Shortly before kick-off at Tottenham Stadium, Everton’s players gathered near the touchline. Captain James Tarkowski nodded.
It was a call for peace and tranquility that fell on deaf ears in their 4-0 defeat.
It was an inauspicious start for Everton. They lost their first two games, scored seven times and are yet to score. It was their worst start to a Premier League campaign after two games.
They played both games in front of empty seats. Anxiety is growing among fans who want to avoid a fourth successive relegation battle.
Manager Sean Dyche last week described Everton as an “extreme” place where you go from “hero to zero” in a short space of time. “It’s either ‘Yeah, you’re amazing’ or ‘You’re rubbish’,” he said, perhaps his own call for calm.
This message was echoed in the visiting dressing room and in his press conference after the Tottenham defeat. “This is a strange situation. I told them we were going to build something, so we had to go down the hill to remember the challenge,” he said.
Dyche lamented the slow start and cited how his players backed Yves Bissouma in Tottenham’s opening game as an example of their hesitant attitude. Asked to explain this timid opening, he spoke of the lack of key players. “They look around and say, ‘Where are all our regular players?’”
Dyche struggles to find answers to Everton’s various problems (David Rodgers/Getty Images)
Everton are resilient. With Jarrad Branthwaite, James Garner and club captain Seamus Coleman among the sidelines, Dyche had just 15 senior outfield players for the trip to the capital.
Tim Iroegbunam only made a handful of Premier League appearances for his former club Aston Villa but quickly established himself in a key midfield role. Roman Dixon, 19, made his debut at right-back with 17-year-old Harrison Armstrong coming off the bench.
There is an element of bad luck here, but it doesn’t seem to matter to Dyche’s side. A chronic lack of investment has left them far behind most of their peers in terms of quality and depth.
Caught in a perpetual period of ownership uncertainty, they are one of only three Premier League sides to have made a combined profit from player trading over the past five years. They made the biggest profits over this period.
While opening-day rivals Brighton and Hove Albion will spend £200m ($264m) this summer, Everton have used loans and structured deals to delay transfer fees. Tottenham are in a completely different stratosphere with their new stadium and record revenues. This disparity in resources is laid bare.
Dixon performed well on his debut and was praised by his team-mates and Dyche, but the concern is that individual errors have come from experienced bosses – from Idrissa Gui in the 1-0 defeat to Brighton with the game on the line and from goalkeeper Jordan Pickford away to Spurs 1-0 when he gifted the ball to Son Heung-min in front of an empty net.
The instability on the one hand is compounded by the lack of a threatening goal on the other. Everton’s expected goals in their opening games was 1.3. Like last season, they missed opportunities but mostly lacked cohesion and ideas behind main striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
The striker, whose contractual status remains unresolved in the final year of his deal, has been left isolated as Dyche has lost further depth alongside him. His backs, including Abdoulaye Doukour, have not caught fire. Both issues need to be addressed urgently.
It’s still early days, but Dyche has yet to find a formula that fits or disfits among the available options.
Branthwaite’s loss of pace left them between the two seats. They pressed against Brighton but were vulnerable in defence. They sat deeper against Spurs but left Calvert-Lewin out.
Important questions also remain in the final third.
Dyche has opted to bring in new signings, but this is the same tired and timid attack that struggled in last season’s opener. The need for modernisation is clear.
Calls for new signings Iliman Ndiaye and Jesper Lindstrom to combine quickly to provide much-needed dynamism and invention.
Ndiaye ruled out of Tottenham due to injury (David Rodgers/Getty Images)
Ndiaye has been seen as a potential solution in the No. 1 role, but in his substitute appearances for Spurs, he has curiously been playing on the left wing, with Dwight McNeill moving inside. Dyche said afterwards that he would pick Ndiaye in any position behind Calvert-Lewin and that Everton were lacking pace and skill there.
Doucoure looks more vulnerable if he decides to go the other way. But Dyche must decide whether he wants to ditch his tactical comfort – the more hard-working, defensive Doucoure – in favour of something more advanced.
At least some form of help is on the way. Dyche is hopeful that Coleman and Garner will be back in training this week, but Branthwaite will be out for “a bit longer”.
It is unclear whether help will come in the form of new signings. Dyche reiterated that Everton do not have the money to “turn things around”.
They are still in the market for a central midfielder and only have one international available in teenager Armstrong. They are also likely to focus on full-back options.
The sad reality of the first two games is that Everton did not look mature and did not look like a competitive Premier League team.
The good news is that they have 36 games to change that.
Even at this early stage, they need a change of momentum and drive.