Despite what his detractors would have you believe, there was more to Sean Dyche’s Burnley than long balls and set-pieces.
And while The Clarets often ranked towards the bottom of the Premier League’s possession table, the fact that Ashley Westwood was part of the Turf Moor furniture for so many years highlights a side of that Burnley team which often went unnoticed or ignored.
One of the top-flight’s most underrated midfielders during his time in claret-and-blue, Westwood was the man who made Dyche’s Burnley tick, orchestrating proceedings from his deep-lying role.
“He’s very important,” Dyche said of Westwood, likened to Michael Carrick by his former Aston Villa bosses Tim Sherwood and Paul Lambert, back in 2021 (Burnley Express).
“When we got him here I think he was just playing slightly within the game I think he’s got. Now he’s got his shoulders back and delivers everything. He passes forward, he’s got a tremendous passing ability, and he’s a top professional.
“I think he’s a top-class player.”
Everton can sign their own Ashley Westwood
The midfield options Dyche inherited from Frank Lampard at Everton, meanwhile, are high on tenacity but arguably lacking in technique. Amadou Onana and Abdoulaye Doucoure have the athleticism and ball-carrying ability to drive forward, turning defence into attack, but are not the most adventurous of passers. James Garner, meanwhile, does not yet seem ready for the rigours of the Premier League.
Reports suggesting that Dennis Geiger could become the first signing of the Dyche era at Goodison Park, then, perhaps highlights an awareness of the fact that something a little different is required the centre of the park. Geiger, BILD reporter Christian Falk tells Caught Offside, is a ‘serious’ target; his Hoffenheim contract expiring in July.
Geiger, like Westwood at Burnley, is not the sort of player used to hogging the headlines. He won’t fly through the air and thump a header into the back of the net like Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Or go on one of those inspiring, marauding runs a la Amadou Onana. But, with Everton often struggling to maintain possession and build play effectively through the middle, Geiger’s arrival could be integral to the club’s evolution into a more rounded, versatile team under Dyche.
Dennis Geiger ‘can be like Joshua Kimmich’
“He’s a real live-wire on the pitch. With improvement, he can be like (Bayern Munich’s) Joshua Kimmich,” former team-mate Sandro Wagner tells the Bundesliga website.
Geiger averages a pass completion rate of 86 per cent in Germany’s top flight; higher than that of Everton’s existing midfielders (WhoScored). According to Sport1, he was on the radar of Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola back in 2019; arguably world football’s most possession-obsessed tactician.
Geiger passes the eye test too. Those trademark raking balls from deep eerily reminiscent of Westwood in his Turf Moor prime. A midfield three of Geiger, Onana and Doucoure, meanwhile, feels nicely balanced, a mix of contrasting attributes.
Westwood’s £5 million arrival from Aston Villa in 2017 was one of the most inspired pieces of business in the Dyche era at Burnley. One day, we could be saying the same of Geiger at Goodison.
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