Ahead of tomorrow’s FA Cup fourth round trek to Turf Moor I’ve been chatting again with Joe Redmond from the excellent Burnley podcast TurfCast. Off the back of their 2-0 win at Old Trafford, he was understandably cock-a-hoop.
Have you come down to Earth yet? Or you still drifting over Old Trafford on cloud number 9? Did you see that coming?
Nope. Still on cloud nine. Will be for a long time. What a day it was. It was historic and will live long in the memory.
I can imagine myself showing my son the video in around ten years or so of Jay’s goal. What a hit it was too. Amazing. Definitely didn’t see it coming, we’ve been poor against the top six this season. Until Wednesday!
Those are special nights, mate, especially if you’re there. One to dine out… forever!
On 30 points with 14 still to play. Your work is almost done, isn’t it? Sean Dyche is the man, right? He’s no fan of ours… got the hump over us thinking we’re good enough to play the ball out from the back if I remember rightly ?
You’d imagine so wouldn’t you. Level on points with Arsenal now and nobody is including them in the conversation about the drop. I think the points total might be a higher one this season, so I won’t say job done until we get to 40 point mark.
Don’t remember this thing with Dyche, but what I do remember is your sets of fans being some of the most pleasant so far this season from our earlier victory in the season!
Ha! We are a very nice bunch by and large and it’s reciprocated. I know for a fact the City away fans particularly enjoyed the hospitality of the cricket club back in September!
Perhaps ‘the hump’ was a bit strong but Dyche alluded to teams who think they can play out from the back and stopping them… which he did, and will no doubt try and do again tomorrow.
Will the great man make many changes for the team on Saturday? It looked as though he made a few but not loads for your win over Peterborough?
Probably yeah, it was a mix of first team and reserves in the third round. His hands are a little more tied now after we’ve picked up a few injuries. I imagine he will rest Jay Rodriguez and Chris Wood, and the majority of the midfield, but we’ll see.
We’re in a similar boat although a cup run for us would be a nice distraction from being bottom of the league and seemingly doomed. I suspect Farke who, in his world, have had a heavy workload.
How seriously does he tend to take the cups? And will this be affected by the fact you’re only a couple of wins away from guaranteed safety?
He has a bit of a reputation for not taking the cups seriously. We normally get knocked out against lower league opposition; teams such as Burton Albion, Sunderland, Accrington Stanley and Lincoln City to name a few.
Not sure how our run will be affected by our current points tally. In the season we finished seventh and we’re practically safe at Christmas, we still didn’t get very far in the cups!
How’s Robbie Brady doing? We liked him here.
He started off really well and was one of the best players in the team when we finished seventh. But since then he’s picked up a couple of injuries and has found it hard to maintain a place in the starting XI.
Does Dyche still stick steadfastly (and successfully) to his beloved 4-4-2? Or is he going to bamboozle us tactically on Saturday?
It will be a 4-4-2, a well-drilled and well organised Burnley side. He sometimes stretches to 4-5-1, but that’s when we’re away at the sides at the top of the league.
So, most definitely 4-4-2 tomorrow then…
Finally… a score prediction?
These games are ridiculously difficult to predict mainly because of the fact you have no idea what his going to play for either side. I’ll back the Clarets though and go for a repeat of the earlier season encounter and say 2-0.
Do we want to be top 16? I thought we were aiming for top 26.
I jest.