With a mischievous smile, Sean Dyche drops a casual line into his post-match analysis, which may as well have been a fully-primed explosive.

“Glenn Hoddle would NEVER have played in modern football because people would say, ‘Glenn, you can only pass it 10 yards, mate — you are not ­allowed to play long balls.’ It’s true.”

His point is not aimed at ­Jurgen Klopp or Liverpool , but more the perception in these tiki-taka times that any other way of playing is neanderthal and anti-football.

Which is ­exactly what Dyche's Burnley side are ­condemned for.

Yet, when they try to ­compete with sides who enjoy budgets 10 or 20 times the size of their own, what are they supposed to do?

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“I grew up marvelling at Hoddle, marvelling at him, landing that ball with either foot all over the pitch. Short, long. He was more renowned for his long passes, opening things up,” Dyche explained.

“I don’t mean he would never have played, but you would never have seen the best of him in the current game, because we can only play the little passes. What I am saying is: Don’t be afraid to play a long pass.

“These players here, even our players, they are Premier League players and if you ­honestly think they can’t land a ball 40 yards onto ­somebody’s chest... they can.

“So why would I take away the ability to do that?”

That last comment was at the heart of how Saturday's 1-1 draw at Anfield unfolded.

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Liverpool had 35 ­attempts, but scored one goal.

Burnley had rather fewer, and yet had two chances in the final minutes from close range to win at Anfield.

From visits to Chelsea, ­Tottenham and Liverpool they now have five points on their travels, only two less than they managed away from home during the whole of last ­season.

There is a reason, because Dyche has spotted a way to harm even the best teams.

His point is that he and his admirable side get labelled, when they are just doing their job in identifying the weakness in Klopp’s otherwise compelling construction at Anfield.

“I make no apology in my thoughts or words, we have no problem with that. We ­deliberately got the ball and got it as far down their throat as we could, because we felt it would be effective,” Dyche ­explained.

“What I was sharing was the view round here. I was here Wednesday night, fans were saying it, pundits were saying it, everyone was talking about it, so they cannot all be wrong. They have a tough time at ­set-pieces.

“Our plan has to be, ‘If that is one of the things, how can we affect them?’ Is it that we outpass them? No, it isn’t. So what can be an effective tool we can use? And, let’s face it, we had two cleared off the line from set-pieces, so it worked.”

The Clarets’ goal exploited that weakness, a long ball and a great finish from Scott ­Arfield. But, equally, a mistake from visiting defender Robbie Brady allowed Mo Salah to equalise from ­another long ball.

Klopp screams on the sideline as Liverpool drop two points at home (
Image:
Liverpool FC/Getty)
Roberto Firmino and co made bags of chances but only finished one of them (
Image:
Reuters)
Even Philippe Coutinho's return to the starting XI could not break Burnley down (
Image:
PA Wire)

For all the criticism of their defence, if Liverpool had taken their chances this would have been a comfortable win, and confirmation of the incredible job Klopp is doing in making his team a genuinely ­compelling threat.

The only thing missing was composure in front of goal and in front of fine keeper Nick Pope on his full debut.

But Klopp ­insisted that will come.

“I know that the mother of all goals is the opportunity — the chance. If we we’re not ­creating chances, then I would be really concerned but we are creating. We had enough chances to win,” Klopp said.

“It was a good day, but not a very good day, and that’s why we made a few wrong ­decisions on the pitch.”

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