Background and History
Born on June 28, 1971 in Kettering, Northamptonshire, Sean Dyche (SD) has become a household name in the managerial scene in the Premier League. SD started his youth career at Nottingham Forest in 1989, and made no appearance for the first team before departing for Chesterfield in 1990. He quickly established himself as a solid centre-back, playing 231 games between 1990-1997 (10 goals). In 1997, SD left Chesterfield for Bristol City, for which he made only 17 appearances (0 goals) during a 2-year spell, the second year being spent at Luton Town on loan (14 appearances, 1 goal). In 1999 he left Bristol City to join Millwall, for which he played until 2002 (69 appearances, 3 goals). In 2002 he left Millwall to join Watford, where he stayed until 2005 (72 appearances, 0 goals), also captaining the club in his final season. In 2005 he returned to his home county to play for Northampton Town – 56 appearances, 0 goals. In 2007, he was released by the club and his playing career effectively ended at the age of 36.1
Right after being released by Northampton, he rejoined Watford, this time as an under-18 coach. He spent two years in this role until July 2009, when he was appointed assistant manager under Malky Mackay. When Mackay left Watford to join Cardiff City in June 2011, SD was promoted to full-time manager. He managed Watford for 49 games, and their 11th place finish in the Championship in the 2011-2012 season was their best in four years (Table 1). He was dismissed at the end of the season following a change in ownership at Watford.1
| Team | From-To | P: W-D-L | Win% | PPM | GF:GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Watford | Jun 2011 – Jul 2012 | 49: 17-16-16 | 34.69 | 1.37 | 1.29:1.47 |
After his dismissal, he joined the England U-21 national team as a member of the backroom staff in September 2012, but quickly left his position to take over Burnley in October after Eddie Howe returned to Bournemouth. He has been at Burnley ever since, and has guided Burnley to two promotions to the PL – first in 2013/14, followed by immediate relegation back to the Championship in the 2014/15 season, and second in 2015/16, when they won the Championship title with 93pts and ended the season on a 23 league game undefeated run. They have been up in the PL ever since.
In the 2016/17 season they finished 16th. Staying in the PL allowed them to build an entirely new training complex (SD was heavily involved in the design) and to focus on improving the club infrastructure at the expense of a transfer budget. Even with a shoe-string budget SD kept Burnley up in the 2017/18 season, which saw their highest finish to date under SD- 7th place. This qualified them automatically for the Europa League and marked their return to European football after 51 years. However, their run was short-lived – they were eliminated by Olympiacos in the play-off round before the group stages. The lack of squad depth, interruption of pre-season due to European matches, and traveling have been suggested in the Price of Football podcast as reasons for their early elimination , as well as their 15th place finish in the 2018/19 season. In Table 2 you can find the stats for SD’s Burnley managerial career (including this season).
| Team | From-To | P: W-D-L | Win% | PPM | GF:GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burnley | Oct 2012 – present | 409: 149-110-150 | 36.43 | 1.36 | 1.19:1.26 |
Formations, Tactics, Style of Play
According to Transfermarkt, SD’s favourite formation is a low-block 4-4-2 (Figure 1) with a double pivot, which makes great use of long balls.
Overall
Basically, Burnley love to defend. It’s what they do, what they’re good at, and what they’re known for. In the 2020/21 season, Burnley have used the low-block 4-4-2 formation in 35/38 games, while this season they have used it in 13/15 games. They thrive on long balls, set-pieces, attempting crosses, and taking long shots from the middle of the pitch. To understand how much they rely on long balls – on average, 21% of all their passes in a game are long balls.3 Also, Burnley have scored 5 set-piece goals, which makes up a staggering 36% of all their goals so far.
SD likes to use the same 11 over and over again and he prioritizes discipline, compactness, and verticality over anything else. To understand how much he relies on a very small core of players, I’ve assembled the top 15 players in terms of appearances for Burnley in the Premier League since SD took over.
| Rank | Player | Appearances |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben Mee | 207 |
| 2 | Ashley Barnes | 185 |
| 3 | James Tarkowski | 173 |
| 4 | Matt Lowton | 149 |
| 5 | Ashley Westwood | 148 |
| 6 | Chris Wood | 142 |
| 7 | Johann Gudmundsson | 133 |
| 8 | Jack Cork | 127 |
| 9 | Jeff Hendrick* | 122 |
| 10 | Nick Pope | 120 |
| 11 | Charlie Taylor | 116 |
| 12 | Dwight McNeil | 111 |
| 13 | Sam Vokes* | 102 |
| 14 | Tom Heaton* | 96 |
| 15 | Scott Arfield* | 86 |
| * not at the club anymore |
Only 4/15 players have left the club. The rest have spent at least 4 years at Burnley and are still with the club. Now let’s look at his most used formation this season (Figure 2).
