10 2GG Monday June 29 2020 | the times
thegame
Sean Dyche says Burnley must start
to spend more if they are to keep
punching their weight in the Premier
League.
With seven matches remaining,
they are comfortable in 11th, with 42
points going into tonight’s game away
to Crystal Palace, and are all but
guaranteed a fifth straight season in
the top flight. Dyche, though, is
growing increasingly frustrated with
the club’s financial constraints.
Three players have left in lockdown
— Jeff Hendrick, Aaron Lennon and
Joe Hart — while another seven,
including four of their regular starting
XI, are out of contract this time next
year. While the financial implications
of the Covid-19 pandemic are not yet
fully known in English football,
Dyche knows that Burnley’s naturally
cautious model is coming under
severe strain and the squad needs
reinforcements.
“The days of us nicking Nick Pope
for £1.5 million, Johan Gudmundsson
their opponents this
way and then that,
before splitting them
down the middle like a
badly stitched teddy
bear.
“It probably wasn’t
that pretty to watch, a bit
like the Bournemouth game
where it wasn’t free-flowing
stuff, but it was solid and we have
worked on it from last season,” MattMatch briefingRATINGS
Aston Villa (4-3-1-2): O Nyland 6 — E Ngoyo 5
(A El Mohamady 60min, 6), K Hause 5, T Mings 6,
M Targett 5 (N Taylor 11, 5) — C Hourihane 5
(J McGinn, 60, 5), D Luiz 5, M Nakamba 5 (Trezeguet,
83, 5) — J Grealish 7 — M Samatta 5, K Davis 5
(A El Ghazi 82). Booked Mings.
Wolverhampton Wanderers (3-5-2): R Patrício 6 —
W Boly 6, C Coady 6, R Saïss 6 — M Doherty 6,
L Dendoncker 7, R Neves 7, J Moutinho 7, Jonny 7 —
R Jiménez 6 (P Neto, 85min), D Jota 6 (A Traoré,
60min 7). Booked Neves.
Referee C Pawson.Aston Villa
0Wolves
While Wolverhampton Wanderers^1
supporters are merrier than ever,
albeit as they watch from afar, the
team are shedding their reputation as
the Robin Hood Gang, one that steals
from the rich and gives to the poor.
Last season Wolves amassed more
points from playing the top six (16)
than they did against the bottom six
(14), a display of charity that included
two losses to bottom side
Huddersfield Town. This season
Wolves’ fine form against the elite
Premier league clubs has continued,
but the big turnaround is how they
have squeezed the bottom six, more
than doubling their number of points
secured to 29 and counting.
Since the restart they have shown
no mercy to three of the weakest sides
in the division; West Ham United,
Bournemouth and now Aston Villa.
They have conceded no goals but
have scored only four. Most of them
have come midway through the
second half after they have pulledDoherty, their wing back, said. “It is a
new ruthlessness within us. We
realise it cost us last season, although
we did beat a lot of the teams people
didn’t believe we would. We knew if
we were able to improve against the
lower-half teams that it would make a
big difference, and so it has proven.”
Wolves have kept seven clean
sheets in their past eight league games
and the development of Adama
Traoré into one of the country’s most
devastating threats has added an
extra dimension.
Doherty has served
under eight Wolves
managers and there was
a time when he was
considered a bit of a
Friar Tuck in his
preparation. But he
and his colleagues have
emerged from the
lockdown looking lean
and mean. Nuno Espírito
Santo has used only 20
players in the league, the fewest
of any club, and don’t expect that to
rise as they push for the top four.Wolves now rob both rich and poor
PAUL ROWANBurnley ‘must spend now’
for £2.2 million, James Tarkowski for
£4 million and Andre Gray for
£6 million, they’ve gone. We’re not
sure how Covid-19 is going to affect
the market, but if you took that away,
I have said for a long time that we
need to get in front of the curve.
