Two things Dyche must consider now to turn around Everton season

1. Change tactics, especially at home.

I may be sounding like broken record on this one but it really is time to recognise that clearly the Toffees won't win football matches and stay up if they cannot score goals.

There are now twelve games left of the Premier League season for the Blues to save themselves, yet again.

And as we all know, the club can't rely on their appeal against November's points deduction to be successful in clawing back many, if any, of the points taken away.

Five wins and a couple of draws would anyway probably be more than enough to secure top flight football again next season, although that is not guaranteed.

But to secure those points it seems certain that Everton must change tactics and approach and find a way to score more goals, most of all at Goodison Park.

Away from Merseyside, Dyche's tactics have worked well and almost did again on Saturday at the Amex Stadium.

However, the team's record at the Grand Old Lady this season is frankly appaling and unacceptable. Since opening day Everton have only won three matches at home in the Premier League. That is not good enough.

So, what would a tactical change look like? For me it means shifting to a different, more positive formation, something like a 4-3-3 or 3-4-3 to try and create and score more goals.

In practice that could mean say in a 3-4-3, Dyche moving to playing a back three of Ben Godfrey, James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite.

Godfrey has played well since coming back into the team and has previous experience in a back three so I think this could work.

That also means Nathan Patterson (a much more attack-minded and natural wing-back than Ashley Young) and Vitalii Mykolenko are pushed up to flank the midfield and provide extra width and support for the attacking players.

And up front, perhaps it is also time to give Beto a starting role at centre-forward in place of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who hasn't scored for four months.

There is a desperate need for providing more direct support to Calvert-Lewin, Beto or whoever is leading the line.

Or maybe Dyche could even consider playing his leading scorer and seemingly most dangerous attacker, Abdoulaye Doucoure in that position? That's not likely to happen!

Alongside Beto I would have Dwight McNeil - who has been strangely subdued for much of this campaign and certainly hasn't scored as many as I think he could - to play a more advanced foward role with Jack Harrison or Arnaut Danjuma when he is fit again.

Another alternative would be sticking to a flat back four but playing Patterson to overlap, and Doucoure right up behind the centre-forward in a number-ten position with a brief to stick to supporting the striker much more closely. This is something I advocated earlier in the season.

Changing tactics and formations isn't a panacea and none of this is certain to mean a massive improvement in the Toffees attacking and goal-scoring capacity.

But it can help a team to create a different shape and get more on the front foot. Everton need to do this urgently.

In addition to this, the team must avoid slipping into an excessively defensive mindset generally, but especially when they have a lead.

Against Brighton the Blues were one up playing ten men with about fifteen minutes left to go, although with the ever expanding additional time added on these days you never know when a game will finish!

This was the time to try and take control of the contest and add a second goal, which would have killed it off.

Instead, Dyche made a defensive substitution bringing on Ashley Young for Doucoure and the visitors sat back allowing Brighton even more possession and that ultimately led to them equalising.

The old adage 'you have what you hold' has some merit of course and this manager is a naturally cautious coach who has built one of the best defences in the league.

However, it feels like time is beginning to run out to turn around what is increasingly looking like a slow, almost inevitable slide towards another relegation fight.

2. Trust the young players

Alongside this shift tactically, the Everton manager must give his young attacking players more opportunity to show what they can contribute.

The Toffees have several youngsters who have only had limited opportunity under a manager who is very much committed to tried, tested and experienced starters.

That again is understandable, but I think the situation now demands that Dyche look to utilise all his playing resources from a paper-thin squad.

Players such as Patterson to some extent, but especially Lewis Dobbin and Yousef Chermiti have barely had a look-in recently, despite the problems Dyche has had with injuries and the chronic lack of goals in his side.

Dobbin and Chermiti, although still raw (most of all in Chermiti's case) have genuine talent otherwise presumably the club woudn't have signed them to profesional contracts.

Teenage Portuguese striker Chermiti has at times looked a potential handfull when he has come on and offers the same sort of height and possible threat in the air as Calvert-Lewin and Beto.

Dobbin possesses real pace and the ability to take on and beat a man with the ball, something no one else in this Everton team has. I think he must have more playing time.

I am not saying either should start, but later in games - of course particularly if the Blues are behind -these two young attacking talents should surely get more opportunity.

In a sense what does Dyche have to lose because if things continue as they are, I believe Everton will quite possibly go down.

Drawing game after game simply won't be enough, especially when rival sides in the struggle, such as Luton and Forest, look much more capable of scoring goals.