Dyche: Fulham were too good for us

SEAN DYCHE concedes the negativity surrounding Burnley’s Europa League campaign is affecting his players and contributed to yesterday’s poor performance at Craven Cottage. Burnley’s 4-2 defeat by Fulham came three days after they lost 3-1 to Olympiacos in Athens, with the second leg of that European tie to follow on Thursday. The hectic schedule is now weighing heavily on Dyche’s relatively small squad and the Burnley boss has warned fans not to expect an easy season. ‘We need to see beyond the constant noise of the Europa League, and too many games, and all that sort of stuff,’ said Dyche. ‘That does play its part in the players’ minds, not so much my mind. ‘The players get a barrage of different news stories and, mostly, I think it is fair to say, those have been negative about the Europa League and how many games we are playing. ‘But that’s the challenge. Can we keep going in two competitions? We are stretched at the moment, as everyone knows. These are the complications of life at Burnley sometimes — a lot of games, a few injuries. ‘We tried to get players in the market but couldn’t get them in. So we are skinny on numbers at the minute to take on the two competitions. But that’s the reality, no excuses. Those are just the facts.’ Burnley’s defence struggled as Aleksandar Mitrovic got two goals while Jean Michael Seri and Andre Schurrle scored the others but Dyche, whose side have yet to win in the Premier League this season, did not wish to play down Fulham’s performance. ‘The best side won,’ said Dyche. ‘The best player on the pitch was the centre forward, Mitrovic. He did everything that a good centre forward should do.’ Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic saw his side pick up their first points of the season following successive losses to Crystal Palace and Tottenham. ‘We showed ambition to cause damage, we created many chances, scored four and could have had more,’ Jokanovic said. ‘I have to be satisfied with that performance. I was a bit worried because we waited so long for the fourth goal.’