The Premier League's top team, Arsenal, will visit Goodison Park the following Saturday, marking the beginning of Sean Dyche's tenure as Everton's manager.
It is appropriate that Dyche starts Everton's recovery process with the most difficult challenge of the year because facing an Arsenal team that has suffered just one league loss all year will serve as a swift and stinging reminder of the enormous challenge he has undertaken.
Everton currently sits in 19th place in the Premier League with only three victories and 15 points from 20 games. Off the field, there is also unrest and toxic behavior, with supporters calling for the removal of the club's board and protesting against owner Farhad Moshiri.
What are the main responsibilities facing Dyche, the newest manager of Everton, given that his in-tray will be overflowing?
Everton must be repaired by Dyche.
While getting results on the field will be Dyche's top priority, part of achieving that will be attempting to be the leader and a strong personality who can somehow bring unity to a team where rebellion is in the air and supporters are calling for changes despite yet another season of adversity.
The majority of the Everton faithful continued to back Frank Lampard, Dyche's predecessor, and reserved their wrath for club owner Moshiri and the board of directors, particularly chairman Bill Kenwright and chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale.
Due to security concerns, the board, which also includes former playing great Graeme Sharp and finance director Grant Ingles, announced they would not be attending Everton's final home game against Southampton. However, large-scale fan protests continued to take place.
They witnessed Lampard's final match, a 2-0 loss at West Ham. Although it would be absurd even by Everton standards if the board were not present at a new manager's first game in charge, it is unknown whether they will return against Arsenal.
A big asset is Dyche's strong personality. He uses straightforward, relatable language that Everton supporters can identify with. There should be no fantasy, exaggeration, or romantic notions.
It will be essential for Everton to engineer this shift in attitude as they battle for Premier League survival.
Goals can be found wherever, asks Dyche.
Dyche inherits an Everton team with many issues, but the most significant one is a recurring inability to score goals—just 15 have been scored in the Premier League so far this season. Only Wolves have a worse record.
Richarlison, a Brazilian forward and Everton's talisman, left for Tottenham for £60 million, but the club was unable to find a replacement, and the wager on Dominic Calvert-Lewin staying healthy was unsuccessful. Despite costing £12 million, Neal Maupay from Brighton has not had much of an impact.
If Everton wants to have any chance of escaping trouble, Dyche will need to address that issue quickly. Prior to the transfer window's closure in January, time is running out.
He will also experience the comfort of operating within rigid boundaries. After a largely wasteful £500 million or more transfer spending spree, Everton won't have much money to spend because they must abide by Financial Fair Play regulations.
Everton believed they had secured a loan for Villarreal forward Arnaut Danjuma while Lampard was still in charge. However, a delay allowed Spurs to intervene and sabotage the plan, so Dyche will either need to come up with his own solutions or hope that director of football Kevin Thelwell can provide other alternatives. as well as quickly deliver them.
find a lost winning mentality.
Everton's soft spots, which have them appearing even more vulnerable to relegation this season than when they only avoided it in their penultimate league game the previous campaign, are nothing new to Dyche.
He's not just familiar with it—while at Burnley, he made a point of bringing it up in public.
At halftime of a pivotal relegation match against Everton in April at Turf Moor, the Clarets were down 2-1. Dyche later discussed what he had said to his players to spur a comeback and a 3-2 victory.
I don't think these guys know how to win a game, especially away from home, I said to them at halftime, he recalled. " .
Dyche's assertion was validated by Everton.
After losing three straight games at Goodison Park to fellow struggler Wolverhampton Wanderers and bottom-place Southampton, with a 4-1 thrashing by Brighton sandwiched in between, the statistics suggest Everton still does not know, with the issue present both at home and away.
Because of this, Dyche has replaced Lampard.
Dyche must get started right away.
All decisions are even more time-sensitive for a manager who has just entered the building because the transfer window is about to close and one significant Everton outgoing is about to happen.
Dyche will at least have some spending money because Newcastle United has agreed to pay £40 million for 21-year-old Anthony Gordon of Everton in a deal that could eventually be worth £45 million.
Even before Dyche arrived, Gordon's relocation was well on its way to completion, though it is likely that it was discussed and approved before Dyche arrived.
Although one difficulty will be potential selling clubs knowing Everton's new manager has that money, the amount of transfer cash for a player who was coveted by Chelsea in the summer may help Dyche apply a quick-fix for some of his problems over the next few days.
The three members of his new squad who have moved from Turf Moor to Goodison Park will be waiting for him when he arrives at Everton's Finch Farm training facility.
James Tarkowski, a defender, and Dwight McNeil, a winger, both arrived in the summer in deals worth a combined £20 million. Tarkowski began strong but has fallen off, while McNeil has simply not adjusted yet, only occasionally having an impact.
It's interesting to note that Lampard effectively shut out former England defender Michael Keane, who thrived under Dyche at Burnley before signing for Everton for £25 million in the summer of 2017. Only three games across all competitions have he appeared in.
In January, there was talk of Keane leaving Everton. Will that situation now change?
The main ideas of Dyche.
The majority of Everton supporters who are realistic about the current situation and acknowledge that Marcelo Bielsa may have been a more exciting choice, but the new manager is pragmatic and has experience in the circumstances he has taken on, have welcomed Dyche's appointment.
He will convey to those fans that he wants Everton to be a hard-working team with a strong work ethic, showing heart and fight while spreading that culture throughout the organization.
He will have to infuse that into an Everton team that has displayed very little of those traits this year, which is a problem.
With the game at home against Arsenal and the trip to Anfield for the Merseyside derby, Dyche has a challenging first phase. His stock will immediately increase if he performs well in one of those games or both.
He will give Everton supporters the straight dope, but his belief in his own, often underrated, coaching skills and experience will also give them new hope that they can find a way out of the pitiful position they currently find themselves in.
Dyche will not be intimidated by what lies ahead, and he will convey this to the supporters who are currently searching for any kind of assurance that there is light at the end of what has been a very dark tunnel for Everton.
