Ruben Vinagre’s Everton career looks over after manager Sean Dyche confirmed the player is facing a prolonged period on the sidelines while also addressing his side’s poor away form.
Having known Vinagre from his time at Wolverhampton Wanderers, Everton director of football Kevin Thelwell snapped up the former Portuguese Under-21 international on a season-long loan from Sporting CP last summer when Frank Lampard was manager. There was an option to buy included in the deal but the left-back has played just 24 minutes of Premier League football this term in a brace of substitute appearances – 20 minutes against Chelsea on the opening day and then four minutes at Brentford later in August.
Vinagre’s only other outings have been a brace of Carabao Cup starts at Fleetwood Town at Bournemouth and he hasn’t been included in the first team squad since he was last on the bench at Nottingham Forest on March 5. Dyche said: “He’s got an injury and unfortunately it’s going to keep him out for some time. He may need surgery, we’re not sure yet, he’s seeing the specialist so that decision will be made pretty imminently I think.”
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Everton, who go to Crystal Palace on Saturday, have four of their seven remaining Premier League fixtures away from home but have won just once on the road this term. Out of the 17 clubs to have competed in the Premier League for both of the last two seasons, they have the fewest away wins (three, less than half the number of the next worst club) and have accumulated the fewest points on their travels.
Asked about Everton’s issues when playing away from Goodison Park, Dyche said: “It’s a bit different here because I’ve walked into a situation where the record hasn’t been great for a couple of seasons. It’s more a case of working out with the players here.
“For sure it’s tactical but it’s also a mentality thing, you’ve got players who have to be ready as if it’s a home game and deliver like it’s a home game. Some players find that more tricky than others because of home support of course but generally speaking it’s a mental shift.
“There are some guidelines to it about tactics and teams having home records because it’s not just your away record of course, some teams have very strong home records but at the end of the day it’s the mentality for me and taking on the challenge. The noise has been long enough now and people say ‘they can’t do this away, they can’t do that away’ so I remind the players and say ‘let’s change that noise, let’s change that story.’
“It’s only us who can change it, you can’t just wait for some sort of magic dust to make it change, it’s down to us as a collective force to make it happen so that’s certainly what I’ve been relaying to the players – not waiting for things to happen. Let’s go and make it happen, let’s go and change the rhetoric and the story.”
When asked what Everton were looking to change in a bid to improve their away form, Dyche said: “Training plans, travel plans, eating plans, beds, all sorts of different things, we’re trying to look for everything. But at the end of the day, you can put all that aside because when the whistle blows, that’s the key.
“I’ve been with enough teams, worked with enough teams, travelled on the day of games, travelled the day before the game, travelled two days before a game. At the end of the day when the whistle blows, the mentality has to be right for everyone to be pushing hard to go out and win.”
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