Burnley’s away form against some of the leading Premier League teams this season has taken them to the top half of the table, last term’s relegation concerns and 35-match wait for a win on the road now a distant memory. Which is probably just as well, since Saturday brings the trip even a side with an unbeaten away record must find daunting.
Stoke City’s Mark Hughes admitted after last week’s seven-goal pounding that even in the depths of despair he could not help but admire Manchester City’s attacking play. So accurate and imaginative was their passing he feared some of their goals might have been undefendable. Napoli ended up unlucky on Tuesday in the Champions League, though even the Serie A leaders came close to finding themselves in Stoke’s position, three down in under half an hour.
So how does Sean Dyche fancy his chances against the league leaders now Pep Guardiola seems to have turned up the heat? Burnley lost at the Etihad last season but in common with many of their away performances it was by a single goal after a spirited display. Bearing in mind Stoke’s chastening experience, most Burnley fans would probably settle for something similar this time, for while Dyche does not necessarily want to talk up the strength of the opposition he accepts it is likely to be the toughest challenge to date.
“City have looked fantastic, you’ve got two superpower clubs in Manchester at the moment and they are in front,” he says. “You are up against a collection of some of the best players in Europe. Quite obviously it is a big task but I don’t think we should change too much, we have to believe in what we do. And we’ll need a bit of luck to go our way, if I’m being honest.”
Jürgen Klopp claimed Burnley rode their luck in taking a point from Anfield last month because of the number of Liverpool attempts on goal. Dyche calmly points out that Burnley scored first and defended well, and that most of the Liverpool shots were from distance. Not that he thinks there is anything to be gained from dissecting the matter after the event. “I have no problem with anyone’s view about what we do, I really don’t,” the Burnley manager says. “Very rarely does it stick in my craw what managers or media outlets say about us. In this game you can waste a lot of energy wondering about other people’s opinions when the one that actually counts is yours. Because that’s your job, to lead and to manage. Without wanting to sound pompous or clever it is down to me to make decisions on behalf of the side to give it the best chance of being successful.”
In the five years since he took over from Eddie Howe with Burnley languishing near the foot of the Championship, the 46-year-old former Chesterfield centre-half can certainly reflect on being successful. A first promotion was gained almost impossibly early and though Burnley went straight down the team and the plan stayed together. They re-emerged stronger than ever, a pattern that seems to be repeating now they are building on last season’s survival.
Dyche splits the club’s achievements into actual success – two promotions – and relative success – staying up for the first time – though others tend to see a manager who knows what he is doing. It was no surprise when Dyche was strongly linked with the vacant Crystal Palace post over the summer – the same thing is happening now with Leicester – just a slight mystery over why no firm offer from south London actually materialised.
“It was all conjecture,” he says. “I got a few texts from people telling me they had heard this and that was about to happen but it didn’t go any further. I’ve been linked with lots of clubs but that’s what tends to happen if you stay in the same job for five years. It means you have brought a level of success. Promotion and Premier League survival are big markers for a manager – achieve those and you get noticed.”
If Dyche was disappointed the Palace opportunity came and went he does not let it show. Leicester, he claims, is a similar media assumption based on the fact that he hails from the east Midlands. “We’ve been here before,” he says. “It’s nice to be recognised for doing well but it doesn’t mean there is any truth in it.” Not, he is careful to stress, that he is looking for a way out, just aware of the way football works. “There are no guarantees in this job but there’s usually a moment of truth,” he says.
“There will come a time when people want you out or someone at a bigger concern wants you in. Examples of managers staying for ages at clubs are rare. You’ve got Sir Alex and Arsène but they had already reached the top of the pile; why would anyone want to leave Manchester United and Arsenal? Who else is there? I can only think of Paul Tisdale at Exeter, though David Moyes might have done longer than 11 years at Everton but for special circumstances.
“I’m not running away from Burnley, I’ve never said I want to move on, but I can’t say for definite I wouldn’t in the future, because that happens in life. People change jobs.”
After five years at Burnley, Dyche is the seventh longest-serving manager in England. In Premier League terms he is behind only Wenger and Howe – the latter reappointed at Bournemouth a matter of days earlier – and ahead of Hughes and Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino. He is modest enough to admit he did not expect to be at Burnley for so long, nor to have overseen such a startling transformation from down at heel Championship side to accomplished Premier League performers.
If anything, Burnley’s improvement on the pitch is overtopped by the growth in areas the public does not always see. There is a strong community programme in existence, a thriving youth set-up and the training facilities are already unrecognisable from what they were a few years ago.
“Five years ago I thought we could definitely take the club forward but I didn’t know how far or how quickly,” Dyche says. “To tell the truth I didn’t envisage everything we have in place now. When I first came here it was obvious the training ground needed some improvements but I was just thinking maybe a nicer dressing room. We ended up with a complete makeover, a brand new facility, and I think the board deserve credit for taking a far-sighted view.”
Burnley are famously careful with their money, reluctant to go wild with their windfall from Premier League seasons, and in Dyche they appear to have found a sympathetic ambassador for sustainable growth. Most managers in his position would have gone straight out and spent some of the £25m Everton paid Burnley for Michael Keane on a centre-half replacement. Dyche did not sign anyone, choosing to ignore dire warnings about the hole in his defence that needed filling. He simply promoted James Tarkowski from the reserves and the former Oldham and Brentford defender, despite his limited Premier League experience, has been picking up glowing reviews all season.
“James is doing a good job so far,” Dyche says. “I saw improvement in him last season and I made a point of telling him so. I never tell my players anything but the truth, so I think he believed me, and now his chance has come. People accuse me of never changing the team but I watch the training and I am guided by what I see. As a manager you don’t always get the big calls right but you do have to believe in your own judgment. That’s not just my judgment, I must emphasise, it’s a process. I ask my staff for their opinion and I trust what they tell me. I seek and receive a good deal of feedback to help achieve a better outcome. You need good people around you. The manager must show leadership but part of that is being aware of what others have to offer.”
At the Etihad, Dyche will meet an opposing manager who has been accused of overcomplication in the past, whereas his own style is to keep things simple and easily understood. “When I was a player I just wanted clear directions and once you have clarity, as long as you are properly prepared, everything should fall into place,” he says. “Our preparations are not that complicated because although this is a very tough level of football, we are not in the Champions League. It’s a completely different challenge if you have 25 active professionals and you are trying to piece a side together for a third game in a week.
“We don’t have to do that, we can just concentrate on the next test in front of us. There are a few things we are doing differently this season but nothing radical, it just seems to have helped enormously that we got the monkey of our away form off our back at the first attempt at Chelsea. The story has gone, it can’t gather pace any more, whereas last season it built up over so long it began to affect us mentally. I thought our away performances for most of last season were actually pretty good – a few managers told me they couldn’t believe we hadn’t picked up more points – but, as I say, that story is over. This season is a different animal.”
