Nicky Hayen discusses the mentality of his Burnley players

Nicky Hayen wants his Burnley players to be more vocal on and off the pitch, admitting they’re often “too soft” and “too nice”.

The Clarets boss has revealed there’s been some open and honest meetings with his players this week off the back of last Friday’s painful defeat to Wolves.

Hayen’s side actually performed well for 35 minutes, playing some of their best football of the season, but ended up losing their way as a result of two inexplicable individual mistakes, eventually going down to a 2-1 defeat.

In the process, it stretched Burnley’s home winless league run to an entire calendar year.

Heading to Lincoln City tomorrow, the Clarets find themselves sitting in the Championship’s relegation zone having won just one of their first 11 games.

Speaking during Thursday’s pre-match press conference, Hayen addressed his side’s mentality, how this week has been and what he expects going forwards.

Here’s a selection of what he had to say:

How has training been since Wolves?

“So we had the debrief of the game and I think if I go back to that game that we played a really good 35 minutes. We made a mistake and then actually we collapsed.

“Instead of playing the same game and trying to play dominant, and this is something that we discussed together in small groups, everyone could give their opinion and we said we have really good moments in the game, but we don't keep it for 96 minutes.

“This is something that we have to do more, being consistent for the whole game.”

Do you often debrief in smaller groups?

“Yes, of course, because in a big group not everyone will show or say something and in smaller groups everyone is allowed to say something.

“They will discuss and you go more into detail and that makes it interesting, because you get a lot of answers.

“It's also something that we did the day after, like a summary of that meeting and then you saw also in these two or three days that the intensity was much higher on the training session and this was something that pleased us.”

Do you like your players to speak up and be vocal?

“Yes, of course, but I always share my thoughts with the players also.

“We have like a council of players in terms also and they can give their opinions, but I even want more vocals in my team because sometimes we're like too soft, too nice for each other.

“This is something that can be better even by coaching, taking responsibility on the pitch, but this is something that we're working on.”

How do you get your players to be more vocal?

“By encouraging them. So you give them the responsibility and courage and even if they say something wrong, still give them the support that they have to keep on doing the same.

“You see a few players who take the lead in the dressing room on the pitch also, but it helps even more even if you say something on the pitch, you know where your opponent or your teammate is and it makes it much easier if you communicate in a good way.”

You’ve lost 15 points from a winning position, is that a big mentality problem?

“First of all, I think I was always open to you guys at the start of the season. We had the momentum [against Wolves], we took the momentum over from the opponent, but then physically we were not able to continue for 95 or 96 minutes. I think this was in the first phase.

“The second phase is that by individual mistakes we make life for ourselves really difficult.

“Sometimes it's also game management, so this is also something that I have to see myself. How can we deal better in the last five or 10 minutes?

“I can give you an example. Against Charlton, our intention was to bring Hjalmar [Ekdal] on and go with three centre-backs, but then Anel [Ahmedhodzic] had a collision with the goalkeeper and we couldn't make this decision. Sometimes it's unfortunate.

“Like I said, at the moment everything is coming together, but not in a positive way.”

You’ve conceded 21 goals in 11 games, is that just down to mistakes or is it a structural problem?

“Of course, at the start of the season we conceded a lot of goals in Swansea, in Norwich four and three, already seven in just those two games.

“But you see there's more stability and more structure after the international break. You see there's more consistency and that we're stable.

“The goals that we make are actually quite clear and clean and nice and team goals. The goals that we concede is sometimes also that not everyone does enough effort to come back and block and to give two easy goals away. This is something that we have to improve.

“We've also discussed this week, together with the set-pieces, so we know where we have to work on.”