Saturday 10 February 2018 21:00, UK
Sean Dyche blamed fatigue for his side's form after Burnley lost 1-0 to a late Swansea goal at the Liberty Stadium.
The Clarets are now without a win in ten Premier League games after Ki Sung-Yueng struck late for Swans, and Dyche's side have registered only five goals in the league since beating Stoke 1-0 on December 12th.
Burnley were without eight first-team squad members for the trip to south Wales, and the manager is concerned that the demands of the league are catching up with his players.
Dyche said: "I think it's just beginning to catch up with us. Not through all of this run, there's been some very good performances, but it's just caught up with us a bit. It's important in these next couple of weeks, then hopefully we'll get some bodies back.
"It was a tight one [today]. Not a great game but I don't think either team was worried about that. It's about points on the board. Another week where there's not a lot in the game, we had a few chances without being clinical.
"They had a couple of maybes and then they get a little bit of a stuffy one, I think it takes two nicks on the way in. We could have cleared it before that, ten or 15 seconds before from the corner.
"It's a tight call. I think they edged it on the performance. It wasn't a great performance from either side, but they edged it I think. That sometimes happens at this level. It's a very, very tough league. We're going through a tough spell, not just because of the teams we're playing of course but also because we've got a lot of injuries.
Burnley have been beaten by more than one goal only once on their winless run, a 3-0 defeat at home to Tottenham in late December, and Dyche believes there is little to choose between themselves and Swansea despite their drastically differing form.
"The margins are very fine between a performance that can win and one that doesn't," he said. "They're a good advert for that. This is a side that nine games ago had nowhere near that endeavour, nowhere near that energy, nowhere near that workload. Nowhere near that amount of will to win a game. The crowd are behind them now. The outgoing manager must be sat scratching his head, but that's football."
Burnley now have two weeks off before welcoming Southampton to Turf Moor on February 24th, and Dyche intends to allow his stretched squad a chance to recover before Premier League action resumes.
"We can't lose any more to injury, that's for sure, so it's important the recovery period now."
