Sean Dyche: Jon Flanagan is enjoying his time at Burnley - despite lack of game time

And Dyche has insisted he is under no pressure from Liverpool to play the on-loan full-back in a set number of games this season.

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The 23-year-old signed a season-long loan deal with Burnley in August, but so far he has featured just once, in the EFL Cup defeat to Accrington Stanley.

Flanagan, who only returned from 18 months out with a knee injury in January, is able to offer cover at right-back and left-back, but he has been unable to displace either Matt Lowton or Stephen Ward from the starting line-up.

Flanagan has been an unused substitute in the last four Premier League, but despite not seeing much action at the moment Dyche is sure the loan star is getting something out of his Clarets loan spell.

“There is a good competition there,” he said. “Flanners has fitted in well here and he’s getting back to real fitness and sharpness, it takes a long time, we’ve seen it with our lads. He’d been out for a long time.

“He’s enjoying it, he wants to play of course but he’s enjoying what we offer here.”

Flanagan looked like he could challenge the full-back positions in the aftermath of the defeat at Leicester City, but both Lowton and Ward have responded to that with impressive performances, leaving the Liverpool man stuck on the bench for now.

“I thought the lads did well (against Watford) in the full-back areas, they had a tough game against Leicester but bounced with a strong performance against Watford,” said Dyche.

Reports on Merseyside before the start of the season suggested that Liverpool require their loan players to feature in at least 75 per cent of games under a ‘playing clause’.

It was suggested that clubs could be penalised financially if they do not play the Reds youngsters in a specified number of games during the season.

But when Dyche was asked if he had to play Flanagan in a set number of games, he insisted he would not have done the deal if Liverpool had demanded such a clause.