Sean Dyche overruled Dominic Calvert-Lewin and told the striker to come off after he suffered a potential groin problem against Manchester City. Speaking after the defeat to Man City,
Sean Dyche explained: “I had to make a call on it because he felt his groin. It’s a tight groin but tight groins can lead to damaged groins so I had to make a call on it, simple as that. It would have been a harder call if it had been 0-0 but at 2-0 I have to make a call and I said: ‘Right Dom, you’re coming off.’ He wanted to give it a go and I said: ‘No, no, no, you’ve got to come off.’”
Dyche withdrew Idrissa Gueye in the early stages of the second half,
Sean Dyche explained: “We were just trying to protect the situation by then.” Mason Holgate was also taken off at the same time, the double substitution also part of an effort to change shape with Everton moving to three centre backs and Dwight McNeil playing as a left wing-back.
Holgate had started after Vitalii Mykolenko picked up a thigh injury in the final training session ahead of this game, while neither Tom Davies nor Ben Godfrey were in the squad.
Sean Dyche said: “Tom hopefully will settle down this week. Ben we will wait and see but he is not ready. Myko we will wait and see.”