Sean Dyche vowed Burnley will “stay strong” in the face of a likely relegation battle but accepts results need to turn around quickly.
Boxing Day’s 5-1 loss to Everton took the Clarets’ tally of goals conceded this season to 38, only one fewer than in the whole of last term, and left them three points adrift of safety.
After last season’s seventh-placed finish, the contrast is certainly dramatic, and Sunday’s visitors West Ham will fancy their chances of inflicting further pain.
Dyche said: “A lot of expectation changes the look of Burnley from last season. I’m not stupid. I know the stats. It was improbable, not impossible but improbable, that it would be the same this season.
“It’s always a challenge for us, season on season, getting all those details right at both ends of the pitch, and this season it’s been quite obvious that on the defending side of the game, there have been too many details lacking, too many soft goals, too many soft moments.
“You’ve got to be deadly at one end and safe as houses at the other. And we haven’t found that balance. The margins we kept so tight last season always gave us a chance. But, if those margins go the wrong way, you can be out of a game before you’re in it.
“We’ve got to stay strong, really, to our beliefs. That’s another key thing, to remind ourselves of the realities, but also remind ourselves of the positive side of what we can do and how we can do it.
“When we play how we play and we do make it awkward for teams, while being a threat, then we’ve shown we can get results. That’s important to remember.
“I believe in what we do, I believe in the squad and I believe we’ve got players who can be effective, but I equally believe it’s got to happen pretty quickly.
“We can’t just keep waiting week on week and me saying that performances are improving, even though generally over the last few games I think they have. You’ve got to turn performances into wins.”
Dyche does not expect the opening of the January transfer window to provide much relief given Burnley’s financial constraints.
The summer window brought mostly frustration, with Joe Hart, Ben Gibson and Matej Vydra the only newcomers.
Dyche said: “I’ve managed it for six years, and I’ve always known it. I’ve never cried about it before and I’m not intending on crying about it now.
“Unless the club come to me and say, ‘We’re going to throw the whole model out of the window and we’re going to throw £100million in’ – which other clubs have done by the way, you only have to look at the last three windows and the net spend of clubs. You’d be amazed at what clubs have spent.
“We’ve found the right balance between money in the bank and putting players into the system and development and still signing what for Burnley have been some big fees. But everyone else is outrunning us with those fees.
“So we either adjust to it or we continue with what’s been put in place here, and then take on the challenge, which is currently the status quo.
“We’ve been down this road before where it is a tough situation but we’ve come through it. So the job is to use that experience, make sense of what we know about the players and come through it.”
Matt Lowton misses out through suspension while Robbie Brady and Steven Defour are likely to remain sidelined.
