd appreciated the players there and what they were doing.”

Former Premier League midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker also believes that Moyes has what it takes to turn Everton’s poor form around.

“I’m not putting words out there. I’m not putting it out there, but there is a certain David Moyes, who knows that club very well, inside out, who currently isn’t managing anyone,” Reo-Coker told BBC’s Premier League Review.

“And the pressure is different now on Sean Dyche, where Everton might look to change manager and bring someone else in for new ideas or a fresh start. But it’s very worrying.”

Everton are breaking all the wrong records

Everton have been through three consecutive relegation battles and understandably, supporters are fearful that the same could happen again this term.

Following Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa, Everton have made their worst-ever start to a Premier League campaign, and their worst start to a top-flight league season in 66 years.

This season began with 3-0 and 4-0 defeats to Brighton and Tottenham respectively before they lost 3-2 to both Bournemouth and Aston Villa despite being 2-0 up in both of those matches.

The loss in the cup to Southampton is yet another blow to Everton and has done nothing to ease the player’s nerves ahead of a big game against Leicester on Saturday.

Dyche does, however, deserve credit for keeping the Toffees in the Premier League last season. Similar to this term, they picked up one point from their first five league games in 2023/24 and received an eight-point deduction for PSR breaches, but survived relegation with games to spare.

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