Everton legend Leon Osman has claimed that Sean Dyche has managed to improve the team this season and make progress.
Dyche took over from Frank Lampard last season and kept Everton up in the Premier League.
This season, Everton again faced relegation struggles, but managed to secure their Premier League status with three games remaining.
Despite Everton spending the majority of Dyche’ first full season as Toffees boss in the relegation zone, Osman stressed that the Merseyside outfit have made improvements under the English tactician and is clear they have kicked on this season too.
He pointed out that Everton would have been further up in the league table if they were not hit by point deductions due to their Financial Fair Play breach.
Osman believes that Dyche’s Everton are not a team who will win games by dominating possession, but stated they are strong defensively and good at set pieces and counter attacks.
“Sean Dyche’s first role last season was to keep the club in the Premier League”, Osman said on BBC Radio 5 live.
“The next step, after he had managed that on the final day, was to rebuild the club and make progress – but then he was hit with all of the points deductions.
“He has actually made a stride forward.
“We would be on 44 points, which would probably get us about 12th or 13th place at the minute, had we not had those points deductions.
“We aren’t the easiest team on the eye at times.
“We are not the team that is going to win games by having more possession than the opposition.
“We are good at what we do – set pieces, defensively and on the counter-attack.”
Everton have managed to win three games on the bounce since their thrashing at the hand of Chelsea last month, and Dyche’s side will try to finish the rest of the season on a high note by continuing their winning momentum.
