Huge win but

[TVC15]

Sounds an awful game. Thank God I didn't watch it. Even Dyche admitted we were awful which he hardly ever does. Must have been terrible. Very satisfying being warm and cosy at home with the score changing to 1- 0 in the last minute and getting the three points with s game like that. Might try it more often as we are horrible to watch at the moment! 3 points and I can live with it though especially when I don't watch it. Nice early Christmas present.

Is that really what Dyche said ?
Do you have a link ?

[boatshed bill]

Seems that we don't have the players to play a more expansive game, and when we try to we get stuffed. SD is a pragmatist, and I think we may see more games like this until we are safe.

[Steve1956]

Given we now have 24 points from 18 games, and third from bottom only have 15 from 18, it's looking likely that less than 38 will be enough to stay up. 35-36 could do it meaning just 4 more wins from out remaining 20 games.

I hope this can now instill a bit more confidence and looser purse strings next month.

Seeing as we only need 4 wins I think the board will be even tighter and more or less go with what we have got,possibly the loan guy from Chelsea and that will be it ..not Drinkwater the young kid .

[BennyD]

Personally I would have much preferred watching today’s efforts than what I saw at Spurs. It would have been a longer journey home but I would have enjoyed it more, however bad today’s game was.

[cricketfieldclarets]

Conditions were awful...that is the only “but”
Backs to the wall ? What ?
They had 3 attempts and none on target. We were the better team in the first half and them in the second half.

I’m not saying by any means that we are Barcelona but the way the media often talk you would think Bournemouth are. As much as they like to exaggerate our style they do the same with Bournemouth. This is the same Bournemouth who have the second lowest number of goals in the division and have scored more set pieces than any other team in the league....the same Bournemouth who had a £20m forward who can’t hit a barn door on the bench and another forward on the bench who is on £100k a week.

Great result - and no buts

Sorry wasnt implying today was backs to the wall. Merely pointing out I can appreciate those games. I domt expect us to go out amd flatten teams.

[cricketfieldclarets]

For me what we need to do is use january as a prime opportunity to invest in youth and pace.

We are in a strong place in the league - if we beat villa almost safe in January. We have a very favourable cup draw.

Lets use that to get some new players in to mount a cup run AND bed them in for next years league campaign. Rather than the usual last week of summer and getting Dyche fit.

I suspect though the board will have a short term view and see our position as reason to keep the money banked until August.

[Woodleyclaret]

6 points out of 6 thats what counts
Both the last two sides were potential banana skins.

[Lowbankclaret]

Personally I would have much preferred watching today’s efforts than what I saw at Spurs. It would have been a longer journey home but I would have enjoyed it more, however bad today’s game was.

I agree, 9 minutes in at Spurs we were done. Lots of our fans went to the bar and didn’t come back.

Much have preferred coming home on the coach today.

Stayed in the game and then nicked it.

Great result.

Stop bloody moaning!!

[THEWELLERNUT70]

In all fairness the conditions were bloody atrocious.

A wins a win. 4 more of those and we should be safe

[Quickenthetempo]

I watched the Everton Arsenal game and then our game.
Two of the most boring football matches ever to grace the premier league.

[claretspice]

Seems that we don't have the players to play a more expansive game, and when we try to we get stuffed. SD is a pragmatist, and I think we may see more games like this until we are safe.

I dont think its about being expansive particularly - its about using the ball better. It's a considerable period - possibly wolves in August- since the general consensus was we'd gone away from home and kept the ball ok. I think we have got the players to be better in they regard - Barnes and Wood are a superb duo but they dont always help us keep the ball and there's increasing evidence that 2 big lads up top isn't always effective for us away from home.

[Hedontplayforyou]

If we went toe to toe with teams in this league and tried to play them off the park we’d have been relegated a few years ago, we play to our strengths, and when we do it well we play some decent stuff with it at times. A lot of ugly stuff on their but I don’t care. Having seen where we have come from in the last 10-15 years how can any of us complain ?

A few examples would be :

Not having enough players to fill the subs bench - Cotterill era.
Being beaten 7-4 on a weeknight by Watford in the honking rain.
Watching Michael Duff play as a center forward against Reading (I think)
And watching Wayne Thomas play center half (I know that was his position but my oh my)

UTFC

[turfytopper]

Huge win but........still work to do.