Recognize some names from Table 3? It’s genuinely impressive how much SD relies on the same core of players. In Figure 3 you can see the list of players in the squad, each with their respective position and appearances this season.
Defending
The backbone of the team is the GK-CBL-CBR trio, made of Nick Pope (1.98m – attempts the second most long balls/game in the league – 9.6, only behind David Raya – 10.7/game), Ben Mee (1.83m), and James Tarkowski (1.85m). These no-nonsense CBs and a GK capable of playing long balls embody the very spirit of Burnley, which is beautifully and artistically summed up by Bob Mortimer in the Athletico Mince podcast: ” There’s only one method that you should play / It’s kick and rush, the Burnley way /[…] Attack without intent / Defend and don’t relent! / […] Effort without ambition / Survival is our mission / […] And that’s the Burnley way.” Rounding up the back 4 are Matt Lowton and Charlie Taylor (LB).
What I want to emphasize in this section is how Burnley defends. They almost always defend with 8 players + GK behind the ball. The two lines of four players (DEF + MID) shift and move in tandem as the play goes on, to ensure compactness and little space between lines. To understand how solid they are defensively, they have only conceded one counter-attacking goal this entire season. This means that even when attacking, the main priority is ensuring the defense is looked after.
Moreover, while they complete the most long passes / game in the PL (almost 72), they also have the highest long passes against in the PL (66). What this shows is that due to their defensive solidity they force the opposition players into playing long balls, which they are perfectly set up to win. Burnley have also only conceded 5 goals from set-pieces, which is the same as the goals they scored from set-pieces, and it all comes down to their fantastic aerial prowess. In fact, Burnley has the highest number of aerial duels won/game in the PL – 24.7, followed by Brentford with 20.9. Their top players in terms of winning aerial duels are James Tarkowski – 5.0/game, Chris Wood – 4.9/game, and Ben Mee – 3.8/game. Their two central defenders and one striker are the ones who win the most aerial duels – basically sums up Burnley in one stat.
Attacking
As mentioned in the previous sections, attacking is mostly done using long balls from Nick Pope and the back 4 to the Ashley Barnes/Chris Wood duo. Burnley rarely pass short – only 254 short passes attempted/game, the lowest in the Premier League. They don’t pass backwards or sideways, but rather always try to move from defense to attack as quickly as possible to avoid losing the ball in their own half. They play a very direct style of football, akin to the old “route one” tactic, although with a bit more quality from the midfielders (Dwight McNeil in particular).
Burnley has an absolutely atrocious pass % completion overall this season, with only 69.1% of their passes completed, which is enough to rank them last in the Premier League. Moreover, their average possession/game is very low, only 39.1% (18th in the Premier League). This isn’t a problem for SD’s side, who don’t really care about passing or possession anyways. Their approach is raw and it involves brute force, deflections, set pieces, bits of luck, and individual brilliance. There isn’t really anything else to say about Burnley’s attacking style in the PL, as it is very simple – chuck the ball up front and try to score (although their low number of shots per game – 10.9, 17th in the PL – makes it hard to do so).
Of course, I do not intend to demean SD’s style in any way. I’m happy to see a manager that sticks to their principles and does not go with the crowd just because it is trendy (i.e., playing out from the back). As you will see in the Interview and Concluding Thoughts section below, I have a lot of respect and appreciation for his work.
Transfers
In Tables 4 and 5 you can find the most expensive transfers Burnley has ever made under SD (data taken from reference 4 – however, this data does not have Jay Rodriguez – £10.0mil , Matej Vydra – ~ £11.0mil , Maxwell Cornet – £13.5mil, Nathan Collins – £12.6mil).