“But doing that costs a lot of
money. It’s a vicious circle. That’s why
for 2½ years, I’ve been talking about
stretching it — not breaking it. Can
we do it? Yes. Does it need stretching?
Yes, it does. You can’t forever just
work on a net spend of £9 million a
year.
“It’s not impossible, but it’s
improbable that is going to work over
a long period.”ADAM LANIGAN
1.82
Points per game v
teams outside the
“big six” for Wolves
this season — up
from 1.58HOW THEY LINE UP
Crystal Palace (possible; 4-3-3): V Guaita —
J Ward, G Cahill, S Dann, P van Aanholt —
J McArthur, L Milivojevic, C Kouyate —
A Townsend, J Ayew, W Zaha.
Burnley (possible; 4-4-2): N Pope — M
Lowton, J Tarkowski, B Mee, C Taylor —
J Brownhill, A Westwood, J Cork, D McNeil —
J Rodriguez, M Vydra.
Television Amazon Prime, kick-off 8pm.In a parallel universe Danny Ings
might have played his way into
Gareth Southgate’s England squad
and be taking part in a European
Championship on home soil. For now,
though, he continues to lead the line
for Southampton superbly, his clinical
finishing enough to stretch Watford’s
poor run to one win in ten games.
Ings has scored 18 Premier League
goals, only one behind Jamie Vardy,
the Leicester City striker and Golden
Boot leader, and above Arsenal’s
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (17),
Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah (17) and
Manchester City’s Sergio Agüero (16).
Ralph Hasenhüttl, his manager,
praised his performance and
improved fitness since lockdown.
“Nobody will deny how important a
player he is for us,” Hasenhüttl said.
“Everything is possible. We will play
with him in the last six games, and if
he gets a chance you see how
fantastic his finishing is. He seems to
be fitter than ever, he was hard
working [in lockdown] and that gives
him now fantastic physical options.
It’s definitely a sort of outrageous
quality he has and when he scores
it is fantastic.”
The reverse fixture, a relegation
dogfight that led to the sacking of
Quique Sánchez Flores as Watford
manager, proved the turning point for
Hasenhüttl’s side, who are now
comfortably out of the relegation
zone in 13th position.
Nigel Pearson, Watford’s new
manager, has overseen a miraculous
turnaround of his own, winning four
games in six, having won only one of
their previous 16, but post-lockdown
the club remain embroiled in the
relegation dogfight, one point ahead
of the drop in 16th position. “We are
fighting for our lives and we have not
found performance levels I would
expect from us,” Pearson said. “We
didn’t find rhythm in the first half, the
goal we conceded was too easy for
them, we didn’t put enough pressure
in terms of the challenges we made
not being effective enough.
Consequently, a goal down again and
that’s something we want to put right.
“In the second half our intention
and players’ efforts were very good
initially and the second goal was
another individual mistake which put
us into a very difficult situation. It is afrustrating time for us because we
know we are capable of better.”
Southampton began with
confidence and Hasenhüttl had
barely finished congratulating his side
for their play before his side found the
opener. Will Smallbone, the 20-year-
old midfielder added to his energetic
start by passing to Ings in midfield. If
there was a player Watford needed to
prevent from progressing it was Ings,
but instead they backed away from
the 27-year-old leaving him to curl
into the bottom left corner.
The first half was punctuated by
injury stoppages but that only
appeared to fuel Southampton’s
pressing game. Watford’s brightest
spark was Ismaïla Sarr, but his
unpredictable showing could be
summed up by a bizarre incident in
the 42nd minute where he felt his
shirt pulled in the area by Ryan
Bertrand but instead of attempting to
win a corner, simply gave up.Pearson’s side offered a reaction in
the opening moments of the second
half. Sarr’s effort was blocked before
Troy Deeney blazed over but Ben
Foster’s poor throw then handed the
ball to Ings, who powered on and
fired via a Craig Dawson deflection.
