What did you think of Dyche?

Seems to be a mixed opinion between Burnley fans when it comes to Dyche, one minute hes the Ginger Mourinho, the next out of his depth.

Just wondered what your opinion of him is? A lot of Burnley fans criticism is that goals seem to have dried up with him and want him to play more than one man upfront.

Another criticism is his post match interviews, not admitting he was in the wrong, saying the same old over and over again.

Be interesting to hear your thoughts, if you can stretch back to the bad ol days

 

You have to remember that this was his first job as Manager and he took over when Malky McKay walked out on us. He guided us to a higher than expected mid table place and to be honest the type of football was not the most important thing. This year we would probably only have hoped for further progression towards the play offs - but on our resources would not have expected too much. I think if you give him time he will come good and you will grow to appreciate him more - as we did

His post match interviews were terrible - thank goodness Zola is very much more honest about what happened during a game and not as defensive.

 

Dyche will always be remembered quite fondly in his one season in charge. In the summer before he took charge we had lost Malky Mackay and a fair chunk of the backroom staff, along with Don Cowie, to Cardiff, Will Buckley to Brighton and Danny Graham to Swansea. Thus we had lost the spine of our team and our manager. In came in a number of new signings, though with the likes of Carl Dickinson and Chris Iwelumo, none of them were exactly stellar. As well as this, we had a new owner in Laurence Bassini, someone declared bankrupt four years before taking over the club and someone who fans had not the slightest idea where he got the money from.

So in the backdrop of this turmoil, Dyche did a fantastic job. We struggled initially and we were in the bottom three by late November time, but Dyche managed to turn it around, and it the last couple of months of the season we played some pretty neat football. He made some key signings in January bringing in Nyron Nosworthy in defence and Tomas Kuszczak in goal. In midfield he promoted academy graduate Sean Murray, and up front brought in the previously out-of-favour Troy Deeney. Thus he recognised where we were going wrong and rectified it. In January we even sold Marvin Sordell for £4m and our form still improved

This turned around a team that was stuttering prior to Christmas that season. Interesting that he plays with one-up front with Burnley, as at Watford he played a 4-4-2 formation for the majority of the campaign. The football was quite mixed, at times it could be direct, whilst at other times we did try to play it on the floor. The problem I saw with Dyche is at the end of the season we were chasing the play-offs, but we didnt quite have the killer instinct when we needed it against teams higher up the table when we needed it. Maybe the same problem is happening with Burnley? Dyche could be a good manager for a Championship club that wants stability in mid-table, but might struggle with more ambitious plans? From the outside I see a club like Burnley, in terms of the quality of the team and the size of its budget, and see that mid-table should be about right for them.

 

Under the circumstances, Dyche did fantastic job with us, and will forever be appreciated at the Vic. We were among the relegation favourites at the start of the season (for a change) and he exceeded all expectations. Yes, maybe we didn;t play the prettiest of football, but we didn't have the players to do that, so he palyed to our strengths! I wouldn't call us over-physical, we just played 'effective-football' at times.

This was also his first job in management, and being an ex-player for us, he had that bit more support even when we were struggling. It was almost a no-lose situation for him with us. We didn't have high-expectations for the season with plenty of off-field problems, so as long as we weren't in a relegation struggle, he would be performing well

I think most fans wanted him to get a shot with the new owners with their backing, and was disappointed when we let him go! Hindsight shows it was a good move, but I think most Watford fans wish him the best, and would love him to succeed. With Cardiff looking like going up, I think a lot of our fans would love us finishing 2nd with Burnley winning the play-offs!

 

Ditto!

 

it's been said. The one thing i'd say is that now we really notice a difference having a manager who is a forward player rather than one who comes from a defensive background, eg, Malky and SD. But he was very popular at the Vic, and i don't know anyone who doesn't want him to do well, especially after the way he was booted out, having done a good job in difficult circumstances last season (not that this wasn't, in hindsight, the right thing to do).

Give him time, i truly believe he will be a very good manager, though i agree, his post match interviews seem a little repetitive!

 

H, the comparison of GZ with MM and SD are interesting considering the managers who have got us promoted to the top flight were both full backs and they weren't exactly teams that ground out 1-0 wins, were they?

 

Thanks Chaps, interesting to read.

So you would say you didn't "Go for it" it enough under him? That you were set up too defensively?

I am of the opinion what he is trying to do at Burnley isn't necessarily bad, he seems very stubborn at keeping tight defensively.

Despite the fact he always seems to play 4-5-1 with us, we approach games to attack and win, but it seems his main concern is always keeping the ball, keeping shape and keeping safe. A lot of the time theres situations where theres only one man in the box and in a lot of games we have dominated, but not scored especially against teams good at shutting up shop. Ultimately its easy to see this has cost us, not knowing the result should we have risked more, but we have gone from a team conceding lots and scoring lots to a team conceding little and scoring little, a very strange situation to be under, especially when you notice despite playing a 4-5-1, we do attack, do go for it, but can't provide the finishing touch.

For you, did you notice the goals dry up? Did you improve defensively or as a whole?

I guess like you say, if you sold a lot of players previously, its hard to make a comparison. Perhaps its also a case of a manager good at avoiding relegation, but not particularly at going for promotion.

Well I'll look forward to my trip to Vicarage Road, always been good days out there. However this time around I think it might be a matter of being outclassed

 

Thanks for the insight chaps.

Hard to compare really considering so many of your players were sold.

Did you find any strengths or weaknesses to his game? was the defense sorted out first and attack later? Or was it an overall improvement.

After our last two home performances fans already are calling for his head (on clarets mad anyway ) it seems like we don't seem to be playing to our strength and I'm not quite sure if that's him making sure any changes don't alter us at the back or if he's just getting to grips.