Premier League Clarets ready to play first friendly
It is sixty-nine days since Burnley beat Charlton Athletic to clinch the Championship title and in just a few hours we’ll be back out on the pitch for our first game since as the build up to the Premier League gets underway with a game against FC Stade Nyonnais, situated on the banks of Lake Geneva.
The first team squad, minus the three players who were on duty in the Euros, have been at nearby Evian in France since Monday and will play what Sean Dyche has described as a low-key game to get their public pre-season underway.
He said: “It’s still early into pre-season, so we are still building fitness, while always looking for the balance between having them full of fitness and energy, and not overworking them. Pre-season can be hard and you have to be careful to make sure that the players are not run down.
“We are pretty happy with the way things have gone this week though. People often talk about the physicality of our group and how strong we are, so there’s been a lot of good work this week and it all ends with a low-key game tonight.
“I am not doing the game down because we still want a good mentality, but this one is about fitness. We had a practice game yesterday to give them a feel and tonight they’ll probably get 45 minutes each, providing we don’t get any knocks.
“So it will be low key and not disrespecting the opposition, but I am not really interested in anything other than the players getting the feel for the football and a real game that gives them that fitness element.
“The game in the bigger picture is not that relevant, and although people might think that’s it now that the games have started, it’s not. There is still work to do when we get back, in and among the games programme.”
Burnley have a squad of 24 players at the training camp which includes 18-year-old midfielder Aiden O’Neill, who signed a new deal yesterday, and young goalkeepers Conor Mitchell and Tony Aghayere.
Most of those players will feature at some point this evening.
We got our 2015/16 pre-season underway similarly last year and played the first game in Geneva against Étoile Carouge, who play at the same level as tonight’s opponents.
On that occasion we used twenty players and won the game 2-1 with goals from Lukas Jutkiewicz and George Boyd.
On that occasion we lined up:
First Half: Tom Heaton, Cameron Dummigan, Tom Anderson, Michael Duff, Danny Lafferty, Matt Taylor, Steven Hewitt, David Jones, Michael Kightly, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Marvin Sordell.
Second Half: Matt Gilks, Matt Lowton, Luke O’Neill, Ben Mee, Stephen Ward, Scott Arfield, Fredrik Ulvestad, George Boyd, Michael Kightly (Danny Lafferty 61), Sam Vokes, Marvin Sordell (Steven Hewitt 61).
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