Can Liverpool Loanee Jon Flanagan Kickstart His Season for Burnley in November?

With Jurgen Klopp reshaping his squad this summer, Liverpool began work on a number of loan deals, with the Liverpool Echo’s David Prentice reporting on their fail-safe clause in July, revealing that “clubs [would be] penalised financially if a player they have loaned does not play in a specified ratio of matches.”

This ratio was believed to be 75 percent, but while the likes of Danny Ward (Huddersfield Town), Ryan Fulton (Chesterfield) and Adam Bogdan (Wigan Athletic) have met that target so far, the same can’t be said of Jon Flanagan at Burnley.

Working on minutes played, the 23-year-old, who sealed a season-long loan move to Turf Moor on Aug. 5, has featured in just six percent of possible minutes in the Premier League—53 of 900—while overall, this is boosted to 17 percent following his 120-minute outing against Accrington Stanley in the EFL Cup.

Flanagan arrived in Lancashire behind on fitness, having spent 619 days on the sidelines with a series of knee injuries—the first suffered at the end of the 2013/14 campaign—but playing 46 minutes in Burnley’s 0-0 draw away to Manchester United at the end of October, he now looks prepared to take up a more regular role.

Burnley play Crystal Palace (Nov. 5), West Bromwich Albion (Nov. 21) and Manchester City (Nov. 26) this month, and Flanagan can hope to be given his chance in a tough spell for the Clarets in the league.

In order to even go close to satisfying Klopp’s desire for his loan stars to play at least 75 percent of their temporary sides’ games, Flanagan must look to kickstart his campaign with a series of strong performances throughout the month of November.

With Sean Dyche’s side sitting 14th in the Premier League table, the 45-year-old can benefit from a player of Flanagan’s quality and experience if he turns to the Liverpool loanee in the coming weeks.

Speaking to reporters on Flanagan’s move to Burnley, Dyche hailed the defender’s title-challenging experience, saying playing a key role in Liverpool’s close-fought battle in 2013/14 “is worth a lot:”

He’s still quite young, but he’s had the big end of the experience, playing in the side that pushed it so close to winning it, so I think that experience is worth a lot. He’s played in some really big and important games.

He’s playing at a big club, who at that time were competing right at the top end of it, so there’s enormous pressure and stress. He’s certainly shown he can do that.

Flanagan established himself as Brendan Rodgers’ first-choice left-back three months into that campaign, producing an excellent showing in Liverpool’s 3-3 draw with Everton in November 2013 which earned plaudits from his captain, Steven Gerrard.

“You look at our team and our star man for me was Jon Flanagan by a country …

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