“We aren’t that far away”

Are we really not that far away? Because it certainly feels like we are further away than Dyche is prepared to admit. You have to give it to him, Dyche is consistently positive in his press conferences and never fails to hype his players.

Irrespective of the result of the league table or whatever echo chamber is circulating social media/national press that particular week. This is the quality of a leader and never fails to impress me. That’s his job - to protect the club and the players and to portray the club in a professional manner. 

But that can often conflict with how you feel as a fan. Particularly right after a game. You almost want him to lock himself in a room with you, where no one can hear, and tell you that he knows we’re in a rough spot, that he knows that the team or X player played a shocker tonight, but that we are going to do X and Y to get out of it, and that it’ll be okay”.

But he can’t do that. So you can often feel left scratching your head and worrying that the manager and players are burying their heads in the sand.

Fans often talk about “keeping the faith”. Perhaps that is it. The fact that Dyche has it all under control and has a plan.

God, I hope so.

We might be out of the Carabao Cup now following the disappointing loss against Spurs mid-week, but even if we had managed to secure a quarter-final place all focus must be on the home tie against Brentford at the weekend. Because, to put it bluntly, we simply cannot afford to lose this one.

We have already wasted opportunities at home to Brighton, Leeds and Norwich and we are going to start running out of winnable games if we are not careful. We need 10 wins if we have any hopes of surviving. 

Pope’s impressive display against Spurs gave me serious optimism. And Nathan Collins looks to offer more at right-back than either Bardsley or Lowton has in a while, so let’s slot him in too.

One suggestion that came from the podcast this week - dare we be brave enough to start Vydra and Cornet up front in a 4-4-2? Could that be the pace and creativity we need, or is Wood’s hold-up play and physical presence simply too important? Let me know what you think in the comments.

But in the meantime, all eyes will be on Turf Moor Saturday afternoon at 3pm. And so long as our saviour Cornet bags one at 3:01pm, my nerves will start to settle…

UTC