The shape of things to come
Deploying a 4-4-2 formation was Sean Dyche’s bread and butter for almost a decade in charge of Burnley but if ever there was a reminder that what works for the Clarets does not necessarily work for the Blues then the last couple of matches have provided it in the most sobering of fashion.
Everton went to Old Trafford unbeaten in four games but without Abdoulaye Doucoure who had proven so effective as an extra man in the middle since Dyche took charge, they abandoned the 4-5-1 tactic that up until that point, they’d started every fixture with throughout his tenure. Although given something of a chasing by a fleet-footed Manchester United, with the need to be on the front foot against Fulham, Dyche, whose coaching methods are understood to be heavily based around shape, continued with the experiment of playing two up top here but it became quickly apparent that things weren’t working again.
