What Sean Dyche told 16-year-old defender who was in Everton squad against Fulham

Sean Dyche stressted that Everton’s players must handle the pressure of a Premier League relegation battle.

The Toffees are scrapping for their lives in successive seasons after narrowly avoiding the drop last term. A 3-1 loss to Fulham at Goodison Park left Everton above the bottom three only on goal difference - with Dyche lamenting how his troops’ heads dropped after the visitors took the lead for the second time after the interval.

With Amadou Onana (groin), Seamus Coleman, Dominic Calvert-Lewin (both hamstring), Andros Townsend (ACL), Abdoulaye Doucoure (suspension) and Ruben Vinagre all missing, Everton included 16-year-old left-back Ishe Samuels-Smith in his match-day squad.

Dyche revealed he told the teenager he’d learn what it’s like to deal with what comes with being a top-flight footballer. And the Everton supremo insists his players must learn from their Fulham loss ahead of seven final pivotal fixtures to avoid jettisoning into the Championship.

Dyche said: “That’s part of being a Premier League player. You have to deal with stress and pressure all of the time.

“Ishe, a young kid, is on the bench today and I said: ‘Brilliant day for you son because you’ll learn what it really is’. The good stuff always looks after itself. You’ve got a 16-year-old kid there looking at the game thinking: ‘Right what’s this all about’. That’s the reality and your growth really comes in these times because a good day virtually looks after itself.

“When the hard days come, what can you learn from that, how can you grow from that and correct your performance. That is the truth in the market that we’re in and the players. Not to go: ‘Oh it worries us’. That gets parked. What about building on it, what about that’s a reminder, what about us taking strides forward like we have been and correcting it. That’s the challenge now.”