He is evidently our most talented player. He was brilliant today tackling back etc but playing him so deep has nullified his threat going forward.

for me at home it would be worth starting him where Geoff did today and see what happens. Our lack of creativity is hurting us in home games and I'm not seeing many other options at this point.

His attacking talents are cetainly wasted in Dyche's setup. However, he has played his role brilliantly.

He's on another level to the other players and is wasted playing so deep.

Him and Mooy were streets ahead of everyone.

Head and shoulders above his team mates today.

Without doubt he should be playing in a more attacking position. But sadly not the Dyche way.

Just wish my phone would stop with the detour shenanigans when I get overexicited trying to type his name.

My name Geoff

He's not a one man team, it's the rest of them not doing the job was the problem.
We over complicate our passing and continuously give it away.
Huddersfield were no great shakes but for the first 80 minutes every pass was a simple one, and they made us look like muppets.
I wouldn't mind if it was a one off, bit it's the story of our home form so far.

I do think it's repairable, but SD has to get it into their heads that trying to be clever is costing us, we give away possession so easily and so often, that we make other teams look good.

When you consider how good Robbie Blake and Wade Elliot were at those little triangles, it's criminal that our current players couldn't hold a candle to them.

KEEP IT SIMPLE , please

He's good but we need another one of him in the middle,A defensive defour and a dynamic defour

Ooogeorgeorgeoghani wrote:He's good but we need another one of him in the middle,A defensive defour and a dynamic defour

January is only around the corner

Excellent comments from Dyche about him today, one being he thought he was our best player and was outstanding in everything he did, or words to that effect.

Ooogeorgeorgeoghani wrote:He's good but we need another one of him in the middle,A defensive defour and a dynamic defour

I've got another good player lined up named Defive

Superb today.

Don't agree with the argument he should play further forward - he was terrific today at the heart of everything, getting on the ball with the game in front of him and with the opportunity to get drive forward with the ball. In my view, he'd be even more lost than Hendrick picking the ball up with his back to goal, as is often necessary when you're playing as the second '1' in the 4-4-1-1 we effectively play (the one time he did have his back to goal today, admittedly after a shocking pass from Lowton, he was easily dispossessed for possibly the only time in the game).

If I could be at all critical of him today, we could have done with him releasing himself occasionally to get outside Lowton down the right flank. He's a superb crosser as he showed when he almost found Barnes brilliantly after about 80 minutes - but that was the first and only cross he delivered all day. Perhaps he was too busy trying to do too much to get us playing, which is a pretty decent fault to have.

I said this morning that today would be a really good test of Defour - last season an aggressive pressing team who attack with fast transitions would have been the sort of team to really expose Defour's shortcomings. No hint of that today, so he made my pre-match suggestion we might leave him out look a bit daft.

Top players have a habit of falling back when they don't see the ball. Rooney used to do it regularly, for England and United.
The way we gave the ball away it's happen just as well that he did drop back.

claretspice wrote:I said this morning that today would be a really good test of Defour - last season an aggressive pressing team who attack with fast transitions would have been the sort of team to really expose Defour's shortcomings. No hint of that today, so he made my pre-match suggestion we might leave him out look a bit daft.

Fair do's spice lad, I saw your post this morning and immediately thought 'Defour is that good he can be whatever he wants to be' so was a tad surprised by your negativity towards what you thought he was capable of, the fact that you have acknowledged this without prompt makes you the second best poster on this messageboard.

Class today,on that performance he wouldn't have looked out of place in a top four side's midfield,we are very lucky to have him.

Defour was great, as was Arfield. Against a fairly resolute defence I thought we had a lot of bright moments.

Absolutely superb today. I don’t think he’s suited to playing behind Wood but it was evident that he was too deep to affect play in the final 20 minutes today. It would be nice to see him pulling the strings in more advanced positions.

As for who plays behind Wood I think we have a problem as Hendrick seems to look lost. Arfield is probably the most suited but it’s a shame that we haven’t got anyone with more end product to take up that role.

