Everton sickness bug explained as Sean Dyche makes admission over selection crisis

Sean Dyche said he had just 12 fit outfield players to choose from for the Carabao Cup defeat to Southampton. The Blues boss said illness struck a camp already blighted by injuries.

The issues left him without Vitalii Mykolenko, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and James Garner at short notice, forcing him to change his plans on the morning of the match.

Despite those absences - and a back injury ruling out James Tarkowski and personal issue leading to Idrissa Gueye’s absence - Everton created enough chances to win this match before the penalty shootout that ended it in disappointment.

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The hosts had taken the lead through captain for the night Abdoulaye Doucoure and Beto and Jesper Lindstrom had excellent chances to add to that lead. Once again, Everton surrendered the advantage, however, Taylor Harwood-Bellis heading his side level before the break.

Lindstrom came close to a winner in the second half but, once again, Everton failed to make their chances count and were left ruing that lack of ruthlessness when Ashley Young shot at Alex McCarthy with the penalty shootout in sudden death.

Speaking after the match, Dyche was eager to find positives from a patched up side that came close to finding a route to victory. But he conceded it was a game he had sought to win.

He said: “We wanted to win the game, and we haven’t done, albeit going to penalties, which is always a tricky one. But from the team point of view, after piecing together a team this morning with three players going down ill overnight then I feel we’ve given as good as we can get with the players available.

"We have got 12 outfield players currently fit, or not ill, so we had to piece that together this morning and deliver a performance I thought could win, especially with the chances we created - I know that has been a challenge even before my time, taking the chances that kill a game, and we haven’t done that tonight, but a lot of the performance was right enough to win a game."