Sean Dyche has hailed both match-winner Dwight McNeil and Everton’s fans for enabling the player to turn things around in what has been a difficult debut season at Goodison Park.
McNeil’s fine strike against Brentford after just 35 seconds, which even drew plaudits from opposition manager Thomas Frank, proved enough to secure a 1-0 win for Everton and the winger was later his side’s hero at the other end, clearing Ethan Pinnock’s goal-bound header off the line, scooping the highest mark in the ECHO’s player ratings.
Dyche, who handed McNeil his debut at Burnley as an 18-year-old, is delighted with how the Rochdale-born winger has enjoyed a revival in fortunes since the pair were reunited after what had been a tough campaign for him since his £20million transfer from Turf Moor last summer.
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He said: “I don’t look at it like a player is measured by goals, but the game often does and the noise around the game. I want wide players to work, and to play as well. I ask a big shift of every player, but that should be the expectation of football anyway, no matter what position you’re in.
“He’s finding the balance, I think. He’s got talent, we know that, I’ve worked with him since he was a youngster and he’s got natural talent, but also adaptive talent. He’s worked hard at his game, he’s put in the hard yards, and that pays you back with the supporters.
“Especially fans like Everton supporters, they won’t accept a lack of work, and Dwight has adapted himself very quickly to that, but has also shown his quality, and that’s hard. It’s a big move, some players can be affected by that, the team not doing well and all the noise around it.”
Dyche added: “Credit to the fans, they can get stuck (negatively) on a player. They haven’t here – they’ve gone ‘alright, let’s see what he can do’. That’s fair play to the fans because sometimes they can get something stuck in their head and can’t let it go.
“Now they are fully supportive of him. Credit to his mentality to keep going, keep working on it.
“I insist on it, because the way I look at it, it’s hard to flick a switch in football and just turn up every week and turn it on. If you’re training right, it becomes normal, you go out there and you’re ready to go – you don’t have to flick a switch.”
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