Dyche's stubborness hurting Everton and things must change this weekend

Everton collapsed to their worst defeat in years at Stamford Bridge and while the scoreline itself was obviously bad enough, it was the manner of the defeat that was also particularly worrying.

While he has been rightly criticized for his lack of attacking intent and the team's chronic problems scoring goals, Sean Dyche's sides, particularly away from home, have at least usually been fairly competitive and solid defensively, not conceding too many.

None of that was true at Chelsea on Monday night of course.

And along with their worst display of this and arguably many a season - and one littered with costly individual errors - came an injury to the side's best player as Jarrad Branthwaite went off early in the second half.

He had like everyone else endured a nightmare of an evening but losing the young centre-back - who has been a revelation so far this campaign and recently got a full England call-up - is a huge blow.

Along with so many others I have constantly been urging Dyche to look at different tactics and formations in an attempt to improve the Blues offensive threat over the last few months especially.

But week after week has gone by with the Toffees enduring a record thirteen matches without a win and instead he doggedly stuck to his preferred 4-4-1-1 set-up both home and away.

Against Burnley Everton somehow managed to get ahead but then sat back and allowed their opponents who were down to ten men, to get back into the game and nearly equalise.

Then at Stamford Bridge the Toffees played a higher line and failed to defend properly and got seriously caught out doing so by a much better team.

This strange approach is really hurting the Blues and has almost certainly cost the team precious points that might well prove critical at the end of the season.

Now with the potential absence of Branthwaite, Dyche has a further opportunity to experiment a little and consider some alternative to his approach.

So, another plea for change and perhaps the manager will finally recognise that a new attitude is necessary to ensure Everton can everything possible to avoid another final day scenario like last season.