Everton: Sean Dyche not concerned by Chester defeat

Sean Dyche has denied Everton’s midweek loss to Chester. He has shown a blatant lack of quality in his squad and stressed that there is no doubt about their attitude.

To give Dominic Calvert-Lewin some match training, Everton hosted the National League North side in a game behind closed doors at their Finch Farm training base – green protective curtains were drawn around the pitch to give an element of privacy for the excercise.

Dyche named a strong team, so strong in fact that the starting line-up boasted 75 caps between them – Calvert-Lewin, Nathan Patterson, Yerry Mina, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Conor Coady – while Tom Davies and Mason Holgate had played for England Under-21s .

Ellis Simms, who partnered Calvert-Lewin, was the team’s eighth member to play in the Premier League. However, none of this could prevent Everton from losing 1–0 and many saw the scoreline as symptomatic of the club’s predicament.

The Toffees boss insists building Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s (pictured) match fitness was most important in the game behind closed doors

Calvert-Lewin has not played since he suffered a hamstring injury in early February

The Everton manager understands news of the result did little to improve the negative view of their situation, but he was adamant he got what he wanted from the drill – Calvert-Lewin came through unscathed.

Asked if he was concerned about a collective mentality, Dyche replied, “No. I look at it and say “Well done Chester” – it’s a brilliant reality of football. (They played) 5-4-1, barely attacking, waiting for a chance and trying to win a game. Well done, but that’s still irrelevant to me.

‘We are where we are, they are where they are. We know our market. We were just looking for players who come through unscathed, injury free and as sharp as possible when they don’t play every week.

‘We need to look further, because there is a bigger picture.

“It’s not just us against Chester. That has no influence on what happens in the first team. It’s just another negative story that everyone is waiting for. It’s an easy story, so all you’re doing is telling people easy stories.

But the story behind that is actually the truth – and that was “can we get Dominic Calvert-Lewin minutes on a field in a more competitive way?” What we did. Did he look sharp? Yes. Did he play well? Yes. Could he have scored? Yes, countless times. But was he there to score? Yes.’

Of that starting line-up, Mina and Davies are both out of contracts this summer, as Coady approaches the end of a season-long loan. Dyche recently said that no decision has been made yet about what will happen to them next.

Dyche is convinced that the attitude and motivation of his party should not be questioned

He went out of his way to emphasize that no one in the team lacked motivation – Dyche confirmed it was played at a good, physical pace – but he understood why it would be easy for some to conclude that the approach was not right .

“If we had won 16-0 and Dom didn’t score and got injured, what would you have been talking about?” Dyche said. ‘Did you talk about something else? If we had lost 3-0 and Dom got injured, what would the thinking be? Precisely. So that’s why it was always about Dom.

‘Now 3-0 would have been an eye-popping score, so was 1-0. But it still wouldn’t be what I’m looking for. The outcome I was looking for was “Can Dom play football and run around?” What he can. Sometimes you have to stick to the results.

“Other than the property, all the noise was about Calvert-Lewin (getting fit). Another time, if he was fully fit and everyone else, I’d say, “hold on.” But this time I had to stay focused on the prize – and this prize was for him to keep fit.’