Up at the crack of sparrows and caught the coach in good time. A full double decker of 70 die- hards absolutely desperate for a win and the news that Gana was unavailable didn’t exactly ease my worries. I’m no big fan of his to be honest but with the way we have been playing he would have been very useful.

Ian and I made our way to The Harlech which seemed busier than usual with still two hours to go. We met up with Jonathan Oppenheimer , Stephen, Neil and a few others and a couple of beers to the good made kick off approach all too quickly.

The team selected betrayed our paucity of options. Seamus is a shoo-in, which at 36 years old is not good. Ashley Young was an excellent player at his peak but at 38 he is nowhere near Premier League standard; his pace has gone completely and he should not have been selected. Our subs when eventually introduced showed why Dyche delayed their introduction for so long. Beto is not Premier League standard either, neither is Harrison and, taken with Seamus and Young, we finished the game with seven decent players which maybe explains why we didn’t control the last 15 minutes.

I didn’t think we were quite as bad as many posters on here have said. The defence was solid – they only had one chance all game which was headed straight at Pickford. Given how solid we were – ok there were nervous moments but we were never really in danger – I could understand the style of play. The old adage of “keep it tight and pinch one” applied here and to those complaining that we should have played a more expansive game I would ask how they would have reacted had we done that and left ourselves open to counter attack and let in a couple of goals as we had in our last home game.

I can remember the season 72-3 when we had a far worse team than this and a temporary manager who was clueless. Dyche knows what he is doing. He wasn’t brought here to play fancy football, but to keep us up. Look at the league table and then deduct four points and get a grip on how precarious our situation is. Deduct another three points to see the effect of a defeat yesterday and try to get your head around the idea that all that matters is we stay up. If we do after suffering say 9 or ten points being deducted and amidst a takeover which seems more bonkers with every new report, only one director who is visible( the excellent Colin Chong) and the constant rehashed stories in the press about our dire financial mess, then Dyche should be in the running for manager of the year. Ok maybe not but you get my point?

Rant over and back to the match which saw the rebirth of DCL. His goal was no fluke having done it before against Man U, he was strong, fast,aggressive skilful and looked back to his best- great credit to the staff who have nursed him back to fitness.

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Branthwaite was superb- what a player and should fetch us £100m. Mykolenko was excellent and McNeil put a dreadful first half behind him to run himself ragged in the second period. Gomes had a fine game though Doucoure was hopeless but he did try as did the whole team- no lack of effort or fight.

So the million dollar question- will we stay up? Obviously a lot rests on the second points deduction. Quite how a system which has been declared not fit for purpose can be allowed to punish a club twice in the same year baffles me but we look to be stuck with it. Four points or less and we are right in there. Surely they won’t go higher than that?

We then need a full squad available. It is an absolute sin that we don’t have any young players ready to come on from the bench- what were Unsworth and Co doing?? We need Danjuma available for a bit of pace and support to DCL. Sadly it doesn’t look like Dele will be fit to play a part- it must be some injury he has!! It would help if Onana suddenly caught fire and showed us what we will miss when he moves on in the summer. Can Gomes continue to show class in midfield and keep fit for the run in?

I can’t believe we are here yet again fighting to stay up. The crowd has a huge part to play and needs to create a lot more noise than yesterday regardless of the poor quality on show. All that matters is the points, stay up then see what happens with the takeover and what players we can retain because surely Branthwaite, Onana and possibly Pickford and DCL will be sold. If so can our scouts find some decent talent with pace? The future will be interesting to put it mildly.

Reader Comments (6)

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Dave Abrahams
1 Posted 08/04/2024 at 11:05:24
Rant over? It was well worth reading Dave full of common sense and you told the situation we are in as it is.

As for further point reductions I believe we will get one at the most and that will be one too much, but I have to confess that I know as much as you or anyone else and my opinion is mostly wishful thinking and one whisper I have heard.

John Raftery
2 Posted 08/04/2024 at 13:29:32
Dave, thanks for the report. You are absolutely correct about the pleas from those arguing for a more expansive approach. Dyche has also attracted some criticism for his post-match comments about winning ugly.

My translation of those comments is that he set the team up first and foremost to keep a clean sheet, let Burnley have the majority of possession and create scoring opportunities on the counterattack and at set pieces. That is a strategy for a limited squad which, without points deductions, would have delivered a safe mid-table position.

We have kept 9 clean sheets this season. Those games have delivered 23 points. On Saturday we had 37% possession which prompted criticism from some fans. How much did we have at Turf Moor in December when we enjoyed a comfortable 2-0 win? The answer is 38%.

Fans seemed to enjoy the other wins in December especially the home wins. Our possession stats in those games were ….

Nottingham Forest (a) 38%
Newcastle (h) 38%
Chelsea (a) 28%

Going back a little further we had 33% in the 3-2 win at Palace in November. Contrast that with the home league match against Palace when we had 63% to earn a 1-1 draw. At home to Luton in September we also had 63% possession in a 2-1 defeat. More recently in the home game against WHU we had 55% in a 3-1 defeat and last week at Bournemouth 51% in a 2-1 defeat.

In summary we do not have a team which is comfortable in possession. That has been the case for most of the last four years under Ancelotti, Benitez, Lampard and Dyche. Unlike Lampard and Benitez, Dyche has recognised the limitations of his players and for this crucial period will set his team up to exploit their strengths rather than expose their weaknesses.

So I hope for a few more ugly wins this month.

Brent Stephens
3 Posted 08/04/2024 at 13:59:25
2 points deducted!!
Jamie Crowley
5 Posted 08/04/2024 at 14:05:59
Dave Williams -

Apologies for hijacking your contribution / article. Very good read. Hope you understand the news regarding the points deduction is a pretty big deal. ;0).

Barry Rathbone
6 Posted 08/04/2024 at 14:18:08
Even if we end up in the lower leagues we will always have those in the "we are everton" brigade. Toleration of anything but winning attractive football isn't a consideration despite admitting we're dreadful.

It's all very odd

Raymond Fox
7 Posted 08/04/2024 at 14:45:59
A good sensible report Dave, thanks.

At this time the result IS more important than the performance, Dyche said as much after the game.

We can try to play open winning attractive stuff -when/if ever- we can afford to attract and buy better players.
We are going to have wait a few seasons before any serious money is available by the looks of it though.

2pts deducted I think is a result, I thought it might have been more.
Some of the clubs around us will be having a moan i've no doubt.

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