What Sean Dyche said in Finch Farm team meetings as Everton boss responds to speculation

Everton’s first point of the Premier League followed tough conversations at Finch Farm about the challenges facing the squad after a miserable start to the campaign. Sean Dyche said he was aware of the “question marks” inspired by four straight Premier League defeats and had tackled the situation with his squad ahead of the trip to Leicester City.

Pointing to the challenges already overcome during his 20 months on Merseyside - in which he has twice steered the club to survival in the face of adversity - he said there was an acceptance “no-one is going to look after us, we have to look after ourselves”.

Against that backdrop, he took hope from the display at the King Power, where Everton were once again unable to hold onto a lead but were the better side for much of the game and earned a hard-fought draw after a week in which illness had struck an already injury-hit squad.

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It was, he thought, a performance that took courage and suggested his players had the mentality to grow from the foundation laid in the Midlands.

Of the draw, which saw Stephy Mavididi’s second half strike cancel out Iliman Ndiaye’s clever opener, he said: “I think that is a point gained, because first of all we needed a point or three, obviously, and because of the positivity and the performance. They are hard yards at the minute. There are loads of question marks over myself, the players, lots of noise, lots of negativity shrouding the situation and it's difficult for players.

“But I thought there's a real confidence in our play today, a real belief in our play today, and some very good performances. That shows the mentality is right. We mentioned it to the group and said ‘no-one is going to look after us, we have to look after ourselves’. We have to support ourselves and each other. We've come through these situations in my 20 months and probably before that, but I can only count for my 20 months. I've come through these situations when it has been hard yards many times, and now we've got to do it again. That's a mini step, as I said, but that's a positive mini-step in my opinion.”