There have been concerns over the performances at Everton over the past two weeks, and Jesper Lindstrom’s recent comments highlight that concern.
Sean Dyche has done remarkably well to pull Everton out of the whole they found themselves in after the first four games, but the signs over the last two games suggest things are reverting back.
The Toffees were lucky to escape with a point against Fulham as the Cottagers dominated throughout, only for Beto to net a late equaliser at Goodison Park.
Last time out against Southampton was a day to forget for Sean Dyche, as his decision not to start Jarrad Branthwaite has almost turned the fans against him.
Sadly, the performance on the whole was poor, with 34% possession, mistakes and a lack of potency in front of goal resulting in a difficult afternoon.
Jesper Lindstrom wasn’t best pleased with the performance and highlighted his frustration after the match, which isn’t quite the reaction that Sean Dyche had.
Jesper Lindstrom contradicts Sean Dyche with honest post-Southampton comments
Jesper Lindstrom was far from pleased with his side’s efforts at Southampton, and you can’t blame him after witnessing the first-half performance.
Speaking after the game, Lindstrom said this about the Southampton result.
“S**t! Sorry. We want to win games, we want to win points, we want to win games like this. It’s not good enough. Overall we have to demand more of each other. We have to train hard, we have to keep going.
“The first half especially was not good enough, was not what we expected. We are a much better team than we showed.
“The second half was better we were running more, fighting more, creating chances. I think we deserved at least a point with all the chances but on the other hand I don’t think we deserved it because I know we can play much better than we did.
“In the first half, we were too far from each other. From my perspective, my touches were not great.
“It was better in the second half. We created good chances receiving the ball high but didn’t have the last part, the shot.”
However, Dyche portrayed different feelings after the game, as he said this in his post-match comments.
“A drive to come down here and dominate, which we have in the sense of chances,” Dyche explained.
“You don’t need to dominate these games with the ball because with all due respect to Southampton, they have a lot of the ball but I don’t think they really opened us up too much, I wasn’t really worried today about being opened up.
“I can’t honestly remember (Jordan) Pickford being stretched at all, hardly. So our shape was good, the energy was good to win the ball back and we won it in so many key spaces, my frustration is not making the most of that.”
The visible disconnect at Everton right now
Jesper Lindstrom was open and honest with his response to the game, identifying just how bad it was in the first-half and the improvements that needed to be made.
However, you would have thought Everton dominated the game judging by Dyche’s response, as he brought up the fact Pickford was hardly stretched.
The one point he brings up about the shape says it all, as there were times in the first-half where James Tarkowski was being dragged out of position and gaps started opening up.
Lindstrom even raised this as an issue himself, stating that the players were too far apart, which caused big issues.
Whilst the performance wasn’t absolutely horrendous, it’s concerning to see such a disconnect in reaction to performances like this, as Dyche actually seems happy with what went on.
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