Burnley boss Sean Dyche focused on first win - no matter how it comes

Sean Dyche admits he doesn’t care how a first Premier League win of the season comes, whether it is merited, lucky or ugly.
Sean DycheSean Dyche
Sean Dyche

But, ahead of Friday evening’s clash at Brighton, he isn’t panicking in the slightest, as the Clarets look to climb off the bottom of the table, after claiming only one point from their opening six games.

Burnley have made their worst start to a season, in terms of points won, after six games, but have gone down this road before, having failed to win any of their opening 10 fixtures in 2014/15, as they were relegated from the Premier League.

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As Dyche knows all too well, this sort of run can happen at this level – Burnley went 11 games without a win when they went on to finish seventh and qualify for the Europa League in 2018.

And he remains a calm hand at the wheel: “I’ve never thought panic solves anything, so there’s that one out of the way.

“It’s never something I’ve been overly thinking about.

“It’s always work, organisation, the way we go about our business, the reminders – making sure the players are fit and well and their well-being is good, the atmosphere...

“That’s intact.

“The detail has been missing in some of the performances, but West Brom was what my old manager John Duncan used to call a winning draw, and it was a very good performance against Tottenham here, I certainly considered we deserved something out of that.

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“Chelsea were just too strong, and we weren’t at the performance level needed.

“I’ve said all along against the super-power clubs, you’ve got to be right on top of your performance, you might need a decision to go your way – we didn’t get that either – and if you don’t do those things right, you often get beat.

“There’s a reality to that game, and sometimes it just happens like that.

“The main focus for me is you want to get that first win – psychologically that’s good for the group.

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“You get to a point where you want it ideally through performance, but you’ll take it however it comes, that’s the way it goes.

“You move forwards and look to build on that.

“We’ve got to work to get that.”

Burnley, however, go to the Amex Stadium with a good recent record there, having won one and drawn two of their last three visits.

They have only lost one of their last nine meetings with the Seagulls – what was effectively a dead rubber on the final day of last season at Turf Moor.

Brighton have failed to win any of their last six games in all competitions, with only one league win to date.

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And Dyche said: “They’re a good side, they’ve put a lot of investment into the side over the last two, two-and-a-half years or so, the manager is trying to shift their way of working into what he wants, and getting somewhere he feels they need to be.

“They’re capable, they don’t always get as many points as you’d think for their performances, but they are very capable.

“We have to make the players aware of the opposition, but the onus is on us to perform.

“I would take an ugly one or a lucky one, but your ideal way is to earn the right to win games, and if you do that, it’s a better base to continue from.

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“In balance, you’d take any win, and the story changes from that.”

A clean sheet would be welcome, with only one registered so far, after Nick Pope fell just one short of the Golden Glove last season: “It is easy to look at the defensive side of things, but you have to look at the strikers too, and the wide players who have created chances, but we haven’t always taken them.”

"The balance is what every manager is looking for.

"We have often found that balance by keeping clean sheets, 15 last year which was a record and an outstanding tally, and still scoring.

"To get that balance right is work on the training ground and belief in the players to go and deliver.

"And we have to get all the margins right, individually and collectively, and stay focused for 90 minutes.

"Rather than wait to defend we have to go and attack and we are not far off."