'We just liked the look of it' - Sean Dyche keen to take a look at Burnley new boy Charlie Taylor in central defence

Taylor, 23, arrived from Leeds United as a left-back but Dyche has been impressed with his defensive ability and had seen Taylor perform well as a central defender in training.

The £5million man played the final 15 minutes against Nottingham Forest on Saturday in the centre of defence and then played the first half against the La Liga side alongside Kevin Long, before moving to left-back in the second half.

Michael Keane's £30million move to Everton this summer has left Burnley short of numbers in defence, with Ben Mee and James Tarkowski the likely starters at Chelsea on the opening day, with the inexperienced pair of Kevin Long and Tom Anderson in reserve.

And Dyche stressed Taylor's conversion to a centre back was not necessarily a permanent move, but it was an option the Clarets chief was keen to take a closer look at.

"Since we've had him here, we've been impressed with his defending, his physicality, he's quick and strong - we threw him in a couple of times in training and just liked the look of it," Dyche said.

"We said to him just to be open-minded. It doesn't mean he's going to play there, but we wanted another look at it.

"There's no story there, we just said we needed to put minutes into him, to get used to what we are, not 'oh, we've found a centre back'.

"That story's not ready to write yet.

"Who knows, in the future it might be."

Taylor's new-found versatility is another ace in the pack for Dyche, who is keen to see his squad be flexible this season as he considers more regular changes to his usual 4-4-2 system during the forthcoming season.

“If you work with a smallish squad like we do the players have to understand that, there are times you need players to play in different positions and that’s the nature of how we want it," the Burnley boss said.

"I don't buy players specifically to play in different positions, but I like it if they're open-minded."