Sean Dyche Burnley
BURNLEY captain Ben Mee is ruled out of Saturday’s trip to Manchester City after testing positive for Covid-19. The defender missed the Clarets’ goalless draw with Norwich City in their last outing before the international break. Nathan Collins – who joined from Stoke City over the summer – made his first Premier League start in Mee’s absence. Collins also made his international debut during the break, coming off the bench for in the Republic of Ireland’s 4-0 win over Qatar on Tuesday night. Dyche has been impressed with the young defender and believes he has what it takes to rise to the occasion at the Etihad.
Sean Dyche said: “He is moulding himself into a Premier League player, playing can only enhance that. He has made a decent start in the cup games and he played well against Norwich. He is delivering in training and he has a real intent to improve and I have enjoyed it. If he plays on Saturday, it will be very tough against Man City, but that is how you learn and progress.”
Meanwhile, Matej Vydra is “touch and go” after picking up a knock while on international duty with the Czech Republic. Charlie Taylor is also a doubt for the Etihad, but summer signing Maxwel Cornet is available after suffering a hamstring injury in the 2-2 draw at Leicester City last month. Johann Berg Gudmundsson is also available despite missing Iceland’s recent World Cup qualifiers. Another summer signing could be involved in the squad, with full back Connor Roberts having started Wales’ victory over Estonia in midweek. That decision prompted raised eyebrows from Dyche and Roberts is likely to have to wait a bit longer to be in the picture for a starting berth at Burnley.
Sean Dyche added: “I felt it was a bit premature to start him in the game but he came through it well so that’s no problem. He’s trained today so no effects of that. He still needs more game time for me, he’s been out for a quite a long while. We’ll probably try to get him involved in and around it because that’s an important part of his settling period. We’re still learning about Connor because he’s hardly played any football. We do believe in him, quite obviously, that’s why we brought him here but we’ve got two very, very strong full backs.”
