Burnley winger Dwight McNeil has been putting in the hard yards in his bid to become a better player.
McNeil, who turned 22 this week, is already in his fourth full season as a regular starter for the Clarets and is poised to make his 109th Premier League appearance in Sunday’s home game against Tottenham.
He said he has made a concerted effort to improve his off-the-ball game and Sean Dyche’s side are reaping the benefits.
McNeil, a big Marvel superhero fan who celebrated his birthday on Monday with a Spiderman cake, said: “I think I’m doing that side of the game better and I want to continue getting better.
“As I’ve been playing, as I’ve been learning, I know that the team I’m in at the minute, the way we play, we won’t have the ball in most games as much as other teams.
“You’ve to work as hard without the ball as you do when you have it, especially in our team, it’s so important.”
McNeil has been key to Burnley’s pressing game-plan this season, regularly winning back possession for his side high up the pitch.
“It’s all about reading the game and anticipating the pass that the opposition can play and having those pressing triggers,” he said.
“We know how good teams are in the Premier League and you’ve got to press at the right moments.
“You can’t press in ones or twos because teams can pick you off and that’s the moment they’re looking for.”
McNeil’s hard work has not gone unnoticed by his manager. Dyche said: “Dwight can play in a number of positions, can be creative, he’s still relatively young really and he plays a lot of football.
“People forget that. Other young players play nowhere near the amount of football he plays and he’s becoming a very rounded, very good player.”
The arrival of versatile Ivory Coast forward Maxwel Cornet in August for £12.85million from Lyon has eased the burden on McNeil as an attacking outlet.
Cornet has hit the ground running at Turf Moor, scoring five goals in his first seven Premier League appearances.
McNeil said: “Obviously coming in from a different country it can be difficult, but he’s grasped the opportunity.
“I think he’s been fantastic, for us and for himself, and we all hope it continues for him.”
When asked if Dyche’s current side was the most exciting he had been part of, McNeil added: “Yes, definitely. Since I’ve been here I think it’s the most technical and the most enjoyable I’ve been in.”
Burnley are bidding to extend their unbeaten league run to four games on Sunday and victory could lift them out of the bottom three.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here