Liverpool Echo columnist Joe Thomas believes journalists and commentators should abandon the notion that Everton are on a roll in response to a “brutal” 10-point deduction.
In an article headed “Lazy Everton points deduction claim does Sean Dyche and his players a disservice – and potentially much worse” (December 16), Thomas believes the Toffees’ reaction to the punishment – imposed for a violation of profit and sustainability standards – has been “extraordinary.”
However, he said that Everton, who have won three consecutive Premier League games to put a four-point cushion between themselves and the bottom three, had been playing well for a long time before this run, and that the idea that their improved performances are a result of their punishment is a false and unfair narrative.
“Everton’s impressive form is not the result of the club’s harsh 10-point deduction.” “Let us be clear on that,” he wrote.
“The players’ and those around them’s reactions have been extraordinary, but what has been impressive is their professional ability to maintain what they were already doing.” Performances have not been energized by hardship; rather, they have persisted in the face of it. This is significant for a number of reasons.
“One of them is that it would be incorrect for an outside narrative to emerge that the potentially crippling sanction ended up being a positive for the club.” We must be clear: 10 points will most likely stall growth, hold it back, cost millions in merit rewards, and force it to work even harder to become financially sustainable, which is meant to be the goal of the profit and sustainability standards.”
Untrue narrative
This, this, this, and this once more. Thomas couldn’t be more correct in his assessment of the reaction to the Toffees’ recent improvement in outcomes.
Under Dyche, especially this season, performance levels have been on the rise, even if results have not always rewarded the team’s efforts with the points they deserved.
What has happened in recent games is that Everton have earned those benefits by combining good performances with better finishing and more diligent defending, finally receiving the advantages that they did not necessarily receive earlier in the season.
To claim that the points deduction has galvanized the team would be a disrespect to what Dyche and the players have been doing. Is there a unifying aspect as a result of it? Of course, the audience has been fantastic since the punishment was imposed and has backed the players on the field admirably.
But to attribute the improvement in results purely to it is, frankly, ludicrous.
In other Everton news, a 777 executive has described what transpired during a lengthy meeting with Dyche at Finch Farm.
