It's a philosophy Blueheeler that has got us to 7th in the PL, hanging onto Arsenal's shirt-tails with the season almost over. I sincerely hope Dyche has no intention of changing it.
A final comment on my OP if I may.
I am not advocating all-out attacking football at any costs--so let's put that one to bed.
I am commenting on us not having more than two shots at the opposition goal all game at home. And this is not the first time.
I am commenting that again, at home, we we magnificent for 14 mins against Leicester then totally lost control of the game and looked very poor.
We have done this for a number of games this season.
Most will agree with me that holding on around our goal and defending stoically is wonderful--but not for 70+ mins.
I also asked the question--if we can't play sustained attacking football at this end of the season, when can we?
I fully understand that we are obsessed with defence.
It has proved to be correct in the points gathered and our sustained Prem survival and that is absolutely brilliant.
But the game of football is also about entertainment and dour defensive football isn't that.
So, can we break away from this philosophy if only for the few remaining games?
It's a philosophy Blueheeler that has got us to 7th in the PL, hanging onto Arsenal's shirt-tails with the season almost over. I sincerely hope Dyche has no intention of changing it.
Sometimes I just shake my head, smell the coffee and go back to sleep.
We are still sitting in SEVENTH place in the EPL!
With a nett spend of £40 million.
For the countless detractors, please tell me what else you want?
Just to add another observation on the Stoke game, just my opinion, others may disagree. I don't think Stoke are a 'poor' team, I'm not really sure why they're in the bottom three, they've lost their way a bit, Hughes got past his sell by date, but I've seen many worse teams in the bottom three.
They were desperate for points, they were on their own ground, we'd just had a mare in the first half, yet without our two most creative players in Defour and Brady, without arguably our best defender in Ben Mee, we calmly played them off the park in the second half. The Stoke fans were looking more and more miserable as the game went on and they realised they were being outplayed, there was only one likely winner and it wasn't Stoke.
Despite the moaning this is not a bad Burnley team.
Dyche actually gave them a full Ginger Rollocking and told them to stop hitting long and go short.
That's another Burnley are just "Long Ball, Second Ball Merchants" theory down the drain.