Sean Dyche says Dwight McNeil has 'massive future' after Burnley lose to Liverpool
Sunday 10 March 2019 17:45, UK
Sean Dyche hailed an "outstanding" display from Dwight McNeil and says the winger has a "massive future" after Burnley's 4-2 defeat by Liverpool.
McNeil was one of the standout performers for the Clarets as they suffered a third straight Premier League loss.
The 19-year-old caused some problems for Liverpool down the left side and put in several decent crosses.
"There were a lot of good things, culminating in a top-drawer performance from Dwight McNeil," said Burnley manager Dyche. "That young man has got a massive chance of being a top player in my opinion.
"He continues to grow every time and every time I wonder if I should leave him out I think no, keep him playing, it's good for him. If he keeps his head down and keeps working like he is doing then he has a massive future in my opinion.
"I thought he was winning the battle against a fantastic right-back [Trent Alexander-Arnold]. I thought Dwight was outstanding with his composure and belief with what he does.
"He has had one blip, which was probably my fault as I should have taken him out against Newcastle, other than that he has been outstanding.
"I didn't want to take him off, I was enjoying his performance that much. I thought 'you keep playing son'. It's fantastic to see the youngsters doing that."
Burnley took the lead at Anfield as Ashley Westwood scored direct from a corner in the sixth minute.
Liverpool were aggrieved that the goal stood as there appeared to be a foul on goalkeeper Alisson, but they fought back with two goals in either half to secure victory.
Dyche said he was "frustrated" by the performance and the mistakes from his side.
"Obviously you can't give away certainly three, if not four, of the goals. Strangely there were a lot of good things other than that, particularly the mentality, because it's tough to stay resilient to the task when you are 1-0 up and then go 2-1 down and you are scratching your head how.
"Then we give a third away, another error, and we actually responded to that and I thought we did well and kept probing and trying to ask questions, which is difficult here.
"The subs made a difference, we nick a goal, then you wonder if there's a grandstand finish, but it wasn't to be, with another error."
Dyche also said he had a slight complaint with a free-kick before Liverpool's equaliser.
"The only gripe for me is I think [Roberto] Firmino decided to make the first decision when he caught the ball. The ref hadn't blown the whistle on a counter, he played play on and then let him decide and he caught the ball and threw it back on and it was a free-kick, even though the ref hadn't blown the whistle.
"The theory is that should be handball, and the reason I mention it is they scored from that. But I must make clear there's more to the game than that. We can't keep making errors like that."
