Four things incoming Everton boss Sean Dyche did to end Liverpool’s epic unbeaten run

On Jan 27, 2023

At the start of 2021, Sean Dyche’s Burnley side secured a stunning 1-0 away victory over Liverpool.

At the time, Jurgen Klopp’s side were impregnable on the red side of Merseyside, enjoying a 68 match unbeaten run at Anfield. While the Reds’ away form was causing them all sorts of problems, they were always razor sharp, focused, and ruthless whenever they were at home.

Yet, the unstoppable force that was Liverpool at Anfield hit an immovable object in Dyche’s tenacious and aggressive Burnley side. With Dyche set to takeover the reins at Everton, the former Watford manager’s appearance on ‘The Coaches’ Voice’ has cropped up again on social media – Daily Star Sport explains how Dyche overcame Klopp.

“Crunch the pitch”

Burnley made the pitch as tight and compact as possible, by setting pressing traps and denying them space

Dyche loves explaining his philosophy using onomatopoeic words almost as much as he enjoys strong, meaty challenges. However, his “crunch the pitch” demand is a more brutal and rash explanation of a tactic Pep Guardiola and Klopp often do themselves.

In short, he instructed his players to make the pitch as small as possible by instructing his forwards and midfield to press the Liverpool stars when they tried to play out from the back. He told Chris Wood and Ashley Barnes to ‘lock on’ to Joel Matip and Fabinho, who was filling in at centre-half at the time, while midfielders Ashley Westwood and Josh Brownhill took turns closing Thiago Alcantara down.

This forced Liverpool to play the ball long, where James Tarkowski and Ben Mee were there to dominate the forwards in the air. When Liverpool did beat the first press, Burnley ‘crunched the pitch’ by bringing their wide forwards into the middle of the pitch and forcing the ball to go out wide. It stopped Liverpool from playing through the lines and from dominating the middle of the pitch.

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Protecting the V

Burnley defended their penalty area with their lives

Dyche makes no apologies about his side’s playing style, particularly when pitched against the likes of Liverpool. His teams defend in numbers, they are compact, and the certainly do not allow any space in behind.

Another term Dyche coined is ‘protecting the V’. In short, the players imagine two gigantic, diagonal lines drawn from Nick Pope in the Burnley goal to the first third of the pitch. This encourages the entire back four to defend within the lines of the penalty area, while the forwards and midfielders also drop in to plug any gaps.

This essentially created a giant claret and blue wall which Liverpool could not go through, around or over. The Merseysiders had 27 shots on goal but only six were on target.

Turning defence into attack

Burnley were firm in their tackles and potent on the counterattack – exactly how Dyche likes his teams to be

Dyche is not a merchant for clean sheets and goalless draws. He is a winner who takes immense gratification from nicking a cheeky 1-0 or 2-0 result.

The main weakness of his side’s rigid 4-4-2 formation is that his two central midfielders were outnumbered by Liverpool’s midfield tripartite. Dyche’s midfield always looked for the pass over the top of Liverpool’s immensely high line. Yet, his attacking style was not about launching long balls up for two strikers to nod down.

His main attackers, Robbie Brady, Wood, Barnes, and Dwights McNeil varied their attacks regularly. Wood or Barnes often dropped short to allow space for their McNeil and Brady, while the two centre forwards also squeezed up against the central defenders to make more room in-between the Liverpool midfield and defence, for Brady and McNeil when they decided to cut inside and receive the ball to feet.

Set pieces

Barnes won Burnley’s penalty by taking advantage of a lapse in concentration within the Liverpool defence

Any person that has watched a Dyche side in action will know set pieces are vital. He appreciates his side will not dominate possession; therefore, set pieces, whether it’s free kicks, corners, or throw-ins, are vital.

For their goal, a whipped free kick was sent curling into the back post towards Tarkowski. As the main aerial threat, Liverpool were mainly focusing on the central defender. However, he surprised the Liverpool backline by dropping short himself and opening up a pathway for Barnes to ghost into.

Liverpool cleared the initial delivery, but when the ball was headed back into the danger area, Fabinho did not realise where Barnes was in time. The forward outmuscled the Brazilian, but was tripped over by Alisson when he tried to beat the goalkeeper. Barnes coolly dispatched the winning penalty to secure a titanic three points for Burnley.

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