Burnley manager Sean Dyche believes that his players are ready to challenge for a Europa League spot despite an extremely small squad which has been plagued with injuries and expiring contracts recently. Despite all the issues on and off the field at the club, Burnley moved to eighth in the table after winning against Crystal Palace and have a genuine chance of finishing in a Europa League spot despite six first-team players injured and three players out of contract after 30th June. Dyche was again only able to name seven substitutes at Selhurst Park, with Jeff Hendrick, Joe Hart and Aaron Lennon no longer at the club and Chris Wood, Ashley Barnes, Jay Rodriguez, Robbie Brady, Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Matt Lowton on the treatment table.
Sean Dyche said “Having been through it (Europa League), it is very tough and you can’t really speak about it at the moment because you’ve seen how few players we’ve got so that obviously has to be addressed. That is a different ball game over the next few months and common sense. When you talk about the Europa, for the grandeur of a club like us making it is considerable. It does cause a lot of mental challenges. Of course we’ll have a short break in the summer as well this season because of what has gone on with the Covid-19 situation, so a lot of challenges. But the way we’ve built the mentality here is to keep winning or to tend to keep winning. It is not easy obviously but I think the players are open-minded and they will take each challenge as it comes. I think the main thing is that’s 13 clean sheets and 13 wins. That sounds pretty good to me. If you get both ends of the pitch right, you’re probably going to have a decent season. It is one of those things that is awkward now because of the player situation. If we had the players with us, I think we could go even stronger until the end of the season.”
