Saturday 10 January 2015 14:11, UK
Burnley manager Sean Dyche has no regrets about losing Charlie Austin to QPR – because he says his current crop of strikers are just as good.
Austin arrives at Turf Moor with QPR for a vitally important Premier League clash on Saturday, having swapped Burnley for west London in 2013.
He is one of the form strikers in the top flight this season, scoring 12 goals so far.
They are completely different – different people, different players, but both good people and both good players.
But Dyche insists he has no interest in what might have been and is happy enough with the forwards he has in his squad for the fight against relegation.
The highly-rated Danny Ings and Ashley Barnes have impressed in recent weeks, while Sam Vokes marked his return after a nine-month injury lay-off with the equaliser in Monday's FA Cup third-round draw against Tottenham.
Dyche said: "The performance level is good, it is rising. I think we are becoming more clinical at the top end of the pitch. That is always where it is at, across football, any division. That is why strikers are always talked about.
"We think we have got a good group, a healthy group of strikers. We think they are all vying and all slightly different, which gives us a chance to play in different ways.
"We want them to be fit and active and scoring goals, and all be ready. There are good signs."
QPR's trip to Turf Moor on Saturday will see Ings compared directly to Austin, and Dyche feels his man does not measure up badly.
Dyche said: "They are completely different – different people, different players, but both good people and both good players. I have a lot of respect for both of them, I know them both.
"I really enjoy their company, let alone their professionalism and their talent. They're both talented but very different players. That is why they worked together at times.
"Charlie, with his bigger stature, (plays) a more No 9 role – good at the basic principles of goalscoring, gets in the box a lot, arrives in the box a lot. It is not always rocket science.
"Ingsy can play more open-mindedly. He can play more like a No 10, he can play off the front. He can play as a No 9 when he is up against the centre-halves.
"He is a slightly more rounded player in many ways but both are effective in different ways. It depends how they are used.
"Charlie was used wisely here and Harry (Redknapp) is using him wisely down there, with the goals he is scoring."
The clash against QPR is one of four in succession for 19th-placed Burnley against sides who could prove relegation rivals, with Crystal Palace, Sunderland and West Brom to follow.
But Dyche said: "We concentrate on the next challenge coming our way. That comes quickly against QPR on Saturday and then we reassess and get ready for the next one.
"Points are points, no matter who you beat or draw with. You have to pick up points.
"But you could win all these games but that's no guarantee the job is done. The job is done in the last game of the season when the whistle blows and you look at the league table."
