CLARETS reporter Tyrone Marshall discusses the talking points from Burnley's goalless draw against Istanbul Basakshekir in Turkey.

EUROPEAN NOUS

Sean Dyche’s team selection for the first leg of this third qualifying round tie in Turkey may have taken a few by surprise, but it did add valuable European experience to the side.

This may well have been more by accident than design, but it had to have helped the Clarets as they looked to hang on to what they had when they were put under pressure.

The signing of Joe Hart added 62 European appearances to the squad, many at the highest level, but he may not have played but for a thigh injury Anders Lindegaard picked up the night before the game.

In the end Hart’s knowhow was a huge asset, slowing the game down in the second half and taking a yellow card for time wasting.

Phil Bardsley and Jon Walters also came in for surprising starts, but between them they added another 25 European appearances to the starting XI and Hart, Bardsley, Walters and Johann Berg Gudmundsson were the only members of the team to have experienced European football before this season.

This is still a relatively green team when it comes to these sorts of ties, so adding in a bit more experience and understanding had to be a positive move.

ROTATION

The decision by Dyche to start Bardsley and Charlie Taylor were the first signs of plans for rotating his troops around in Europe this season.

It wasn’t an issue against Aberdeen with no Premier League game to plan for at the weekends, but now Dyche had to juggle this long trip to the edge of Europe with Sunday’s journey to the edge of England.

Lancashire Telegraph:

So in came Bardsley and Taylor, with what you would normally consider the first choice full-backs, Matt Lowton and Stephen Ward, on the bench.

If the Clarets’ European journey continues then we can expect more rotation from Dyche as the campaign progresses.

DOES POSSESSION MATTER?

This isn’t the first time we’ve had to visit this subject in the wake of a Burnley game. The Clarets are used to not seeing much of the ball.

In the Fatih Terim Stadium they had just 28 per cent of the possession and struggled to get any kind of fluency going.

There were contrasting views in the press room afterwards. Dyche was asked about Istanbul Basaksehir’s domination of the ball by a Turkish journalist and explained how the game had changed now and possession was no longer nine tenths of the law as far as football was concerned.

Lancashire Telegraph:

Then in came Basaksehir boss Abdullah Avci. He bemoaned Burnley’s ‘long ball’ tactics and there was even a suggestion that the Clarets were happy to give the ball away to get back in their shape.

The Turkish press seemed happy to stir the pot, putting Dyche’s comments on possession to Avci.

But in the end only the score matters and Burnley didn’t concede, and never really looked like conceding.

HISTORY

The ‘you’ve got no history’ tag is a familiar insult in English football and it’s often one that stings. In Istanbul Basakshekir’s case they really have got very little of it, not that they seem to care.

It was a club first formed in 1990 before a rebrand in 2014. It’s creating its history by the game.

Money has been ploughed into the club and they’ve spent in well in terms of facilities. The Fatih Terim Stadium is a fine ground that looks significantly bigger than it is from the outside, with training pitches right next door.

But getting to the district of Basakshekir from the centre of Istanbul is no mean feat. A taxi can take well over an hour as it crawls through Istanbul’s grinding, chaotic traffic, while the metro involves three changes and is a 90 minute journey.

With Galatasaray, Besiktas and Fenerbahce all in the city, Basaksehir struggle for support. Crowds rarely rise much about 4,000 and there can’t have been many more home fans than that there on Thursday.

With money to spend they may soon win the Turkish Super Lig title, but you wouldn’t expect many people to be there to see it.

THE TRAVEL TEST

As Burnley edged closer to European football last season and ever since they bagged that seventh place finish many a column inch has been devoted to theories of just how they will balance the Premier League and the Europa League.

Lancashire Telegraph:

The perils of the Thursday-Sunday schedule are well known and they can pose problems, particularly after an away game.

Now the Clarets will face the acid test of just what it may take out of them on the first weekend of the new season. Dyche’s side are being hurled into the deep end without an armband in sight.

After one of the longest trips Europe can throw at you on Thursday night, the squad returned to Manchester in the early hours of Friday before a Saturday flight to Southampton ahead of the Premier League opener on the south coast.

It’s a busy schedule for a squad struggling with injuries and it will take a monumental effort from this Burnley side to recover from the exertions in Istanbul to match the Saints’ intensity. But you still wouldn’t put it past this group.