Dyche: Mourinho’s criticism of Barnes ‘hard to believe

Burnley’s manager, Sean Dyche, has responded forthrightly to José Mourinho’s searing criticism of Ashley Barnes’ challenge on Nemanja Matic. In an interview on Burnley’s website, Dyche has defended his player against allegations of a “criminal” tackle and said that Mourinho’s reaction at the time suggested the Chelsea manager saw nothing unusual in the incident.


“I find it hard to believe all these people who have now come out, especially the manager using very, very strong phrases about that moment, didn’t have any reaction at all at that live moment,” said Dyche, who reported that Matic was the only person among Chelsea’s players, staff and supporters to respond furiously.

Matic shoved Barnes and was sent off, though Chelsea have lodged an appeal with the Football Association on the grounds of excessive sentence in an attempt to reduce the three-match suspension.

“Please look at the reaction from a bunch of expert footballers on the Chelsea side – the likes of John Terry, a real warrior and a top-class professional in my opinion; Zouma; big, strong boys; Ivanovic – right on top of this moment. José Mourinho has a similar view to me. The crowd behind me, circa 15,000. No one reacts. Live time, no one reacts, apart from Matic. My point is the referee has a chance in live speed time, and no one reacts.

“In fact when you look at the footage, when the camera pans back to José Mourinho and his assistant, they are calmly talking about what they should do.

“After the event with hindsight, with camera views, with slo-mo, now it’s brought out statements like ‘criminal tackle’. I find that hard to adjust to when live at that moment 15,000-plus people behind me, [Chelsea’s] expert staff – they are all experts in their field, including a high-quality manager – and most of all the players on the football field [do not react].”

Dyche insisted Barnes had no intention of harming Matic and was trying to reach the ball to pass to Dave Jones.

“Once you are in that pendulum motion to play a pass I think it’s very hard to retract your leg immediately and stop your leg from going through that ball and then rising,” he said. “But I must make it clear, when you then see it after the event, slo-mo every angle, of course it doesn’t look a pleasant challenge – we all know that. But at live speed, these are expert people who have been in the game a long time who don’t react, don’t even flinch at that moment, other than Matic’s response.”

Dyche also responded to Mourinho’s other complaints. He said Barnes’s first-half challenge on Branislav Ivanovic, which the Chelsea manager felt worthy of a red card, was punishable with “at most a yellow card”.

Burnley’s manager accepted that a handball by Michael Kightly from an Ivanovic shot ought to have brought Chelsea a penalty. “Usually you would expect that to be given,” he said.

But he claimed the push by Jason Shackell on Diego Costa was far less clear-cut. Without accusing the striker of diving, he said: “Jason Shackell definitely gets a mild hand on him. Is that enough for him to go down? It’s a real debate point. I think that’s a close one.”

Dyche concluded the interview by saying that Costa had later made contact with the back of Shackell’s legs in an off-the-ball incident and that Chelsea had declined to return the ball when the Burnley goalkeeper, Tom Heaton, then threw it out for another team-mate to receive treatment.

“It must have been an oversight, I can only put it down to that,” he said. “Chelsea actually played on – threw it in and tried to attack us to score a goal. I’ll accept it if it is an oversight but I think the protocol suggests that isn’t the correct fashion.”


Source: Guardian