UK Edition
Sean Dyche looking beyond Mo Salah's brilliance as Burnley prepare for Liverpool task
Forget the New Year’s Day frivolities – there is precious little time for cheery escapism when the petrifying prospect of stopping Liverpool’s sensational winger, Mohammed Salah, awaits on a crammed festive agenda.
Perhaps Burnley’s best hope for containment is that the Egyptian – who has accrued 23 goals this season – succumbs to the niggle he picked-up inspiring Liverpool’s revival over Leicester on Saturday.
However, with or without Salah, the Burnley manager Sean Dyche, admits that his team will also have to concentrate on countering an impressive supporting cast of Philippe Coutinho, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.
“He’s a fine player, but it isn’t just about him. The top teams in the division, the superpowers as I call them, they have threats all over the place,” Dyche said.
“You can’t just look at one player. Harry Kane, what a player, what a professional, but Tottenham ain’t bad elsewhere. You look around that team and think if he has a quiet day, they have enough to open things up. Liverpool are the same, Man City quite obviously, Man United etc, etc.”
Not that it is a preposterous assignment for Burnley. Since their remarkable opening day victory at Chelsea they have spent the latter half of 2017 contorting the natural order.
Despite enduring their longest run of the campaign without a win (four games), recent showings against Liverpool (a draw at Anfield in September and a narrow defeat and a victory last term) deliver cause for optimism. As does a record of ten clean sheets, assuring that Europe and the top six remain in vision.
“There are a lot of factors involved to gain those results, which are not the norm,” Dyche said.
“Planning, them having a quiet day, referee’s decisions. We’ve done it more often this season, but it doesn’t guarantee anything. If you both perform at the top of your game, those big clubs win.”
Liverpool’s £75 million acquisition of Virgil van Dijk has also convinced Dyche that determining the worth of players is almost unmanageable due to market forces.
“I think (Jose) Mourinho is right, you either pay it or you don’t,” Dyche added. “The idea of us all having a gauge like we did five or 10 years ago when we all knew roughly where a player was, that’s gone. It’s just do you want the player, do you want to pay what the other club want?”
Huddersfield’s 0-0 draw against Burnley ensured that they continue in 11th, on course for their best finish to a season since 1954-55, though head coach David Wagner insisted that anything aside from survival “is totally irrelevant.”
“I would take anything which allows us to play next season in the Premier League,” Wagner said.
“How many points? I don’t know. Which place? I don’t know. If it is higher up the table, good. If not and we stay up, then also good. This is what it’s all about.”