Watford, resigned to defeat, did
benefit from an own goal from Jan
Bednarek who inadvertently stabbed
home José Holebas’s cross. Any hope
was fleeting however, as James Ward-
Prowse’s free kick sealed the victory.Nigel Pearson, the Watford manager,
was forced to omit Andre Gray,
Nathaniel Chalobah and Domingos
Quina from his match-day squad
yesterday after they were alleged to
have attended a party that breached
lockdown and Premier League
protocols.
Government lockdown rules state
that people should not meet in groups
of more than six, while Premier
League protocols encourage players
to minimise any contact away from
their clubs, staying in bubbles with
their families.
It is alleged that Gray, who was 29
on Friday, hosted a birthday party at
his home attended by about 20 people
including Chalobah and Quina, the
day after Watford had lost to Burnley.
Since-deleted footage was posted to
Gray’s Instagram account appearing
to show Quina among others playing
football on an artificial pitch at
Gray’s home.
With Premier League testing taking
place on Friday morning and strict
protocols controlling who players are
in contact with, it is understood the
club could not guarantee any of the
three players had not been in contact
with someone carrying coronavirus.
A statement from the club before
the Southampton game stated: “Andre
Gray, Nathaniel Chalobah and
Domingos Quina have all been
omitted from the squad by Nigel
Pearson to ensure the health and
safety of all players, staff and officials
at today’s game.”
Watford continue to investigate and
after the game Pearson said: “Until I
know all the facts I am not making
any further comment on that
situation.”
The three players have been mainly
utilised by Pearson as squad players,
with Gray scoring twice in 21 games,
while Chalobah has made 16
appearances, and Quina four. It
remains unclear as to whether the
players will now need to quarantine,
which would be a further blow to
Pearson’s relegation-threatened side.Party trio give
Pearson yet
more issues
MOLLY HUDSON‘Outrageous’
Ings deepens
Watford woe
MOLLY HUDSON Match briefing
Danny Ings’s opener came inside 16
minutes for Southampton, the in-form
striker collecting Will Smallbone’s pass in
midfield, advancing to the edge of the
area and curling home with aplomb.
The former Liverpool man’s second owed
much to Ben Foster however, the Watford
keeper’s throw out fell at Ings’s feet and he
made no mistake with 20 minutes to go.Key moment
Jan Bednarek’s unfortunate own goal
gave Watford hope but three minutes
later James Ward-Prowse fired home a
trademark free kick to seal victory.RATINGS
Watford (4-5-1): B Foster 5 — K Femenia 6 (I Pussetto
79min), C Cathcart 6, C Dawson 5, A Masina 6 (J
Holebas 74) — I Sarr 7, É Capoue 7, A Doucouré 6,
W Hughes 6 (D Welbeck 73), R Pereyra 6 (J Pedro 74)
— T Deeney 6. Booked Dawson.
Southampton (4-3-3): A McCarthy 7 — K Walker-
Peters 7, J Vestergaard 6, J Bednarek 7, R Bertrand 7
— O Romeu 6, J Ward-Prowse 7, W Smallbone 7
(S Armstrong 65, 7) — N Redmond 7, D Ings 8, S Long
7 (C Adams 75).
Referee M Oliver.Watford
1Southampton
3Ings’ double takes his Premier League tally this season to 18, one behind VardyMATT WATSON/GETTY IMAGESTHE RELEGATION FIGHT
P W D L F A GD Pts
Southampton.... 32 12 416 41 55-14 40
Newcastle........... 3110 9 12 29 42-13 39
Brighton.............. 31 712123441 -733
Watford............... 32 6 1016 29 49 -20 28
West Ham........... 31 7 6 18 35 54-19 27
Bournemouth..... 31 7 6 18 29 50-21 27
Aston Villa.......... 32 7 6 19 36 60 -24 27
Norwich.............. 31 5 6 20 25 56-31^21
Full table, page 15