Sean Dyche is a wily old fox and he knows exactly what he’s just done to Julen Lopetegui ahead of the Premier League clash between West Ham and Everton.
Whenever two teams meet in the Premier League the stakes are always high.
That’s certainly the case as West Ham welcome Everton to east London.
It’s another game that’s been dubbed ‘El Sackico’ given the pressure on Julen Lopetegui at West Ham and Sean Dyche at Everton.
History favours Everton who have beaten the Hammers a whopping 75 times.
Ominously the Toffees have more wins over West Ham than any other club.
Not the statistic Lopetegui will want to see going into a game which – if certain reports are to be believed – could dictate whether he is sacked.
Manager press conferences have become banal in the modern era.
Managers tend to trot out the same old platitudes about how great the opposition and their boss are.
That was taken to ridiculous new depths when Pep Guardiola described then rock-bottom Southampton and manager Russell Martin as among the best recently.
True to form Lopetegui described lowly Everton as a good, strong team with a good coach.
Some Everton fans would beg to differ.
Dyche is under pressure at Goodison Park with talk the club’s new owners could pull the trigger on the former Millwall man soon if things don’t improve.
Dyche knows exactly what he’s just done to Lopetegui
Lopetegui has endured a torrid start to life in east London.
As a result six managers have been linked to his job in the last week.
It feels very much that the heat is turned up higher on the Spaniard than the Englishman.
So Everton boss Dyche knows exactly what he’s just done to Lopetegui at West Ham.
Usually managers will stick up for opposing bosses whose when asked about them.
But with his own job on the line, Dyche appears to have very deliberately ramped up the heat on Lopetegui.
Who can blame him either.
With so much at stake, Dyche knows Lopetegui is under pressure from his own fans as well as the media.
If he can crank up the pressure even more and his side can keep the London Stadium crowd quiet then he knows things can turn ugly.
Better than anyone else in fact as he was the manager of Burnley when things turned toxic as Hammers fans invaded the pitch back in March 2018.
Things are not that bad yet at West Ham.
But with daunting fixtures against Newcastle and Arsenal after the international break, they could be.
Much of the pressure on Lopetegui comes from raised expectations as a result of the big change from David Moyes and the club’s summer spend.
What has Everton boss said about Lopetegui and West Ham?
West Ham paid out over £155m for nine new players as part of their Lopetegui rebuild.
Dyche said Lopetegui will still be trying to implement his ideas.
But the Everton boss made it clear West Ham should be doing better with the players the Spaniard has at his disposal.
“They have a new manager trying to instil his thoughts,” Dyche said pre-match.
“They’ve spent a lot of money over the last few seasons.
“And like any manager, he’s trying to find a formula.
“They have a lot of good players.”
Dyche has been around the block – and in this situation – too many times not to know exactly what he’s doing here.
He is piling the pressure on Lopetegui – highlighting how much has been spent on his team and what good players he has.
The fact Dyche also pointed out that Lopetegui is yet to find a formula that works is interesting too.
We see less and less mind games in the Premier League nowadays.
This is not so much dark arts but rather Dyche setting Lopetegui up for a fall to try and gain an advantage.
Now it’s over to Lopetegui and West Ham to prove they really do have “a lot of good players”.
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