"The thing I like getting credit for is when you win!" - Burnley boss Sean Dyche on his side's mixed football

There is only one style of football Sean Dyche is interested in - the type which wins football matches.
Sean DycheSean Dyche
Sean Dyche

The Burnley boss has long admitted he is no zealot to a particular brand or philosophy, with his footballing 'nirvana' being the mixed style which Sir Alex Ferguson's teams employed at Manchester United during one of the most dominant periods in English football history.

Dyche wants his sides to be able to play effective football, hurting the opposition in as many ways as possible, but his team has often been labelled as route one, with David Luiz accusing them of being 'anti-football' in 2019, while the previous year, Istanbul Basaksehir coach Abdullah Avci had described Burnley as "a team that play an old style of English football, which is direct with long balls".

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Curiously, Dyche had just got the better of both of those occasions, claiming a 2-2 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge to secure safety with three games to play, and coming away from Istanbul with a goal-less draw which allowed them to advance in the Europa League at Turf Moor.

Much has been said and written about Burnley's pragmatic approach, but against Everton at Turf Moor on Saturday, we saw a side mixing their play well, pressing, moving the ball at a high tempo, and creating chances through good delivery from wide areas, or threading throughballs between visiting defenders.

Asked about playing more football than Burnley are often credited with, Dyche smiled: “The thing I like getting credit for is when you win!

"You can chew the fat over everything else, but I like when you win.

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“We haven’t won enough this season, but over my time we have, and had some real successes in terms of promotions, and Europe, but equally staying in the Premier League.

“I really focus on that.

"If we can do it with the way we play, and being as effective as we can in as many ways as possible, then great.

"In other games, not so easy, so we have to find a way.

“That's what we have to do without doubt."

It was arguably the best performance of the season so far, offering real encouragement that the Clarets can recover from a disappointing start, and Dyche added: “I think there were real clear signs of that - the will, demand the energy, the spirit, and also the quality.

“Sometimes people question us, but at the end of the day, I know what we want to achieve and how we want to achieve it, and I think the players gave a good show of that.

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“We asked questions, we caused problems for them, we defended resolutely, our keeper makes saves, so does theirs - they are allowed to do that.

“We kept going, we kept working hard to win a game right to the end, so the mentality was good as well."