Sean Dyche Blames 'Sloppy' Defending After Burnley Crash to Resounding Everton Defeat

Sean Dyche has said Burnley only have themselves to blame after a tough afternoon against Everton saw them lose 5-1, saying his side's 'sloppy' defending meant

Sean Dyche has said Burnley only have themselves to blame after a tough afternoon against Everton saw them lose 5-1, saying his side's 'sloppy' defending meant they were playing with fire. 

Goals from Yerry Mina, Luca Digne and a penalty from Gylfi Sigurdsson had the Toffees cruising before the half hour mark, and although Burnley threatened to get back into it before half time with Ben Gibson heading in his first goal for the club, further strikes from Digne and Richarlison put the result well beyond doubt. 

FULL-TIME Burnley 1-5 Everton

Everton get back to winning ways in style, as Digne (2), Mina, Sigurdsson and Richarlison find the net#BUREVE pic.twitter.com/p3zaOB2EvY

— Premier League (@premierleague) December 26, 2018

Speaking after the match, Dyche said that although the margins were perhaps finer than the 5-1 hammering suggested - with James Tarkowski missing a glorious chance to make it 3-2 before the break - his side's defending was far from acceptable at times. 

"It was a very difficult afternoon for us," he said, as quoted by Sky Sports.

"Mainly for the first half an hour of the game. After a poor start with the tempo of the game - they came out with a really hard tempo - and we didn't deal with that.

"There were sloppy goals and sloppy moments. Charlie Taylor over-runs one to give them a corner, they score from the second phase of that when we are not picking up properly in the box. A soft free-kick and then they score from that, so I was super disappointed with the first half an hour or so.

Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/GettyImages

"To be fair, the mentality then changed and we did manage to get a slight window of opportunity by half-time. The big moment of the game from our point of view was Tarkowski's miss.

"If that goes in, they've just conceded six against Tottenham, it could've been a nervous time for them. But it didn't and the rest is how it shows in the scoreline."

The result means Burnley are in the Premier League relegation zone at the halfway point of the campaign, having collected just 12 points after finishing seventh last season. Dyche conceded it will be difficult to strengthen the squad in January though, despite not having completed the transfer business he wanted in the summer window. 

"We wanted to shake it up more than we did in the summer, but that's difficult," he added. 

"That's always difficult here, with the finances. The January market is really tough, but the group has a competitive demand on it.

"We've had a few injuries, but now's not the time to talk about all the things that go against you. It's about the things we can control, and we're not controlling the right things at the moment."