Premier League football is invaluable to the town...long may it continue..the last 20 years have been beyond my wildest dreams.

[boatshed bill]

I dont think its about being expansive particularly - its about using the ball better. It's a considerable period - possibly wolves in August- since the general consensus was we'd gone away from home and kept the ball ok. I think we have got the players to be better in they regard - Barnes and Wood are a superb duo but they dont always help us keep the ball and there's increasing evidence that 2 big lads up top isn't always effective for us away from home.

I get what you are saying. yes, we don't hold the ball very well, but I'm thinking of the rather too many occasions where we've been done on the break often lacking defensive cover.

[Steve1956]

I watched the Everton Arsenal game and then our game.
Two of the most boring football matches ever to grace the premier league.

What as the last game you watched before these two,ours and Newcastle's effort last week,make that three on the trot for you

[Quicknick]

Huge win but .
We did it the Burnley way ,the only way we know how to at the moment .

And you're complaining.

[thelaughingclaret]

Said this last week, I’d much rather we play poorly in a drab game and win then try and play a style of football we can’t play, and then get relegated. A wins a win and that means 3 points. You don’t get points for playing fancy football, we get points for playing anti-football and long may it continue!

[Quickenthetempo]

What as the last game you watched before these two,ours and Newcastle's effort last week,make that three on the trot for you

Yeah, luckily I watched my lads team win 7-6 in a belter of a game inbetween.

[Vegas Claret]

Is that really what Dyche said ?
Do you have a link ?

go the post match interviews thread, he says it in every interview !!

[cricketfieldclarets]

If we went toe to toe with teams in this league and tried to play them off the park we’d have been relegated a few years ago, we play to our strengths, and when we do it well we play some decent stuff with it at times. A lot of ugly stuff on their but I don’t care. Having seen where we have come from in the last 10-15 years how can any of us complain ?

A few examples would be :

Not having enough players to fill the subs bench - Cotterill era.
Being beaten 7-4 on a weeknight by Watford in the honking rain.
Watching Michael Duff play as a center forward against Reading (I think)
And watching Wayne Thomas play center half (I know that was his position but my oh my)

UTFC

You missed Orient, Hereford and Wimbledon.

[Pstotto]

Sounds like a World Cup Final...

[scouseclaret]

For me what we need to do is use january as a prime opportunity to invest in youth and pace.

We are in a strong place in the league - if we beat villa almost safe in January. We have a very favourable cup draw.

Lets use that to get some new players in to mount a cup run AND bed them in for next years league campaign. Rather than the usual last week of summer and getting Dyche fit.

I suspect though the board will have a short term view and see our position as reason to keep the money banked until August.

I think more than anything in the transfer market, what I’d like to see is us have a proper crack at the cup. As you say, we have a very winnable draw, but against the sort of opponents that all too often have beaten weakened Burnley teams in the last few years. We look ok in the league - let’s try and make it a memorable season.

[Ashingtonclaret46]

I watched the Everton Arsenal game and then our game.
Two of the most boring football matches ever to grace the premier league.

I was at Newcastle today and that wasn't much better with players falling around all over the place, Zaha being the main culprit.
Simon Hooper was the referee and he was every bit as bad as he was at Bramall Lane when we played there.
The only bright spark is that I can say that I was there when Almiron scored his first Premier League goal.

Interesting thing to me was that Andy Carroll was nowhere near as physical as he was at the Turf last week, meaning it must be us because a radio report I heard today said that we were disgusting and I see that Eddie Howe is complaining and saying some of the tackles should be reviewed. Long may it continue!!
Great win for us today and that is all that matters!

[martin_p]

Another win, 24 points and another clean sheet, our seventh this season which is apparently equal best in the Premier League. Happy days!

Interesting stat time. We haven’t lost a game where we’ve managed to keep a clean sheet

[Walt]

Expansive football....call it negative or lack of ambition but when will people realise..... Play open football on a regular basis with this squad, we will go down. We play to our strengths and it works.

Sign players to allow us to play more expansively and have a reasonable hope of staying up, quite simply costs money we dont have.

Let's just enjoy what we are and what we are achieving. 10th, no shots on target against us in 2 crucial games.

I'm pretty content. If you're not then I really dont know what you expect.

[Bfcboyo]

And you're complaining.

Not at all. I took the opening posts title and turned into a post on my view. I am very happy with the 3 points and don't mind being a bit Stokeesque for a while as we build and maintain premiere league status.

