Sean Dyche has insisted there is no need for panic as Burnley’s wait for a first Premier League win of the season goes on.
Dyche’s side sit in the bottom three with four points from nine games going into Saturday’s meeting with Brentford at Turf Moor.
Wednesday’s 1-0 home Carabao Cup defeat to Tottenham means that Burnley still only have one victory inside 90 minutes this season in any competition – against League Two Rochdale.
But the Clarets are only one point worse off than they were at the same stage last season – when they ultimately beat the drop by 11 points – and Dyche is confidence performances will translate into results sooner rather than later.
“You can always get the points you need,” Dyche said. “We’ve seen it down the years with various stories. We don’t want to be an amazing story but if that’s what it needs, that’s what it needs.
“We believe in the performance levels but we’ve got to turn it into wins. A lot of people ask about panic but panic is not for a game of football or football management.
“There are a lot of things at work – structure, organisation, belief, strategy and trust. If you ever think of that word you’re taking away from the staff and the way we work, the culture, the environment.
“Those are the things that allow clarity. Panic is not a word for football management. There are lot more serious things happening than putting a football team together.”
Dyche has preached the same mantra from the start of the season. Though he acknowledged problems do not fix themselves, he insisted there was no point in changing things for the sake of it.
“It’s about good preparation, good delivery and organisation and the right mentality,” he said.
“We’re putting those in place and I’m reasonably happy with that. I’m not happy with the results and that’s my job at the end of the day, to help the team get results.
“There are a lot of good things going on. We’re not going to over-question things when we know for a fact they’re going right.
“But we can’t be naive enough to think it’s just going to mend itself because you’ve got another team out there trying to stop you and they don’t care how things are going with you.”
This weekend that team will be Brentford, unbeaten on the road thus far.
Thomas Frank’s side lost their last two league games before Wednesday’s Carabao Cup win over Stoke, but have been one of the great stories of the first quarter of the season, riding high in 12th having beaten the likes of Arsenal, West Ham and Wolves, while drawing with Liverpool.
“They’ve adapted in a different way,” Dyche said. “They’re playing quicker, playing forward, they’re aggressive in the right way with their running and pressing.
“There’s a feel to the group of being new to the Premier League, that openness to the challenge. It’s a shoulders-back feeling. You’ve seen it down the years and I think they’re using it wisely…
“I know they’ve lost a couple but generally they’re in a healthy place with an open-mindedness to what comes next…
“But we’re in a good place ourselves and I can’t underestimate where we are. I know the group and how we work. I know when we’re working properly and when we’re working well. I also know the details are massively important in the Premier League.”
