Matt, Burnley Blogger

After a 4 game ban Burnley striker Andre Gray is back ready for selection again in the upcoming fixture away at Manchester United, but will Dyche change a winning formula and formation?

Since Gray was sidelined after comments on Twitter, Burnley have played 4 games, winning 2 and losing two. It must be noted that one of those defeats was the home game v Arsenal in which the winning goal should not have stood.

Dyche surprised me by switching formation once Gray was suspended, I assumed loanee Bamford would step in as a like-for-like replacement for the former Brentford man, but Dyche opted to bring in an extra central midfielder and we went with 4-5-1. This has clearly turned out to be a success given the points haul and (Southampton away aside) the performances have been positive.

Dyche now has a dilemma in his selection, does he revert back to 4-4-2 or does he stick with 4-5-1? Given Defour’s absence did not bring about a shift, I think the most likely answer is the latter, with Gray being used as either a substitute or less likely as a wide midfielder.

One question I would have is our tactical approach away from Turf Moor, where I think having an extra attacking outlet will be a welcome relief when we are no doubt under the cosh for long periods of the game. In our game against Southampton this was glaringly obvious as every time we managed to win the ball our clearances went straight to Southampton and they were able to completely dominate possession (65%) and shots (34 to Burnley’s 6). We cannot ever let that happen again, I don’t care who we are playing against.

We have struggled in every away game this season, losing each game by a total score of 9-1 (across three games). Our opponents have certainly been tough, but we need to pick points up away from home if we are to survive, we saw that in 2009/10 when we picked up just 4 points away and were relegated with games to spare.

I think in order to give Man United something to think about, we need to start both Gray and Vokes. We can still adopt a defensive approach, as Vokes does a good job of a deep lying forward when we are off the ball, but we need to be able to break quickly and Gray offers us this in abundance.

With Defour set to miss his second straight game, and Saturday absentee George Boyd unlikely to feature, one of Hendrick, Arfield or Marney would make way. Hendrick would be my choice but Marney was far from convincing in the dramatic Everton win.

Either way, we can consider this a ‘free’ game as every other team will expect us to lose. Anything we pick up at all can be taken as a positive, and as I alluded to earlier this season our results in these games are not going to define our season. Compare this to Man United who are out of form, an early goal or a frustrating first half could turn the fans on the home side and be just what we need to push on for those first elusive away points.