'We looked' - what Sean Dyche said immediately after Wolves v Everton in frank verdict

Sean Dyche felt Everton's recent busy schedule proved their downfall as they ended 2023 with a sobering loss to Wolves.

The Toffees slipped to a 3-0 defeat at Molineux to leave them just a point above the Premier League relegation zone. Everton were lacklustre throughout the encounter and got what they deserved - as they slipped to a third successive reverse.

It was the Blues' eighth game of December. They were again missing key pair Abdoulaye Doucoure and Idrissa Gana Gueye along with Ashley Young, while Amadou Onana and Vitalii Mykolenko missed games earlier this month. As a ramification, Dyche believes his side looked 'jaded' against Wolves.

The Everton manager, speaking to Premier League Productions, said: "They have turned into a good side and have worked hard to become one, especially at home. We have asked a lot of the players. The fixture list is unkind.

"We have just come off the back of a run of [lots of] games with injuries. We've come a long way since the second game of the season but we lacked that bit of fizz and energy to take the game on. We fell short with the physicality of the game.

"They played really well and exposed moments when we looked jaded. We've done it to others ourselves and they did it to us today.

"The next league game is a couple of weeks away which is bizarre. We hold value in the cup, of course we do, but we have been stretched in the Christmas period so we need to make sure we have players available [for the league].

"They were good today. We didn't play as well as we can. We had a great chance with Dominic Calvert-Lewin early on then we were chasing the game. We were a way from our performance levels and they capitalised on that. They were good today, no doubt about that."