Sean Dyche is not normally one to bury his head in the sand, though he does not mind giving his audience a laugh in an effort to prove himself as flexible as Leicester City’s Nigel Pearson claims to be. Amid the laughter and the banter it is easy to forget that Dyche’s team have slipped to the bottom of the table with four matches remaining. Perhaps that is the intention, though it may also be true that upbeat is the only style Dyche knows.
The Burnley team famously does not change from week to week and neither does its manager. Ben Mee, the club’s left-back, can confirm Dyche is the same in training. Always bright, always encouraging, never showing any signs of being under pressure. “As a group we are very together. We have come through a lot and we are ready for more,” Mee says.
“The manager is a big part of that. He keeps us all going, makes sure that, whatever happens, we believe in ourselves and are fully prepared for the next challenge. We are not fooling ourselves. We know we have a massive fight on our hands to get out of this situation but the manager’s positivity rubs off on everyone else.”
Burnley have been something of a tonic all season, with their old-fashioned 4-4-2, their limited pool of players and their splendidly competitive attitude against clubs that have been in the top flight for decades longer, though it is beginning to look as if time may be running out for an escape from the bottom three. While Leicester and Queens Park Rangers have lately shown signs of recovery, Burnley have not managed to score a goal since the victory over Manchester City in March that had the town buzzing with possibility.
Performances have been consistent – Dyche would even argue that last week’s damaging home defeat by Leicester was one of the best displays of the season – but from appearing to be the team most likely to climb the table a few weeks ago Burnley have sunk to the bottom. They need to start winning, preferably at West Ham United on Saturday afternoon, and Dyche does not need telling that there is no longer any margin for error.
“The reality is that a tough job has got tougher,” the manager says. “We are not too disheartened about our position because three points can still change the picture completely but I can’t keep pointing to the stats because stats don’t win games. Goals win games and they also change the feel of a side, give you a boost when you need it. Right now we need it. Our shape has been good all season. We have never found ourselves tactically out-manoeuvred by opponents. Our energy is great and the belief is still there but it is the clinical side we have to put right in the next four games. We are still doing a lot of good things, even against the top teams, but we need to take more of our chances.”
Relegation would not be the ruin of Burnley. They are run along sustainable lines, though it irks Dyche that a season of hard work could count for nothing because the goals have dried up. “We have tried everything we know,” he says. “We have had three centre-forwards on the pitch at times and we are the only team in the division to play with two up front in every game. We believed we could be higher up the table than we are but nothing has really changed.
“We were everybody’s favourites to go down at the start of the season so you can’t say our situation has come out of the blue. We didn’t have a win in our first 10 games but we got over it. Being written off is nothing new.”
Mee remembers the initial winless run all too clearly. “We thought we were playing well enough to get results but they just didn’t come,” he says. “It’s the same now but we feel we have some winnable games coming up and it is time to start winning them. Last week’s result was frustrating after the way we played but the determination is still there for the next game. It doesn’t matter that much to us if people are talking about relegation. That’s how we started last season, in the Championship. Everyone said we would go down and we ended up getting promoted.
“Looked at as a whole, we have had an incredible couple of years. We have achieved a lot, both as a club and as individuals. We are strong as a group and the manager has brought a lot of the lads’ games on in his time here. It’s been great playing the top teams in the Premier League in front of full houses every week. Naturally you want more of that but, whatever happens, it has been a good time to be connected with Burnley. The club has definitely evolved and grown.”
