It’s not rocket science – Mike Jackson wants Burnley to go back to basics

Burnley caretaker manager Mike Jackson has told his players to go back to basics in their bid to beat the Premier League drop.

Jackson and his interim coaching team took a point from Sunday’s 1-1 draw at West Ham barely 48 hours after Sean Dyche’s shock sacking, and will be in charge again when Southampton visit Turf Moor on Thursday night.

With little time to prepare for that match, Jackson said he did little to change things tactically and it will be the same again on Thursday as he encourages the players to draw on the approach that has kept the Clarets in the top flight for six years.

“I think you’ve got to draw on those values, definitely,” he said. “It’s just about making little tweaks that you see against different opponents. It’s nothing revolutionary. It’s a set of values, a set of principles that a lot of teams use.

“It’s not rocket science. It’s simple things done really well, the basics.”

Burnley’s players were still digesting the news that Dyche’s nine-and-a-half-year reign was over when they kicked off at the London Stadium on Sunday afternoon, but responded well in the first half, leading through Wout Weghorst’s header before Maxwel Cornet missed a penalty.

But that miss proved crucial and they needed late saves from Nick Pope to earn a point after Tomas Soucek levelled.

“I expected the response,” he said. “I didn’t know how it would affect them when they actually hit the grass because you never know.

“But we started the game really well, we had a good portion of that first half. In terms of moments, there wasn’t that much in it. We had some good chances.”

There was no better chance than Cornet’s penalty miss before the break. The Ivorian, who was brought down by Lukasz Fabianski, took the ball off Jay