Are you complaining at wrongly perceived possible complaining?

I am complaining now !

[Quickenthetempo]

I wouldn't call being able to pass the ball to a teammate expansive.
We're not asking for Man City style.

[claretspice]

I get what you are saying. yes, we don't hold the ball very well, but I'm thinking of the rather too many occasions where we've been done on the break often lacking defensive cover.

I think that's a fair observation but I'm not sure there's a particular correlation between that and whether or not we try to pass the ball in order to keep it better. If anything, when we set up as we have in the last couple of weeks and reduce the game to a scrap, we make ourselves more susceptible to being picked off in that way because if we cant retain the ball reliably,
we're giving the ball away without always having control of the shape of the game.

It's not really a criticism, but it is an area where we can get better. Not a question of opening up - as I say, potentially the opposite- but more of taking the sting out of games and being a bit more patient with the ball.

[Hipper]

Don't think we have lost to anyone below us in the table when we played them. That's the way to stay up.

Palace.

We also beat Newcastle when they were above us.

[TVC15]

I wouldn't call being able to pass the ball to a teammate expansive.
We're not asking for Man City style.

It seemed to work ok for our goal. Lennon passed it to Westwood.
Westwood passed it onto JayRod’s head
And JayRod headed it in the goal.

A better more effective move than anything Bournemouth managed all afternoon.

[Tricky Trevor]

Barnes and Wood are a superb duo but they dont always help us keep the ball and there's increasing evidence that 2 big lads up top isn't always effective for us away from home.

Absolutely no complains about them today. I don’t remember either of them getting a ball to feet. They chased everything for us and deserved better. The gale blowing was the killer for our long passing style.

[claretspice]

It seemed to work ok for our goal. Lennon passed it to Westwood.
Westwood passed it onto JayRod’s head
And JayRod headed it in the goal.

A better more effective move than anything Bournemouth managed all afternoon.

Kind of supports the argument we've got the quality to retain the ball and use it better, so doesn't really undermine the observation we could benefit from unlocking that ability more regularly.

[Tricky Trevor]

And JayRod headed it in the goal.

It actually went in from a combo of JRods chest and a Bournemouth arm. If the goal hadn’t been given VAR would have had to give a pen.

[claretspice]

Absolutely no complains about them today. I don’t remember either of them getting a ball to feet. They chased everything for us and deserved better. The gale blowing was the killer for our long passing style.

Two way street though. Playing with two out and out strikers always means you'll play through and into feet less. Particularly when for all their strengths, their weaker points include finding space and receiving the bal/linking the game up in tight spaces with their back to goal.

[boatshed bill]

I think that's a fair observation but I'm not sure there's a particular correlation between that and whether or not we try to pass the ball in order to keep it better. If anything, when we set up as we have in the last couple of weeks and reduce the game to a scrap, we make ourselves more susceptible to being picked off in that way because if we cant retain the ball reliably,
we're giving the ball away without always having control of the shape of the game.

It's not really a criticism, but it is an area where we can get better. Not a question of opening up - as I say, potentially the opposite- but more of taking the sting out of games and being a bit more patient with the ball.

Spice,
I'd put this down to you looking at the game in a very different way to how I see it (I mean as a whole), football, as they often say, is about opinions. I'm seeing SD as a pragmatist and I reckon he'll squeaze out enough points from the bottom half clubs to see us home. I think he'll do it by cutting back on attempted ball retention, even against the bottom half, in favour of scrappy one-nils. Remember our promotion seasons?

[TVC15]

Kind of supports the argument we've got the quality to retain the ball and use it better, so doesn't really undermine the observation we could benefit from unlocking that ability more regularly.

Yep you keep saying.
Back in the real world it was driving rain and a very strong wind for the whole of the game and very difficult for both teams to show any quality on the ball - fortunately for us we showed more than them.
I’m not sure what Everton and Arsenal’s excuses were today - as without the conditions we had they both made far more unnecessary errors than we did.

[tim_noone]

just stop at Huge bell end

[tim_noone]

We are embarrasing,We are embarrassing

Very Bournemouth......it was a pleasure to be in attendance.

[Tricky Trevor]

Two way street though. Playing with two out and out strikers always means you'll play through and into feet less. Particularly when for all their strengths, their weaker points include finding space and receiving the bal/linking the game up in tight spaces with their back to goal.

