Sean Dyche echoes Alan Pardew and bemoans Europa League ahead of Newcastle visit

Alan Pardew blamed the demands of the Europa League on Newcastle United's poor domestic form six years ago.
Sean Dyche.Sean Dyche.
Sean Dyche.

And Sean Dyche has been speaking about Burnley's "challenging" campaign on the continent ahead of Monday night's meeting between the two clubs at Turf Moor.

Burnley – who failed to reach the group stage of the Europa League – qualified for the competition after finishing seventh in the Premier League last season.

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This season, Dyche's side are below 14th-placed Newcastle on goal difference.

United, under then-manager Pardew, reached the quarter-final stage of the Europa League in the 2012-13 season, when they finished 16th in the Premier League.

"I've been involved in the Europa League, and it's difficult,' said Pardew in 2015.

Reflecting on Burnley's first European campaign in 51 years, Dyche told the Burnley Express: “I still wouldn’t take away the experience, but it does challenge you.

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“It's well documented about everyone that goes into the competition, and it's documented for a reason. We knew that. But I was thinking ‘come on, let’s have our version of it’.

“Then when you go through it and you look back and you reflect on it, you understand why it’s well documented, you understand why all the managers come off it and go ‘massive challenge’.

“We went four games with 16 players. Dwight McNeil played in two, and I think Dwight’s a very good player and he continues to develop, but the point is that’s what we were down to.

"I think that shows where our squad was at, at that time. It’s difficult, without a doubt."

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Olympiakos put Burnley out in August, and Dyche says his players have "parked" the experience.

“It’s not really getting it out of your system – it’s just that it’s so new and a different experience, that it’s bound to have a change in the psyche because you’ve never been through it before, me included in that and some of the players," said Dyche.

"The peculiar feel of it, the travel, all of that. I don’t know if we’re getting it out of our system, but, factually, it’s gone. It’s been parked. Then on the back of that, we’ve had these injuries."