As Everton prepares for a double blow, Sean Dyche may have given away his January strategy.

Sean Dyche said he was exploring alternative ways to set up his side after the win at Aston Villa – recent home form may act as the catalyst for change this weekend

Sean Dyche’s favoured central midfield could be under threat as he searches for a way to end Everton’s home form.

The Blues face an important match against Bournemouth on Saturday, going into it having lost all four matches at Goodison Park so far this season.

Dyche was left struggling to make sense of the difficulty his side is having on home turf after another defeat at the weekend. Once again Everton created opportunities they failed to take and were punished for lapses at the back. This came despite two wins, based on impressive performances, in the week prior to the match with Luton Town.

Dyche experimented in the midweek victory at Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup and a second half of switches against Luton may have provided alternative ideas to his preferred 4-5-1. From a longer term perspective his positive words around Andre Gomes suggest he could be considered for a role when he is fit while any tweaks could also form part of a strategy to handle what could be a difficult start to 2024.

Dyche acknowledged his desire to explore new approaches following the win at Villa, citing the need to find different ways of posing challenges to opponents with a squad that has little depth. In that game he made five changes and tweaked the formation used in the win at Brentford in the Premier League days earlier. Everton lined up with five at the back and a central midfield of Amadou Onana and James Garner at Villa Park. That setup had been picked ahead of 4-4-2, which Dyche also considered. As they chased the game against Luton, Garner was moved into the middle with Idrissa Gueye taken off at the break.

Speaking after the Villa game, Dyche acknowledged he has a relatively small squad and the tactical switch came from a desire to explore alternative options to his typical approach. He explained: “I spoke to the group about the mentality of the squad, not just the eleven that is picked, and I was pleased with that because they have got to be adaptable and flexible, which they were, because we only had a couple of days to work on a change of formation. But equally, I said to the players before the game, tactics is one thing but the will,

desire, the body language and the intent to deliver it is the next thing and is the most important thing so I was pleased with that combination of picking a team and working on it. My staff have done brilliantly as well because they were thinking about this formation and ‘should we, shouldn’t we’, because we were also looking at playing the two strikers. So you take the risk and the reward scenario of changing it over a two day period and getting a very good performance and a very good win, so that is pleasing from the staff and player point of view.”