The Four Months Though Lads - Worse than Mike Walker

[Titus Bramble]

Well i do agree with you. I meant it in context. If you have a run of 5 games and lose them all and play awful that gives a different type of pressure on the manager (in relation to getting sacked) than losing 5 games but battling and putting in hard graft. You buy some favour from the fans and owners when they see hard graft. Indicated the dressing room is not lost.

Although (and i dont agree with them) lots on here also moan about Dyche style of play, i dont hear many saying that they would be OK to playing Dycheball even if we were winning every week.

I couldnt care less how we're playing if we’re winning every week

 

[Bigduke1234]

"The four months, where we didn't win a game and Dyche Walker was lucky not to be sacked":

Background, December 2023, On the back of beating Forest Away, Newcastle and Chelsea Home and Burnley Away between 2 and 16 December, we had a League Cup Quarter final on the 19th December with Fulham who were in good form at the time. The tie went to extra time and we lost on penalties.

That's a period of five games in 17 days, unbeaten except for penalties. This then starts the “four-month winless run.” (Hint: Wasn't winless, and wasn't 4 months)
I think we should look at the fixtures with the power of hindsight, each game insolation for the season, and see what games were bad results:

23 Dec
Tottenham 2 -1 Everton. Away at top six side

27 Dec
Everton 1 - 3 Man City. Best team in the world

30 Dec
Wolves 3 - 0 Everton. A tired performance. Bad result, but we have small squad that had just played their 8th game in a month. Wolves top half side

4th Jan FA Cup 3rd Round
Palace 0 - 0 Everton. A tricky away tie against premier league opponents above us in table. DCL sent off and decent result, if unneeded replay


14 Jan
Everton 0 - 0 Villa. Decent result against high flying 4th place Villa

17 Jan 3rd Round Replay
Everton 1 - 0 Palace. An Everton win, in period where we apparently never won in 4 months.

27 Jan FA Cup 4th Round
Everton 1 - 2 Luton. Cant argue that this is a bad result. The only defeat in January.

30 Jan
Fulham 0 - 0 Everton - tricky away tie against a mid table side, above us in the table.

3 Feb
Everton 2 - 2 Tottenham - a good comeback against a good Spurs side

10 Feb
Man City 2 - 0 Everton - Never going to grab a result here.

19 Feb
Everton 1 - 1 Palace - A game we hope to get more from but in isolation not a bad result for where we are this season

24 Feb
Brighton 1 - 1 Everton - On paper a good draw, would have accepted that at the start of the game. Letting them equalise in 90+5 mins was a disappointing.

* Key Stat - only lost once in the league to Man City over the first 2 months of 2024. Won one (in period we never won one) and lost one in the cup.

2 Mar
Everton 1 - 3 West Ham - West Ham are decent outfit (currently 8th), although we would have hoped for a better result at home to them. Again, two injury times goals changed the game with West Ham scoring 90+1 and 90+5 to win the game

9 Mar
Man U 2 - 0 Everton - Undone by two penalties. You wouldn't expect a result at this game at the start of the season.

30 Mar
Bournmouth 2 - 1 Everton - tricky away tie, lost in the 90+1 min by a Coleman OG

2 April
Newcastle 1 - 1 Everton - Another tricky away tie. Scraped a draw.

So, in conclusion:

Premier League 4 months (Dec 3 to Aprl 2):

Played 17, Won 4, Drew 6, Lost 8, Pts 18

We achieved over a point per game, which would likely have kept us up in a normal season. The Four Months is a myth. We won games in December and beat Palace in the cup in January, too.

There are also only a couple of games we should have expected a better result, given the league position of the opposition.

You would have been a fool to sack Dyche in the period. A period against difficult opposition, where we still maintained over a point per game, and undone by bunch of injury time goals.

Sorry, when did we beat Man City (see key stat, they made us look like a pub team)?

In reality, we won an FA cup game against Palace, it was truly unacceptable form and the managers tactical masterclass was to wear a tracksuit.

Ok, we are where we are, but this is gaslighting

 

[Bigduke1234]

I couldnt care less how we're playing if we’re winning every week

If only we were

 

[twoblue]

Sorry, when did we beat Man City (see key stat, they made us look like a pub team)?

In reality, we won an FA cup game against Palace, it was truly unacceptable form and the managers tactical masterclass was to wear a tracksuit.

Ok, we are where we are, but this is gaslighting

Errr between Jan and feb lost one game in the league, to Man City

 

[Spadge Vernacular]

Has Dyche managed some of the worst performances in recent memory?

 

[coollino]

Can't believe how much energy some of you lot have

 

[nsno-chris]

Errr between Jan and feb lost one game in the league, to Man City

Or another way of looking at it

We got 5 points from 18.

 

[Goat]

Can't believe how much energy some of you lot have

Its amazing, I mean we lost, the Dyche Out posse got utterly smashed as soon as that DCL goal hit the back of the net.

Lick your wounds and fight again next season.

 

[pfim]

Has Dyche managed some of the worst performances in recent memory?

Depends on how poor your memory is. Certainly he’s managed the worst performances of this season.

 

[matty1878]

Its amazing, I mean we lost, the Dyche Out posse got utterly smashed as soon as that DCL goal hit the back of the net.

Lick your wounds and fight again next season.

what posse are you?

 

[Goat]

what posse are you?

Currently im in the "hes not very good, but he did enough to earn himself a run out next season through gritted teeth" posse.

 

[Houghty19]

An awful run of performances at a truly horrible time for the club. Let's not let the last few games change the perspective of that run. It was truly some of the worst football I've seen us play over a sustained period. Ironically the 6-0 hammering from Chelsea was more than likely the catalyst for the turn around in fortunes. He's lucky that moshiri had lost interest in the club and the yanks hadn't taken over or he would have gone for certain.

 

[twoblue]

Or another way of looking at it

We got 5 points from 18.

When we average 1.25 points a season it’s wouldn’t be prudent to expect 18.

 

[nsno-chris]

When we average 1.25 points a season it’s wouldn’t be prudent to expect 18.

That’s not what I said mate

 

[matty1878]

An awful run of performances at a truly horrible time for the club. Let's not let the last few games change the perspective of that run. It was truly some of the worst football I've seen us play over a sustained period. Ironically the 6-0 hammering from Chelsea was more than likely the catalyst for the turn around in fortunes. He's lucky that moshiri had lost interest in the club and the yanks hadn't taken over or he would have gone for certain.

the yanks are taking us down anyway