Sean Dyche Says He Made Liverpool Star a Target During Draw After Identifying Him as a Weakness

Burnley boss Sean Dyche admitted that he made Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold a target during the 1-1 draw played out between the two teams yesterday.

Burnley boss Sean Dyche admitted that he made Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold a target during the 1-1 draw played out between the two teams yesterday.

Mohamed Salah's goal proved the saving grace for his side after Scott Arfield put the Clarets ahead by rising above the Reds right-back to score with his head.

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Alexander-Arnold didn't have that great of a game, and certainly wasn't helped by his defensive partners, none of which managed to clear the initial ball.

Speaking to the Echo on his tactics heading into the match, Dyche said: “Our gameplan wasn’t to come here and keep the ball all afternoon — it isn’t going to happen.”

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“You know they’re going to have some efforts but if you keep them as far out as we kept them, as in distance from the goal, you know the stats say it’s much harder to score from 30 yards than it is from six.”

“Our shape was good, our defensive unit was excellent, other than their goal – we got caught square on a long ball, the irony of that, hey?”

“Everyone in these parts tells you that they’re having a tough time with set-pieces. We felt that would be important.”

“As it happens, we had two cleared off the line from set-pieces, so our game-planning was right to take that seriously. [We tried to] make it uncomfortable for them because you’re not going to out-football them. We thought that might be a weak link aerially on the right back.”