Sean Dyche says that Michael Keane is now “in a good place” having worked his way back into the Everton team after being frozen out under Frank Lampard.
Keane made 30 or more Premier League games in each of his first five seasons at Everton but had been restricted to a mere 22 minutes of action off the bench at Brentford in August this term under Lampard, and had been braced for a potential loan exit in the January transfer window.
However, the appointment of Dyche, under whose management at Burnley he earned his £25million move to Goodison Park in 2017, has given the England international a fresh start and he has been picked alongside his former Clarets centre-back partner James Tarkowski for the past three matches.
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Asked if he had to rebuild Keane’s confidence, the Blues boss said: “No. Not at all.
“I just came in and said I don’t think you’re as fit as you need to be, as sharp as you need to be and he agreed. He said: ‘I haven’t played a lot of football.’
“That was that. I said: ‘That’s what we’ll work on then.’
“You can over-egg everything. You can share too much sometimes.
“It was a simple situation for him. The past is not relevant, it’s not relevant to me. What’s more relevant to the players is what comes next.”
Keane was only 24 when he left Turf Moor but at 30 he is now one of the senior players within the Everton squad. Dyche though admits he’s still learning how the player has changed in the intervening five-and-a-half years since he previously worked with him.
He said: “Well it’s too early to worry about that other than it’s natural maturation, he’s older. Michael has a missus, kids, or child whatever, that sort of scenario, bit more-worldly, few more international games, going off and playing for a club like this, more years, those sort of things.
“He’s been here five-and-a-half years but he is still a relatively young man really, on and off the pitch, he’s just rounded himself in his life as well. I think there will be a more matured version than what he was but I didn’t really view him as anything other.
“I treat all the players properly and appropriately so I don’t really over-analyse it to be honest. Certainly I had a quick chat with him about where's he’s at, what his thoughts are – about himself, not about his football – and he seems in a good place.”
Dyche believes that the waxing and waning of Keane’s time at Everton is just part of the natural fluctuation in form experienced by most footballers over the course of their careers and insists it’s certainly not something that the Stockport-born player is alone on. He said: “We mentioned about Seamus (Coleman). A few weeks ago when he scored we said he’d had his fair share of detractors in his career but that makes you a true professional.
“Some super elite, world class players have careers where very rarely they’re questioned. But there’s not many.
“If you look across football, everyone has question marks throughout their career at some point. I’ve certainly had my fair share as a manager, coach and player.
“It kind of rounds you to make you who you are and make you aware of the truth of what you do sometimes but I don’t wish it on players to have a bad time. Maybe the crowd got at him but it sort of forms you and you can use it as a real strength to go ‘I know where it’s at, I know the realities of my job and my profession’ so sometimes it just rounds who you are.
“Over the years I’ve looked at it differently. When I was playing I got it myself at Bristol City, it’s not enjoyable but it’s part of your development as a person, not just as a footballer to handle that.
“But that’s the profession that you’re in and if you’re not stimulated to be at the top of your game, and for whatever reason it happens, then you get a bit of stick, you get a bit of heat, that’s the way it goes. How do you deal with it, usually you find in my experience you come through it with hard work.
Dyche added: “That’s the way I look at it. I know it’s not quite as simple as that but when we’re discussing it, it is.
“Sometimes emotionally it feels different but the simple fact of the matter is that you’ve got to work through it and find a way through it. There are players here who have done it – Seamus is a good example.
“I’ve not seen all the history but they were suggesting there are periods when the crowd weren’t with him. Yet now he’s looking fantastic.
“If Keano has had a period like that and other players here, then coming through that often strengthens your resolve and your mentality and your love for the club as well. In the nirvana world of football it’s like a family, you’re not always bezzie mates with your brother, you fall out but then you get on with it because deep down you’ve got a connection and I think that’s an important factor.”
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