Sean Dyche, Everton’s head coach, has urged his team to “play with a smile” despite a dismal start to the current Premier League season.
On Saturday, the Toffees will travel to face London club Brentford (winless in their past three), who have not won any of their first five league games.
Despite the recent harsh publicity the club has seen both on and off the field, Dyche is eager for his squad to once again enjoy playing football.
The manager stated at a news conference that many of these players have grown used to the negative talk around Everton for a considerable amount of time.
“You don’t want to become used to receiving terrible news, but ultimately you do. However, as I said, we must modify that aspect of it. We want the feel-good element at camp, and we can modify it every day.
“You have to work hard when you get to the club, be committed, and take care of yourself outside of the club. But being a real professional comes with its share of fun.
As a result, in my opinion, you still need to play with a grin on your face. I believe we have demonstrated this this season.
“That satisfaction may come from playing extremely well, and when teams play well, there is that togetherness and feel-good aspect, but you have to earn it and fight for it, and we spoke to the players about that.
Early in the season, Everton experienced a number of injury worries, with players including Seamus Coleman, Dele Alli, Jack Harrison, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and Dwight McNeil losing playing time.
Defender James Tarkowski has been a constant throughout the whole 2017–18 campaign, and Dyche praised the professionalism of his center-back.
The most important factor, according to him, is that he has participated in every minute of every Premier League game, which speaks for itself in terms of his own professional well-being.
“Since I signed him all those years ago, he has grown as a center-half. not just on the field, but also off the field.
He’s a huge person physically and figuratively, and he has the guts to block shots, something I worked endlessly on with the group at Burnley and now with this group, different characters of course, but the same principle of making blocks and stopping crosses. He’s a really excellent player, and we know that.
