KOMPANY: THERE IS NOTHING FOR US TO LOSE
Burnley boss rallying troops ahead of D-day
VINCENT KOMPANY insists the pressure is off Burnley in their must-win clash against Tottenham tomorrow.
Burnley must beat both Spurs and Nottingham Forest in their final games – and hope Nuno Espirito Santo’s side do not pick up a point against Chelsea tomorrow.
Even then, the Clarets need Luton to lose one of their remaining two games to escape the bottom three for the first time this season.
Kompany knows the odds are stacked against his side and he has tried to ease the pressure by billing this weekend as “an opportunity”.
“I wouldn’t describe this game as a high-pressure game for us,” he said. “Why would it be? I don’t think we have anything to lose.
“If you go into this weekend and you’re protecting a two-point lead, I can see how this is a different mindset. And perhaps I’d be, not naive, but perhaps I’d be trying to convince myself more if I was saying there was no pressure at that moment in time. But in our case, I genuinely believe that for us it’s an opportunity.
“If that energy can live from now and hopefully into the last game, but I don’t even want to think about the Forest game now, this is our last game.
“If we give ourselves a final against Forest, that’s a final. But this is our last game of the regular season, that’s how we’ve got to look at it. Then anything can happen on the final day of the season.” Kompany wants his players to
focus on Spurs. “And we’ve got to believe,” he added. “On any given day, the players can do something special and that’s the mindset for Saturday.
“Can it be that day where you do something special? We’ve hit it from 30 yards out into the top corner. Not enough, but it could be that day and that’s what we have to believe.”
Kompany held up Ian Maatsen as an example of what Burnley players can achieve after the on-loan Chelsea defender reached the Champions League final with Borussia Dortmund this week after spending last season on loan at Turf Moor.
“He was in the Championship with us, he was a talented player, but he was never too big for us in his mentality,” he said.
“He was willing to learn, talented at the start, and I’m not surprised that he’s reaching the levels he’s reaching.
“I think we have players in this team who will go on and do the same thing.”