The words, as always, were positive. Sean Dyche is a clever man and has spent enough time in industries outside of football, picking up lessons in leadership, to know it doesn’t pay to heap negativity on negativity.
Everton, the Premier League’s lowest scorers, had slithered back into the relegation zone after allowing a game they could have won — and certainly worked hard enough to win — to be wrested from their grasp. They had the opportunities to score but, true to form, didn’t take them.
Everton haven’t found the net more than once in a match since October 22 and in the 12 games that have followed that visit from Crystal Palace, their numbers have been binary: 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0.