‘I did suggest’: Sean Dyche shares exactly what he said to Everton at half-time against Aston Villa

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Sean Dyche has explained what he told his Everton players at half-time to influence a quality second half display last night.

Speaking to evertontv, the Toffees boss admitted that he made sure the team were prepared for Aston Villa to change something after a very poor opening 45 minutes from the hosts.

After putting on their best performance of the season when they beat Brentford in the Premier League at the weekend, Everton picked up where they left off at Villa Park and could have easily been at least a couple of goals up at half-time.

Instead, James Garner’s goal proved to be the difference and the Toffees were tasked with retaining their lead in the second half, which they managed to do brilliantly despite Boubacar Kamara scoring in the 83rd minute.

Dyche was very impressed with his team in the Midlands and revealed he discussed the potential changes that Villa could make at half-time, which he admitted he thought they handled very well.

“I did suggest to the team at half time, I said they’re going to change something,” Dyche said.

“Their tempo wasn’t their normal tempo… so whether they play quicker, whether they play stronger, whether they get the ball forward quicker and as it happened they did try to do that but I thought we soaked it up well.”

Everton were very impressive against Aston Villa

Despite Villa dominating possession throughout, Everton limited them to only three shots on target and four corners.

Unai Emery’s side were forced to bring on the likes of Kamara, Ollie Watkins and Nicolo Zaniolo, however an impressive defensive display kept them out of bay.

Dyche opted for a three-man defence against Villa, though fans can probably expert him to return to a pairing of James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite against Luton Town.

Everton will be eager to pick up three points at the weekend before they take on Bournemouth next week. Meanwhile, Dyche has a reunion with Burnley in the Carabao Cup fourth round to look forward to in October.