AndrewJB wrote:Defour was great, as was Arfield. Against a fairly resolute defence I thought we had a lot of bright moments.

Did we have a shot today?

Rileybobs wrote:Absolutely superb today. I don’t think he’s suited to playing behind Wood but it was evident that he was too deep to affect play in the final 20 minutes today. It would be nice to see him pulling the strings in more advanced positions.

As for who plays behind Wood I think we have a problem as Hendrick seems to look lost. Arfield is probably the most suited but it’s a shame that we haven’t got anyone with more end product to take up that role.

Playing behind the striker is not really his forte. Needs to be in the central engine room to dictate the pace of play.

Defour was excellent today but should stay deep. Think him and Cork really compliment each other too. Ideally we need some one new at the front of midfield. I think Arfield is better than Hendrick there on current form. We could have made the subs to change to this.

Often this season we haven't seen the best of what Cork and Defour can do for us as their game seems to have to incorporate a fair bit of what Marney does. Marney provides protection to the back four and allows the likes of Cork and Defour to do what they're best at. I accept that Hendrick has yet to find form following injury, but the missing link for me is that man Marney.

beddie wrote:Excellent comments from Dyche about him today, one being he thought he was our best player and was outstanding in everything he did, or words to that effect.

Pleased to read all the positives on Steven Defour. We will have a great season if Defour starts most games.

I believe today is the first time that Steven Defour has been on the pitch for the whole of a Premier League game (I don't think I've missed an earlier one).

UTC

Hendrick should have been nowhere near the starting eleven and his selection cost us two points in my opinion. He's unfit, out of form and has proved time and again he can't play that role.

Defour was simply outstanding. Looked like the fittest player on the park in the last 15 minutes which is something I never thought I'd hear myself saying.

Imagine...

Hendrick .......Defour......Cork.....Brady....

..........................INGS...............................

...............................Vokes........................

Top class again 10 stars from me today

Looks to me like he's had all the flair and creativity knocked out of him and turned into another runner.

Definitely shouldn’t be playing behind the striker as he doesn’t have any attributes to suggest he should.

He was easily the best player on the pitch today. His reading of the game is frighteningly good.

Aaron Mooy is a player, too.

We need an attacking central midfielder and a right winger. Defour and Cork behind a quality midfielder that can support the striker and bolster midfield would be fantastic. It’s why I advocated another midfield signing in the summer.

Wood was poor today but to be fair to him, he was living of balls fired at him from distance.

Class and looks interested which is a bonus..

He's just ordered Sky TV too, which is usually an 18-month term, so suggests he has no plans to go anywhere soon. Hope the Sky engineer eventually turned up

https://twitter.com/StevenDefour/status ... 5180408832" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Best Burnley player in many a year a joy to watch and deservedly mom yesterday. It's a shame others didn't match his efforts yesterday His teammates were often on another wavelength and lack speed of quality of passes

Woodleyclaret wrote: His teammates were often on another wavelength and lack speed of quality of passes

Well they will be won't they?

He's our best attacking midfielder, best defensive midfielder, best at pressing and best at passing. Without too much else to enthuse about yesterday, other than a pleasantly balmy afternoon, at least you get to watch him play for 90 minutes now.

"That's Steven to you!"

Claret_Jules wrote:He's just ordered Sky TV too, which is usually an 18-month term, so suggests he has no plans to go anywhere soon. Hope the Sky engineer eventually turned up

https://twitter.com/StevenDefour/status ... 5180408832" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

When you move house, you can move your Sky contract to the new address

Not sure how you know that he had ordered sky, however, his contract with sky is between them and subject to confidentiality.

Heard Sean Dyche being interviewed on radio lancs coming away from yesterday.

He was full of praise for his performance.

Take the positives lads.

He's still here, despite expectations he'd be on his way in the summer.

His performances are making him one of the first names on the team sheet.

He is clearly more committed and seems to be buying into the Dyche way.

He's fitter.

Sean Dyche knows all of the above.

Happy days.