Can’t agree with first part. Two strikers you should be able to play into feet, if they are willing to run towards the pass and then have the ability to get it under.
I do agree with your second part this isn’t a strength for either of them.

[tiger76]

Yep you keep saying.
Back in the real world it was driving rain and a very strong wind for the whole of the game and very difficult for both teams to show any quality on the ball - fortunately for us we showed more than them.
I’m not sure what Everton and Arsenal’s excuses were today - as without the conditions we had they both made far more unnecessary errors than we did.

Valid point plus Everton and Arsenal have expensively assembled squads,supposedly worth 100's of millions,and they produced a damp squib of a match.

[Spiral]

Our club: boring as $hit, but just enough grind in us to marginally push us on the right side of just about enough results to fart about in the middle of the premier league. Whatever. I suppose it's better than losing to Brentford.

[claretspice]

Yep you keep saying.
Back in the real world it was driving rain and a very strong wind for the whole of the game and very difficult for both teams to show any quality on the ball - fortunately for us we showed more than them.
I’m not sure what Everton and Arsenal’s excuses were today - as without the conditions we had they both made far more unnecessary errors than we did.

Any team can have a bad afternoon on the ball in difficult conditions. When it's a trend though, that excuse rather loses credibility. And it is a trend, even in our two wins, for our away performances in particular to a bit lacking in both refinement and control.

Danger of making a necessity out of a virtue here. Being able to hang tough on a day when you're under par is a virtue. But it would be better to consider trying to have fewer days when we're under par away from home.

These arguments always get slightly absurdly polarised. On the one hand there are those who want to see us play like Man City, possibly with similar flamboyance in the transfer market. On the other hand there are those who increasingly seem to resist any debate whatsoever about whether we can refine our game. Each position is almost as daft as the other.

[jrgbfc]

Lucky for us theres some real dross in the league this year. Us and Newcastle in the top half says it all. Outside the top 7 or 8 the league is really poor this year.

[TVC15]

Any team can have a bad afternoon on the ball in difficult conditions. When it's a trend though, that excuse rather loses credibility. And it is a trend, even in our two wins, for our away performances in particular to a bit lacking in both refinement and control.

Danger of making a necessity out of a virtue here. Being able to hang tough on a day when you're under par is a virtue. But it would be better to consider trying to have fewer days when we're under par away from home.

These arguments always get slightly absurdly polarised. On the one hand there are those who want to see us play like Man City, possibly with similar flamboyance in the transfer market. On the other hand there are those who increasingly seem to resist any debate whatsoever about whether we can refine our game. Each position is almost as daft as the other.

How about when we played really well away at Arsenal and Wolves and only picked up a point when we could easily have had four ?
I would love us to “refine our game” and having the likes of Westwood and McNeill in our team we do show plenty of glimpses of it.
But as things stand Dyche plays a system that suits his players and a way that he believes will give us the best chance of getting a result - and he seems to be doing pretty well.
He would argue (and has) that he has tried to develop the way we play - or refine it as you call it. What he can’t account for is that when the game starts if some of his players are careless with their passing or make unforced errors. I don’t think that’s anything to do with Dyche or our system - it’s just players not playing as well as they can or making wrong decisions.
Dyche is never going to try and completely change our style of play whilst he is at Burnley with the financial constraints he has to operate within - because he probably knows that the players he has at his disposal would struggle and he will have seen what happened to teams like Stoke when they tried to move away from what they were good at.
IMHO I just think we have a few fans who expect a bit too much and forget how tough this league is every single week. Look at Villa today - spent an absolute fortune and hammered by a team who we easily beat. It’s like this almost every week with most of the league outside the top 6. It’s so hard to string wins together and show consistency every week.
Chelsea playing us off the park.
Burnley easily beating West Ham.
West Ham beat Chelsea !

Happens frequently in this league and you just have to hope you turn up enough times in a season and do what you need to win - whatever way you choose to play.

[Flat Stanley]

Is that really what Dyche said ?
Do you have a link ?

Maybe not those words but this is from the BBC match report and is about as close as Dyche gets to saying we played poor football.

'Burnley manager Sean Dyche said: "It was super poor conditions, a poor game but we stuck to the task. It is hard to find ways of winning and we managed to do that.

"The pleasing thing is, in the second half they were better than us, but we stayed resolute to the task.

