Sean Dyche: Everton stronger than before, despite relegation danger

Dyche will mark his first anniversary on Tuesday by taking his team to Fulham looking for a first Premier League win since mid-December.

They sit just a point above the drop zone after their 10-point penalty, which they are appealing, for breaching profit and sustainability rules.

That has had a huge bearing on a season as without it they would be relatively comfortable in 12th.

Dyche has won a third of his 39 Premier League matches, losing 17. By comparison his predecessor Frank Lampard had nine victories and 21 defeats in the same number of games.

When asked about improvements the Toffees boss said: "If you put the 10 points on then factually yes. And I think the feel of the team, yes.

"The energy and commitment, yes. Quality, generally yes. Flexibility of the side to try and find a win, yeah.

"So a lot of good markers but when the 10 points is not there, no-one tells the story - and rightly so.

"I don't like harking on about it. Facts are facts. We are one point outside the relegation zone.

"Of course at the back of your mind you've got that nagging doubt, have we moved forward?

"Yeah, I think we have as a club and as a team. We have in different ways but the facts remain the same and that's where the table says we are."

Toffees defender James Tarkowski has long-term experience with Dyche, having played for him previously at Burnley.

He is in no doubt the team have got better, the frustration is they have not been able to put together a consistent run of results to earn themselves some breathing space after the victories dried up following a run of five wins in six matches.

"First of all we stayed in the league last year, which was the one and only target when the manager came in so we did our job there," said the centre-back.

"I think there has been progress made, there has been disappointing patches within that: the start of the season we didn't win for a few games and then we bounced back really strongly after the points deduction and put loads of points on the board which was good.

"Without the points deduction we are well ahead of where we should be so it makes it look a bit false. But I think we have performed pretty well overall."

Dyche will mark his first anniversary on Tuesday by taking his team to Fulham looking for a first Premier League win since mid-December.

They sit just a point above the drop zone after their 10-point penalty, which they are appealing, for breaching profit and sustainability rules.

That has had a huge bearing on a season as without it they would be relatively comfortable in 12th.

Dyche has won a third of his 39 Premier League matches, losing 17. By comparison his predecessor Frank Lampard had nine victories and 21 defeats in the same number of games.

When asked about improvements the Toffees boss said: "If you put the 10 points on then factually yes. And I think the feel of the team, yes.

"The energy and commitment, yes. Quality, generally yes. Flexibility of the side to try and find a win, yeah.

"So a lot of good markers but when the 10 points is not there, no-one tells the story - and rightly so.

"I don't like harking on about it. Facts are facts. We are one point outside the relegation zone.

"Of course at the back of your mind you've got that nagging doubt, have we moved forward?

"Yeah, I think we have as a club and as a team. We have in different ways but the facts remain the same and that's where the table says we are."

Toffees defender James Tarkowski has long-term experience with Dyche, having played for him previously at Burnley.

He is in no doubt the team have got better, the frustration is they have not been able to put together a consistent run of results to earn themselves some breathing space after the victories dried up following a run of five wins in six matches.

"First of all we stayed in the league last year, which was the one and only target when the manager came in so we did our job there," said the centre-back.

"I think there has been progress made, there has been disappointing patches within that: the start of the season we didn't win for a few games and then we bounced back really strongly after the points deduction and put loads of points on the board which was good.

"Without the points deduction we are well ahead of where we should be so it makes it look a bit false. But I think we have performed pretty well overall."

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