Performance is key for Burnley boss Dyche as he looks to arrest poor start

Burnley have made their worst start to a top flight season since 1927/28, when they lost their opening five games.
Sean DycheSean Dyche
Sean Dyche

Sean Dyche, typically, reads little into records, positive or negative, and his focus is purely on restoring performance levels from his players.

The Clarets have lost their last four Premier League games, after a draw in their opener at Southampton.

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And, ahead of Saturday’s visit of Bournemouth, Dyche said: “Of course, I thought we could do better, but records don’t bother me.

“I concern myself with the team, how individuals are performing.

“It’s not been a lack of effort, but there have been a couple of performances that are not us.

“You have a feel of how you operate, and we’ve come away from that.

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“There have been games where we’ve gone ‘that’s not like us’.

“Over time, the performance is key. Get back to performing at the top of our game. We haven’t found our feet yet, so we’ve got to correct that

“A couple of performances lately haven’t been good enough. We’ve had chances to kill games off, particularly against Southampton and Watford, but Sunday we weren’t good enough and we need to correct that. It’s not just working hard, it’s working smart.

“Once you do that, you need consistency to start winning games. There are a number of games in the Premier League where margins are super tight. We’ve been on the right side of them before, that’s what we look to do now.”

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Albert Einstein is credited with saying: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”

And to that end, Dyche isn’t resting on his laurels: “We don’t just sit on what we do. You’ve got to be open minded about what you are doing.

“Are the players still excited by the challenge?

“The balance is not going too far away. We’ve built a lot fo good things over the past five and a half years.

“We listen to the players, what they think they can add to the performances.

“Against Wolves, we outran them, but didn’t outsprint them.

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“Stats are there to be used wisely. Your eyes don’t lie. You’ve got to be able to turn the TV off. Even after Sunday’s game, you watch in the cold light of day, and you’re not a million miles away but you’re far enough away to get a result. Usually you compute all that and see where you’re at. We’re not a million miles away.”

Saturday’s opponents lost their opening four games and still finished 12th, and Dyche accepted: “It can be done in many different ways in this division.

“If we had the game run in mid-season at the start last year, people would have questioned us.

“Players have to bring what they can. Bournemouth have done brilliantly all the time that Eddie’s been there.

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“There’s no easy games in the Premier League. There are some super-power clubs. We look at every game and take them seriously. We remind ourselves of the good players we have and look to deliver performances.”