Sean Dyche may need to get Sylvester Stallone over to Burnley to give his team a little pep talk as soon as possible.
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Burnley have now gone seven games without a win in the Premier League and the team who finished in seventh place last season are in the relegation zone and struggling badly for form right now.
They lost 2-0 at fellow strugglers Crystal Palace on Saturday, but the scoreline could have been much worse as Palace had 29 attempts at goal. Burnley didn’t have a single shot on target throughout.
Speaking to the BBC after the game, Dyche wants them to follow Rocky Balboa’s lead.
“The best side won, simple as that. We are in the position where the eye of the tiger has gone, last season everyone was on it. To get the eye of the tiger back, a boxer has to get back in the gym. We’ve got to get back on the training ground and work hard,” Dyche said.
“It’s frustrating, they have given so much to the cause but then fear comes in, it’s a tough thing. It plays tricks with you, and players get stretched as individuals. We have to be a team, and we are a bit stretched at the moment. The effort’s good, but it’s a but misguided at the moment, we have to remind them how they can play.”
Burnley won so many games last season by fine margins as Dyche ground out every ounce of talent from his playing squad which led to European qualification.
The Clarets were knocked out of Europe in the qualifying rounds and that hangover from starting their season early still seems to be hanging around.
Burnley now face Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal in their next four games and all of a sudden they face being cut adrift in the relegation scrap.
We all love a great underdog story and Burnley’s rise to the Premier League has certainly been one of those. But can they find “the eye of the tiger” again?
