Nike Strike Aerowsculpt Official Premier League match ball. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)Nike Strike Aerowsculpt Official Premier League match ball. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Nike Strike Aerowsculpt Official Premier League match ball. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Burnley transfer news: EPL rivals could recall loan star early, Arsenal and Leeds United target in demand

Sean Dyche will make changes to face Spurs at Turf Moor in the last 16 of the Carabao Cup.

Dyche tends to rotate his squad in the cups, and, blessed with more bodies and, touch wood, not too much in the way of issues for the physios, he intends to do so against Nuno Espirito Santo's side, with a quarter-final place up for grabs.

One of those is expected to be Connor Roberts, with the £2.5m deadline day signing from Swansea City likely to make his debut at right back, while skipper Ben Mee could return after missing the last three games after an ankle injury and positive coronavirus test.

Dyche altered the side in the previous rounds at Newcastle United, and at home to Rochdale, and said: "We've changed the team in the previous rounds, we've put a team out I believe can win the game, and we have done.

"It's no easy task playing anyone, particularly Tottenham, but we will look to make changes, I believe in the group.

"We're nearly there back to full fitness, Dale Stephens needs games yet, but is back in and around the group, which is good to see, Vyds and Charlie Taylor came through okay, and we're getting back to a group that are fully fit.

"We want that to remain, so I imagine we will be making changes."

On Roberts, he explained: "He's had a big time scale now of training, so as much as we can't find real games for him, he has had a good clutch of training and been away with the international scene, so he comes into the thinking.

"It was never in my mind not to have him in the thinking for this one.

"He'll be around it."

And Mee will also come back into the picture: "Ben's had a few more days' training."

It remains to be seen whether Maxwel Cornet will feature, having come off at Southampton, where he scored twice, with cramp, in only his second game back after a hamstring strain.

Dyche ideally wants to maintain his momentum, and add to his fitness and understanding of Premier League opposition, and said: "Maxwel cramped up, he made it clear when he came off, but when he's adjusting to life in the Premier League, he's already had a hamstring pretty early in the game at Leicester, so we've got to use a bit of commonsense and get him off as his body continues to adapt to what it is.

"But he's made a good start, had an impact, and therefore we want to keep that impact going and make sure he allows himself the chance to adjust to what it is, and we allow that.

"I think the thing I've always been strong on, I've got facts, stats on how we work, and individual players, what they're going to have to do physically, to be a Premier League player, and what they're going to have to add.

"That's bound to help when people do question decisions about these players, but I know the stats, facts, their bodies, the training schedule, fatigue levels, so I have to factor that in.

"Sometimes you need a player to play through those barriers because the team might need that, but I felt at Southampton we could get him off at that stage, we were still delivering a good performance and looked solid.

"So rather than put him at risk, we took him off."