If it had been a boxing match it would have been stopped
Burnley’s 2-0 win against Norwich left manager Sean Dyche enthusing about his team’s performance while counterpart Daniel Farke was looking for positives in his team’s defeat.
Norwich had beaten reigning champions Manchester City last week but it wasn’t their day today and Farke, speaking after the match, admitted that sometimes more can be learned from a defeat.
“I would prefer to learn all our lessons from wins if I’m honest,” he said. “I’m never happy with a loss, but sometimes you can learn a bit more than a great game like against Man City. This is what we have to face, this is the reality. We have unbelievably young lads who sometimes need to learn some lessons.
“The reaction to going 2-0 down was okay. We put them close to their own box, dominated the game and created many chances. We hit the post and Teemu had the first big chance. Nick Pope made a world-class save, but if we had taken the lead there then it would have been a completely different game. Burnley were able to use their first chance, but my feeling was that we should have started the first 15 minutes more on the front foot.”
Farke bemoaned his team’s current injury problems too and lost his captain Alexander Tettey to an early injury. “He felt a strain in his groin,” Farke said. “I think it’s a muscle injury. It was unlucky that he had to come off because he was more or less our last holding midfielder who was available. Moritz Leitner wasn’t prepared for playing such a long time, but he had to come on the pitch and put in a decent performance. In general, it’s a tricky situation but it is what it is, so it doesn’t make any sense to cry or complain.
“It didn’t help that we had injury problems before the match. Tim Krul had to stop his warm-up and came in before kick-off with back problems. We tried to get him through this game anyhow, but it wasn’t easy. He’s one of our last leaders on the pitch, so with his injury, he was a bit more concentrated on himself instead of leading the group. We wanted to substitute Tim at half-time because he felt the pain even more. Thankfully, he did finish 90 minutes in the end because it was important to have him on the pitch. We have to wait for the outcome of that. I hope it’s not too bad because we have too many defensive players injured.”
Sean Dyche moved ahead of Stan Ternent today in terms of games as Burnley manager, moving him into fourth overall. “It was a great way to celebrate and I’m proud of that, but today the performance, not just the scoreline, was a good end to a good day,” he said.
“We were very strong and I never thought the result was in doubt. You always have that little edge when you are a manager because nothing is done until it’s done, but generally the shape was good, defensively we were very solid and we pressed them well and opened them up enough to score more than two.
“Everyone has their own style, but when we get our pressing right we are a force and it takes a cleverness. You have to know when to press and when to come off your shape. It’s a collective thing and I was really pleased with how they went about it today, that’s for sure.”
Chris Wood got both of the goals and Dyche said: “For the set piece I was pleased with my staff because there are certain things they work on and they deserve a lot of credit for that. For the second, we know what a good young player Dwight is. He keeps developing all the time and he’s got great feet and pulls a lovely ball back. Woody is on the spot and it’s a great bit of movement and a good finish because they are not easy.
“My only gripe was that we didn’t capitalise on so many counter attacks in the second half, but they’ve shown me enough, yet again, that we are a force when we get things right. They created very little, other than the one that hit the post, but by then if it had been a boxing match it would have been stopped. It would have been a travesty, although Nick made one good save to be fair.
“But over a ninety minute game you may have to make a save and I was pleased because he was ill yesterday and came through that with good focus.”
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