"[Nick] Pope has had minimal to do regarding saves and we found a moment. There was not a lot of goalmouth action, not a great game but we get three points. We hope and want to play better but we get the three points'.

The fact he said they were better than us in the second half when they didn't have a shot on target and that we hope and want to play better suggests to me we were awful. That and the fact we had two shots in the whole game, one on target. Thankfully that was the goal.

[TVC15]

Maybe not those words but this is from the BBC match report and is about as close as Dyche gets to saying we played poor football.

'Burnley manager Sean Dyche said: "It was super poor conditions, a poor game but we stuck to the task. It is hard to find ways of winning and we managed to do that.

"The pleasing thing is, in the second half they were better than us, but we stayed resolute to the task.

"[Nick] Pope has had minimal to do regarding saves and we found a moment. There was not a lot of goalmouth action, not a great game but we get three points. We hope and want to play better but we get the three points'.

So he didn’t say that.
If you want to read between the lines he is saying we can of course play better, the conditions were terrible and whilst they were slightly better than us in the second half they still caused us no problems - hence no shots on target, few attempts even....and no saves for Pope to make.

Poor game I accept - but they were poorer than us.

[Vegas Claret]

For me what we need to do is use january as a prime opportunity to invest in youth and pace.

We are in a strong place in the league - if we beat villa almost safe in January. We have a very favourable cup draw.

Lets use that to get some new players in to mount a cup run AND bed them in for next years league campaign. Rather than the usual last week of summer and getting Dyche fit.

I suspect though the board will have a short term view and see our position as reason to keep the money banked until August.

Agree 100% but time for that was when we qualified for the Europa League, can't see them doing it now unfortunately

[Vegas Claret]

Kind of supports the argument we've got the quality to retain the ball and use it better, so doesn't really undermine the observation we could benefit from unlocking that ability more regularly.

this is the drum I've been banging for the last few years, when we get it down we play some really good football, we've scored some superb goals by doing it too - baffles me when we just persist in hoofing it

[Danieljwaterhouse]

I think that's a fair observation but I'm not sure there's a particular correlation between that and whether or not we try to pass the ball in order to keep it better. If anything, when we set up as we have in the last couple of weeks and reduce the game to a scrap, we make ourselves more susceptible to being picked off in that way because if we cant retain the ball reliably,
we're giving the ball away without always having control of the shape of the game.

It's not really a criticism, but it is an area where we can get better. Not a question of opening up - as I say, potentially the opposite- but more of taking the sting out of games and being a bit more patient with the ball.

We can get better but we’re really limited by the technical ability of our midfield. They’re just not able to play in small spaces consistently. Defour and Barton stood out so much because we’ve never seen that level of technical ability on the turf.

We get pressed, we play sideways and then back into Mee or Tarks who hit the channel. Or we get pressed, play into Lowton, who hits a channel.

Taylor and Dwight are able to play in those small spaces and so we can outlet down the left with some success.

Dwight inside with Drinkwater and Hendrick would totally transform our midfield, we’d be looking to play in a different manner. Even in the Drinkwater camo you could see him work through the out-letting options he had more successfully than Cork or Westwood. On the halfturn constantly, looking to play short passes into fullbacks on the bomb or challenge the CB outside channel, and carrying the ball through the lines. If we could recruit him full time I think he, Vydra and JRod would transform this teams style at home. The ball retention would also support Tarks steeping forward and creating overloads in midfield, something we can’t do at the moment because of the counter attack risk when play breaks down so easily.

[Hibsclaret]

TVC absolutely spot on as usual.

Absolutely knew that the usual suspects would be coming out with nonsense centred around our alleged poor play etc. The fact is the weather was beyond awful and perfect for a soft Eddie team to take a few strong challenges that were fair and perfect for the conditions. As for him whining about that after the game when his powder puff team were going down quicker than a ten bob whore all afternoon, do me a favour. In fact it happened so often I was convinced he was time wasting to play for a draw.

We were better than them in the first half and it was clearly slightly easier playing the way we played in the first half as they were slightly better in the second half. That said they never looked like scoring and were beyond embarrassing to not have a shot on target at home all game. They were happy to sing as to how embarrassing we were and how they wouldn’t want to watch us every week.....that’s just about the most ironic thing I’ve ever heard. It wouldn’t surprise me if they go down this season.