| Entry | Position | Player | Originating Club – Year | Fee (mil. £) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CB | Ben Gibson* | Middlesbrough – 2018 | 15.21 |
| 2 | CF | Chris Wood | Leeds – 2017 | 14.76 |
| 3 | LM | Robbie Brady* | Norwich – 2017 | 13.59 |
| 4 | CF | Andre Gray* | Brentford – 2015 | 11.16 |
| 5 | CM | Jeff Hendrick* | Derby County – 2017 | 10.62 |
| 6 | CM | Josh Brownhill | Bristol City – 2020 | 9.00 |
| 7 | DM | Jack Cork | Swansea – 2017 | 8.19 |
| 8 | DM | Steven Defour* | RSC Anderlecht – 2016 | 7.74 |
| 9 | DM | Ashley Westwood | Aston Villa – 2017 | 5.22 |
| 10 | CF | Nahki Wells* | Huddersfield – 2017 | 4.86 |
| * sold |
| Entry | Position | Player | Receiving Club – Year | Fee (mil. £) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CB | Michael Keane | Everton – 2017 | 25.65 |
| 2 | CF | Andre Gray | Watford – 2017 | 14.76 |
| 3 | CB | Ben Gibson | Norwich – 2021 | 8.37 |
| 4 | GK | Tom Heaton | Aston Villa – 2019 | 7.92 |
| 5 | CF | Danny Ings | Liverpool – 2015 | 7.47 |
| 6 | CF | Sam Vokes | Stoke City – 2018 | 7.20 |
| 7 | RB | Kieran Trippier | Tottenham – 2015 | 4.41 |
| 8 | CF | Nakhi Wells | Bristol City – 2019 | 4.28 |
| 9 | CF | Charlie Austin | QPR – 2013 | 4.19 |
| 10 | CB | Jason Shackell | Derby County – 2015 | 3.78 |
When looking at the top 10 transfers made by Burnley, only one player was purchased from the Premier League (Jack Cork), and only two players were purchased from abroad (Steven Defour and Maxwell Cornet). The rest of the players were purchased from Championship teams. In total, during his tenure from 2012 until present, Sean Dyche has purchased 198 players. 37 of these players cost money – a total of £191,130,000, with an average fee/player of £5,165,675 (Table 6).
| Season | Amount Players Bought (mil £) | Amount Players Sold (mil £) |
|---|---|---|
| 2012/13 | 2.07 | 7.79 |
| 2013/14 | 0.49 | 4.19 |
| 2014/15 | 11.36 | 0.00 |
| 2015/16 | 23.13 | 18.63 |
| 2016/17 | 41.04 | 1.08 |
| 2017/18 | 32.17 | 45.00 |
| 2018/19 | 29.70 | 7.20 |
| 2019/20 | 21.47 | 12.20 |
| 2020/21 | 0.99 | 2.07 |
| 2021/22 | 28.71 | 8.37 |
| Total | £191,130,000 | £106,530,000 |
It’s quite clear from Table 6 that Burnley has spent a significant amount of money to strengthen their squad over the years, even if the individual sums are not that spectacular. Nevertheless, most pieces of business have been good, with the exception of Ben Gibson. Their most expensive ever signing, Ben Gibson had played only 1 game for Burnley before being sold back to Norwich for half the price they bought him for. The rest of the players have been an integral part of the club and it is quite clear that SD does not like to buy players for the sake of buying players. He is in constant search of players that fit his profile, no matter where they are from.
Relationship with Media
Sean Dyche is quite a funny man. He is always very open with the media and loves to joke around at press conferences. See some excerpts here:
Regarding his team’s style of play: In April 2019, after a Chelsea-Burnley game that ended 2-2 at Stamford Bridge, David Luiz criticized Burnley for playing “anti-football”. After their first leg game against Istanbul Basaksehir in the Europa League qualifying rounds, the Turkish manager categorized the first leg as a “British brawl” – in that game, Burnley had 28% possession, Is. Basaksehir had 18 shots at target (1 on target) to Burnley’s 2 at target (0 on target). The game ended 0-0. SD replied and said that he’ll always try to play effective football, and if that means long balls over opposition center halves, then so be it.
Interviews and Concluding Thoughts
I absolutely recommend watching his interviews. He is a humble, well-spoken and intelligent man, and does not engage in the platitudes that you see some managers say. He has done an absolutely fantastic job at Burnley and he deserves much more credit than he deserves.
He is very knowledgeable, nice, and caring of his players. He is a big fan of defensive structure and compactness but I think that part of his off-pitch managerial style (i.e. not wearing certain types of clothes) might irk some of the players that like to dress in a flashier way.
He is a genuine person and is probably the only PL manager I’d have a pint with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn9WXJBTijE – Sean Dyche on managing egos & why basic manners mean everything | High Performance Podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y53X_26lzDc– INTERVIEW | Sean Dyche – Approaching 5 Years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh-M-9R0Qes – Sean Dyche, Burnley Football Club Manager – An Inspire Series Interview
References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Dyche
- https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/sean-dyche/leistungsdatenDetail/trainer/15856/verein_id/1132/datum_zu/2012-10-30/datum_ab/2021-12-19
- https://www.whoscored.com/Teams/184/Statistics/England-Burnley
- https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/sean-dyche/spielertransfers/trainer/15856/plus/0/galerie/0?station_id=
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