Sean Dyche trying to move Everton mindset away from focus on survival

By Carl Markham, PA

Everton manager Sean Dyche insists the mindset he has tried to create within the dressing room is not to think the club are trying to escape relegation.

The former Burnley boss has tried to put a positive spin on their precarious position, only outside the bottom three on goal difference, and is avoiding focusing on one particular issue.

Dyche kept the Clarets safe for five successive seasons in the top flight before his dismissal shortly before their relegation a year ago, so he has the know-how but said there was nothing he could offer his players to help deal with the pressure.

“I don’t think it’s advice, it’s a day-to-day working environment and how we go about it,” he said.

“There is not one bit of advice, it is about the mentality on a daily basis and taking that into games.

“We work at a certain level in training, we want that to go into every game we play and finding those consistencies I’ve been speaking about for weeks.

“I don’t think I’ve had to escape it (relegation) many times. I don’t think we are (trying to escape) now, we are just planning on not being in there.

“It’s a different mindset for me and the work we do and the work to progress where we want to be and I think that work is in progress.”

The club’s current four-match unbeaten run is their best stretch since October but face Manchester United at Old Trafford, where they have not won since 2013, on Saturday.

They head into the game off the back of a 1-1 draw at home to Tottenham on Monday and having dealt relatively well with one team with an in-form striker in Harry Kane, Dyche is confident they can do the same with United and Marcus Rashford.

“We had the same in the build-up to the Tottenham game with Harry Kane, it’s not just about one player,” he added.

“He (Rashford) is a very good player of course but they have a number of very good players.

“They have had a few ups and downs but they are still a group of very good players. They were flying then a big result goes against them (losing 7-0 at Liverpool) and then everyone makes a story out that.

“The thing I’ve learned about the Premier League is you can look at the opposition, make all the stories around it, but at the end of the day it comes down to the whistle blowing and you being ready.

“We’ve got to be ready, we have to be clear-minded in what we need to do to go to a place like Old Trafford and deliver.”