Everton have endured a horrific start to the 2024/25 Premier League campaign, suffering three defeats on the bounce.

The international break comes at precisely the right time for Sean Dyche, who is gradually coming under serious pressure.

He will likely spend the break working out what has gone wrong thus far in a bid to get his team to improve when Club Football returns in a couple of weeks.

They did lead Bournemouth 2-0 before a late rally saw the Cherries secure all three points, leading to questions about their mentality.

Several players have underperformed this term, which includes defender Michael Keane.

Michael Keane’s statistics vs Bournemouth

Keane did open the scoring against the Cherries on the weekend, giving the Toffees a 1-0 lead, before Dominic Calvert-Lewin doubled the advantage with just over 30 minutes left on the clock.

Despite Keane’s goal, his defensive performance wasn’t great and as a result, question should be asked about his place in the side moving forward.

He won just three of his eight total duels throughout the game while losing possession ten times and being dribbled past once.

When in possession, he was hardly much better, completing only 23 of his 32 attempted passes, along with attempting zero dribbles and making zero key passes.

He attracted criticism, notably from Liverpool World reporter Will Rooney who handed him a 5/10 rating while suggesting the centre-back was ‘all over the place in the final moments of the game’.

Everton’s collapse wasn’t solely down to him, but Dyche must be rueing the fact Jarrad Branthwaite is out injured at the moment.

Michael Keane’s season in numbers for Everton

Once the young English centre-back is back fit and healthy, there is no doubt that Branthwaite will take Keane’s place in the starting XI, subsequently partnering James Tarkowski at the back.

Across his three Premier League appearances for the Goodison Park outfit this term, Keane has averaged just 31.7 passes per game (83% success rate) while winning only 0.7 ground duels each match (40% success rate) in the top flight.

The 31-year-old has also lost possession eight times per game on average, which works out as 24 times in his three matches for Everton, clearly proving he is giving the ball away far too regularly.

It hasn’t just been the opening few matches of this season in which Keane has underperformed. When compared to his positional peers in Europe’s big five leagues over the previous 365 days, the defender ranks in the bottom 55% for blocks (1.19), clearances (3.75) and tackles (1.02) per 90. Considering Everton actually do quite a bit of defending, it doesn’t cover the former Burnley man in glory.

Keane even ranks in the lowest 95% for pass completion percentage (76.7%) per 90 and lowest 10% for passes attempted per 90 (40.23), showcasing how poor he has been at distributing the ball of late.

The quicker Branthwaite bounces back to full fitness, the better, as Dyche clearly cannot go on using Keane as one of his main centre-backs.

Everton face Aston Villa in their first game back after the break. If they wish to secure all three points against Unai Emery’s men, Dyche is going to have to come up with a solid tactical plan to outwit the Spaniard.

Another loss will continue to pile the pressure on the manager, no doubt about it.