Are Burnley's struggles down to having too many British players?

Sean Dyche's squad played a lot of lower league football

Burnley have issues but are those issues based on the breakdown in nationalities of their squad? 

Sunday's 4-0 defeat to West Brom at The Hawthorns was a cruel demonstration of the limitations of Sean Dyche's Burnley squad.

The Clarets had kept clean sheets in all three games prior to Sunday's trip to the Midlands, but in truth once Craig Dawson opened the scoring for the hosts the result was not in doubt.

Burnley surprised most observers in winning automatic promotion from the Championship last season behind champions Leicester City.

Dyche and his players did so thanks in no small part to a blend of patient attacking football that allowed them ultimately finish eight points clear of third-placed Derby.

Life in the Premier League is proving a much more difficult nut to crack.

After Sunday's defeat, Burnley have gone 526 minutes without scoring, stretching all the way back to the season-opening visit of Chelsea to Turf Moor.

That stat singles Burnley out amongst their peers.

Another distinguishing feature is that Dyche's squad is made up exclusively from players born in Britain and Ireland.

For the vast majority of the Burnley squad, their experience as professionals has been garnered in the lower tiers of English football, with just a select few having tasted life in the Premier League before.

Is this reliance on British players a contributing factor in their current struggles?

Dyche guided Burnley to promotion last season with a team largely consisting of players well schooled in Championship football.

With an attacking philosophy and a desire to get the ball down and play to their strengths, Dyche and his players won many plaudits for the manner in which they achieved promotion.

From the moment the golden ticket was secured however, there was a feeling that much more would be needed for a tilt at the big boys.

The summer arrivals at Turf Moor were mostly underwhelming - and British.

Michael Kightly and Matt Taylor arrived from Stoke and West Ham respectively to bring some Premier League experience.

Former and current Ireland internationals Steven Reid and Stephen Ward were also summoned by Dyche - all four players arrived for transfer fees totalling 2m.

The remaining three summer recruits continued on a familiar theme - Matt Gilks, Marvin Sordell and Lukas Jutkiewicz pledging themselves to the Turf Moor survival bid.

This was in stark contrast to the two clubs that joined Burnley in earning promotion from the Championship.

At QPR, Harry Redknapp's cosmopolitan squad was extended to include the likes of Croatia's Niko Kranjcar permanently, Brazilian Sandro from Spurs and Leroy Fer, fresh from the World Cup with Holland.

In comparison to Turf Moor, the Rangers dressing room is like a veritable league of nations.

At Leicester, Nigel Pearson cast his net wide.

Esteban Cambiasso, a veteran of more than 300 games at Inter Milan and an experienced international with Argentina, was brought in on a one-year deal surely aimed at helping the survival bid.

It now looks as though Pearson's best piece of business was the move for another Argentine, Leonardo Ulloa from Brighton.

Ulloa enjoyed a relatively prolific spell at the Amex and it was enough to convince Pearson to take a gamble and bring the striker to the King Power Stadium in a deal worth 8m.

With five goals in six games already, Ulloa has proved to be worth his weight in gold and could provide a wholesale return on the money spent if he can help Leicester avoid relegation.

For Burnley they must now play with the hand they have chosen - at least until the January transfer window.

At their core a very British club, the style in which Burnley won promotion was anything but British. Full-backs pushing on to support their attack, midfielders seeking to get on the ball and play telling passes for a strike partnership that contributed 47 goals last season.

Dyche will point to injuries that have largely deprived him of those free-scoring front men Danny Ings and Sam Vokes this season so far.

But it seems as though the manager has also abandoned the style of play that brought success to Turf Moor in favour of a much more British approach.

The high pressing game of last season has been replaced by a policy of containment.

Three scoreless draws in succession - against Manchester United, Sunderland and Crystal Palace - appeared to be promoting the virtues of their new, cautious approach.

That tactic was blown apart at The Hawthorns once Dawson broke the deadlock after half an hour. A goal down away from home, containment was never going to help Burnley retrieve the situation, especially once West Brom had doubled their advantage before the half-time interval.

The midfield battle was easily won by the Baggies with Kightly, Reid and Ross Wallace ineffectual at best - the latter duo being replaced by Dyche at the break.

Up front Jutkiewicz cut an isolated figure all afternoon, as Burnley's five-man midfield retained their focus on protecting those behind them rather than getting forward to support the striker.

Given their current form, Burnley will soon find themselves back in the very British battleground that is the Championship if they aren't careful.

On Sunday it was difficult to see where a Burnley goal is coming from, far less a win.

Ironically, the season began with a ray of light.

A full house at Turf Moor welcomed Jose Mourinho's star-studded foreign legion, the Chelsea team a million miles removed from this Burnley squad.

Scott Arfield's early goal had the natives dreaming of a famous upset before Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and company swept them aside in a tidal wave of foreign flair.

Even for a fleeting moment, Burnley took the game to their opponents and it is perhaps that trait of taking on a superior rival against the odds that Dyche must encourage his players to find now.

Full-back Kieran Trippier was a shining light for Burnley last season, advancing high up the field to wreak havoc and create chances at every available opportunity.

Given how the first six games have gone, there is nothing for Burnley to lose in adopting a less cautious approach.

At the beginning of the season Dyche bemoaned the difficulty he faced in attracting players to the club, in the face of better offers - often from clubs Burnley had left behind in the second tier.

"There's Championship clubs who have kept players because they're giving them bigger contracts than we can give them. It's just the reality of being Burnley Football Club and going into this new world," he said.

With a trip to Leicester and a home game against West Ham looming, perhaps now is the time for Burnley's best of British to seize the moment before it passes them by.