Everton: Dyche should be ‘absolutely furious’ about Brighton clash – Horne
BBC Sport pundit wants Sean Dyche to be ‘absolutely furious’ about what happened in Everton vs Brighton clash
Barry Horne hopes that Sean Dyche will have been “absolutely furious” with his Everton defence over the disallowed Lewis Dunk goal for Brighton at Goodison Park.
The former Toffees midfielder was speaking live on the BBC Radio Merseyside coverage of the game on 4 November after a tight offside call had ruled out the equaliser from the Seagulls captain after a quarter of an hour, following a VAR review.
Dunk was left unmarked in the box from a right-wing free kick to volley home off the bar in a worrying repeat of previous goals conceded this season and Horne hoped the manager would be tearing into his players over their “Achilles heel” to stop it happening again.
Horne said (3.48pm): “That’s been Everton’s Achilles heel hasn’t it? And even though it was chalked off Sean Dyche will be, I hope he’ll be, absolutely furious.
“They’ve got lucky that Dunk’s made his run a little bit too early.”
He added at the break (3.51pm): “Sean Dyche will be really disappointed, yet again, to conceded from that free kick. It was nothing special about that free kick, just poor marking.”
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Weak point
In what was largely a very competent Everton performance in the first half of the 1-1 draw with a possession-heavy Brighton side the good work could have been thrown away from a set piece.
The disallowed goal was reminiscent of the Luton Town strike from Carlton Morris on 30 September, in what was the worst result for the club in the recent run of games.
For a side that is increasingly starting to embody the Dyche values of tough defensive steel it is a concerning back door to leave open for teams to swing over a simple cross towards the far post and players can waltz into the area unmarked.
Scorer of the opener against Brighton, Vitalii Mykolenko, was panned for the Morris goal for Luton and it may have been Ashley Young’s responsibility to cover Dunk, but it is difficult to tell which individual is at fault in each case.
It is a deficiency that has to be addressed as a unit, with James Tarkowski also responsible for organising his back line to defend simple set pieces.
There is a lot to like about Everton in action of late so it would be a huge waste to throw the positive developments away in such needless fashion and Dyche is sure to be extremely annoyed about it just as Horne suggests.
Brighton’s equaliser ultimately came in very fortunate fashion as it looped over Jordan Pickford via a deflection of Ashley Young, and the manager would surely accept something that can’t be legislated for like that from his side than the goal they escaped earlier in the game.
