Relegation thread...

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Amazing how a good week can change things around. Clarets have gone from 6/4 to 8/1 to be relegated now..Dyche has turned things round for the moment .need to pick up points against our nearest rivals now

I don't know what SD's favourite tipple is Alf, but when I find out I'm going on it. How on earth he keeps his nerve and just keeps on grinding out results I have no idea.

Klopp and Smith have one thing in common though, both of them are still in shock that they lost against Burnley!

[outwoodclaret]

By and large results have gone our way today. Defeats for Sheffield United and Wolves coupled with West Brom and Fulham drawing. The only blot on the landscape was Newcastle winning away at Everton. Still every cloud has a silver lining; it keeps the Corbridge Cabbage in the St James’s Park hotseat.

[doggert]

Gentlemen,

Mr.Dyche has done magic with the rescourses available over the years. He manages to find the results in the end and has so far avoided relegation, but we get too many gray hairs on the way. We're usually quite predictible; usually long/high/direct balls with too few good players with heading-skills on top, usually less possession, subs usually come at 75-80.mins and thats when we tend to wake up and play well. As soon as you isolate McNeill, we rely on Taylor. The other players do show glimpses of magic occasionally, but it can't be right to expect a 20yr old kid to be our spark.

So what happens? "Everybody" screams for reinforcements in different positions - something I won't disagree with, but there is a bigger issiue here; Whats the point with new players, when Dyche doesn't use them? Dale Stephens was probably the first player in the Dyche-era who got to play straight after his transfer - because we lacked bodies. Have a look at Vydra, he's been full of energy, gives the opositon something else to cope with just about every time he's played - yet, Dyche barely uses him. The curse/blessing of this club is the manager's loyalty or stubborness if you like. In the end we have survived and still live in PL.

In my opinion it's not a healthy sign when the manager says to the press that he doesn't question the strikers, because it's a tough job and therefore sticks to his preffered duo. I'm no manager, but how does that affect the likes of Vydra or Jay? What does that do to the motivation of the ones that don't play? Or even the ones that play? ("It doesn't matter how I play, because I'll still get picked for next game"?).

We will survive, I'm sure, but during the periods when we do struggle, it's when I see the weakness and lack of a plan B or even a plan C from the manager. This streches over a too many games and we've seen this every year and will continue to do so in the coming years as long as Dyche is in charge.

One more thing I'd like to mention regarding investments. Has anyone else noticed that the more expensive the player is, the more they seems to struggle or "prove their worth/high fee", compared to the cheaper ones? Cork and Wood are probably the exceptions, but the latter depends on your own criterieas.

Pieters (1m), BPF (2,5m), Cork (9m), Bardsley (800k), Taylor (free), Brady, Westwood (5,5m), Pope, (1,2m), Tarky (3,6m) Lowton (1,1m), Barnes (500k) <-- Can't remember if he was bought by Dyche of Howe. Jay (9m), Brownhill (9m), Vydra (11m), Gibson (15m), Wood (15m), Brady (14m)

These are the ones Dyche brought to the club and are still here. Looking at those numbers I actually can understand why Garlick was a bit reluctant to spend a lot of money on players. Look at how much the "cheap" ones have affected the team or got a chance to affect the team. Jay, Vydra and Gibson (30m) are fine players, but basicly a waste of money when you can anticipate the lineup for the last game of the season. It's wrong that injures is the only legit reason to change the lineup, despite poor performances over time from individuals. FFS, even Messi would be benched for six-seven months...

[kritichris]

Welcome back doggert. We all criticise Dyche, me included, but he keeps getting results. Perhaps one solution is rotating the squad but Dyche is set in his ways, players, formation etc so can't see it happening. Whatever we think of him he's been the best manager we've had in my lifetime and that includes Harry Potts and Adamson. Frustrating, but he keeps us in the Prem even though the hiccups are quite big when we get them. I aslo suspect if we get relegated and stick with him he'd get us back (unless he moves on).

[sinkov]

Not much I'd disagree with there Dog, but as you acknowledge, you run up against the brick wall everyone who criticises Dyche runs into. His Plan A works often enough to keep us in the Premier League, that's what his job entails and he does his job.

[doggert]

It's frustrating when we struggle because it's difficult to see the same development and progress that Dyche mentions in his post-match interviews. Guess thats why he is the manager and not any of us. From a buisness point of view Dyche must be every chairmans dream; keeps the club in the PL with a small budget and secures the hefty contracts and TV-deals that come along with PL. I understand it's easy to say that the grass is greener on the other side, at the same time it's difficult to think that way.

You know what you get. Gray hair and a renewed Premier League-contract. At the same time it's not realistic to imagine a scenario where five players leave, five-six are brought in during a transferwindow and all feature when the league kicks off. Even if that formula has worked for some teams/managers, I doubt it will have the same effect at Turf Moor. Meaning we won't see much change in the foreseeable future.

[kritichris]

Historically Burnley have sold to survive, and not much has changed.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Welcome back doggert, you raise a few good points and I would like to address them.

It does not matter a jot how old McNeil is, his job is to be creative, gather experience, keep on impressing and bring in £50 million anytime soon. ££££££££$$$$$$$.

You mention individual transfer values as though that really is the value of a player. The value of a player is judged by how well he performs when he gets his Claret & Blue shirt on and starts playing for us. Sean Dyche has stated on more than one occasion he needs three goalkeepers (Pope, BPF & Norris) four full backs (Lowton, Bardsley, Taylor, Pieters), four centre backs (Mee, Tarkowski, Long & Dunne), eight midfielders (Stephens, Westwood, Cork, Brady, Gudmundsson, Brownhill, McNeil, Benson), four strikers (Wood, Vydra, Jay Rod, Barnes).

That number of players brings with it a problem that is by no means unique for any football league manager; "How do you keep all your players on-song, ready to play and happy, even when they are on the bench a lot?"

Dyche is acknowledged to have good "man management" skills, he often talks about "horse whispering" in a player's ear, putting his arm around them and asking them if they are OKAY? It did not work with Gibson and the result was he is now plying his trade on loan at Norwich.

Sean Dyche does NOT care for or allow Billy Big Bollox Syndrome, players like Joey Barton and Steven Defour for example seemed to appreciate and bought into that philosophy. Defour was apparently dumbfounded you might be dunked in the cold, wet and dirty River Calder for not grasping the "Dyche Ethics!"

SD often talks about the "different challenges and different ways needed to win football matches". To understand that approach just look at how the different ways we played to win our last three football games. Liverpool away (dogged and relentless), Fulham away (attacking and bright) and finally Villa at home (resolute and then ruthless).

I long since conceded we have a managerial genius in charge at Turf Moor, he may not be everyone's cup of tea, but he certainly keeps on grinding out results. I love the fact that supporters of 19 other EPL clubs loathe and detest "Little Old Burnley," which suggests to me Dyche is doing quite a lot right.

[doggert]

Thank you gentlemen for your welcome backs and your replies. Its comforting to know that I'm not the only one who gets grey hair. We're most likely not going to get relegated and exiting times await, specially in the upcoming summer once mr.Pace has spent some time at Turf and got a chance to feel and understand the surroundings at Turf Moor. But that's for a different thread.

[sinkov]

Nine points in February and we can close this thread...

Perhaps BT, but for the moment keep it running, doom, gloom and disgruntlement are back on the menu.