Former Burnley manager Sean Dyche would be ‘the right fit’ to replace Frank Lampard at Goodison Park should Premier League strugglers Everton sack the under-fire coach, Danny Murphy tells talkSPORT (4 January, 10.30am).
If you didn’t laugh, you’d cry. Have you ever seen a team concede a more tragic, frankly pathetic goal than the one which put Brighton and Hove Albion 4-0 up on Gwadlys Street on Tuesday night with less than an hour on the clock?
Somehow, Everton managed to turn a free-kick in a threatening position into a one-v-one at the other end of the pitch in the blinking of an eye. Dwight McNeil sending his cross sailing over the penalty area before Idrissa Gana Gueye inadvertently sent Pascal Gross clear with the most dreadfully misplaced backpass.
This had a real ‘end of days’ feeling to it. And not for the first time either; the atmosphere and the language at Goodison Park turning a shade of blue to match Everton’s home kit.
According to talkSPORT, Lampard now finds himself on the brink of the sack following a run of eight defeats in 11 across all competitions. A run which contains that Brighton debacle, 3-0 and 4-1 hammerings by Bournemouth, and a home humbling by Leicester City.
Could Sean Dyche or Roberto Martinez replace Frank Lampard as Everton manager?
“I hope (Lampard) gets more time. But its looking less likely,” says former Liverpool, England and Tottenham midfielder Murphy, identifying an out-of-work 51-year-old as a potentially inspired replacement.
“Dyche is a good shout. He knows the Premier League. He’s got a great knowledge of the Everton players, I’m sure.(Dyche has) got a reputation for a certain type (of football) because he’s only had a certain type of player. I think he’d be the right fit for the Everton fans.”
The gravel-voiced gaffer bit the bullet almost 12 months ago as Burnley dropped out of the Premier League, but it’s almost solely down to Dyche that the Clarets were a fixture of the top-flight for so many years.
Roberto Martinez, who spent three years in charge of the Toffees between 2013 and 2016, has also been tipped for a second spell at his old stomping ground, though Murphy feels that the way things ended for the Spaniard on Merseyside could put the breaks on a potential return.
“The problem with Martinez, although he had a good first season, it went sour. The Everton fans don’t want him back,” Murphy adds. “Why bring somebody in who the fans already don’t want?
“All I would be thinking is; someone who knows the league. Someone who doesn’t get obsessed with pretty football. If you’re struggling, you want to make the game simple. You don’t want to overplay.”
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