Dumb football

Plus: How much is down to VK?

Another international break is over, but I can’t be the only one who is half-wishing that we had another two weeks off after Burnley suffered another heavy defeat.

Dumb football

Same old shit, different day, and more dumb football served up by Burnley.

We lost 3-0 at Brentford on Saturday but, honestly, it could have been five, six or more.

From the moment the team was named, it was obvious Burnley were going to lose. The only question was over how bad it would be, how many goals it would be by.

Brentford are a good side - even without their star man, banned striker Ivan Toney - and they have an excellent manager in Thomas Frank. But even after taking all three points on Saturday, they are only 14th in the table. This was supposed to be the start of our ‘easier’ run of games and we were comprehensively thumped. Again.

But it was no surprise. With Jordan Beyer missing, the back line is well short of the required standard and Vincent Kompany taking Josh Brownhill out for yet another attacker left that defence looking even more exposed than usual.

James Trafford had probably his best game for us, making a string of saves to keep the score down, but his weak long passing continues to leave us penned in and, not for the first time, he was almost caught out by dallying for too long on the ball.

Neither of the centre-backs who started on Saturday are comfortable either bringing the ball out from the back or playing incisive passes, so we cannot beat a press.

Josh Cullen is essentially a one-man midfield and, given his small size and physical weakness, it is no surprise we get bullied in the heart of the pitch every single game.

Unlike last season, where Nathan Tella and sometimes Ian Maatsen made runs in behind to offer an option for a ball over the top, nobody is doing that this season.

We can’t play out from the back and we can’t stop teams playing through us either.

All of this makes us very easy to play against right now. It is such dumb football.

To use a Stan Ternent-ism from the old days, a blind man on a galloping horse can see the tactics and team selections Kompany is making will just not cut it at this level.

Kompany keeps talking in the press about learning from defeats - but that does not just go for his players. The manager is on a steep, steep learning curve.

How much is down to VK?

We all know Kompany is a very smart man. So why is he presiding over dumb football?

It’s curious to me. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, but that’s what Kompany has been doing.

While there was a lot of excitement about our recruitment during the summer transfer window, it is clear that despite the spending we have significant holes in our squad.

Failing to bring back Ian Maatsen or sign a similar left-back to replace him has had a huge impact on our attacking play, leaving us without that key forward outlet.

Only signing Berge to bolster the midfield looks like another serious strategic error. Berge has been awful, but he hasn’t been helped by being played too deep.

The lack of a natural holding midfielder (Jack Cork: hi hello hi I still exist???) has left Cullen with far too much to do each game.

We signed a bunch of high-potential players who aren’t ready for the Premier League. Kompany believes they will come good over the course of the season. What if they don’t? Surely it would have been prudent to invest the money in a mix of players.

Let’s take the wingers as an obvious example. We have too many - that is clear. Nathan Redmond was a smart signing on a free, but we have barely seen him. Andros Townsend was ready to join on a free and would have been a handy option. Two players with lots of Premier League experience, which we lack through the squad.

We now have more wingers than we can use, leading to the increasingly bizarre marginalisation of Anass Zaroury - arguably our best player last season - and gaping holes elsewhere in the squad as we signed too many attacking youngsters.

Jacob Bruun Larsen has probably been our most consistent wide player this season. How many Premier League games has he started? A big fat zero. Why?

Yes, we have had both Jordan Beyer and Hjalmar Ekdal injured - arguably our best pairing at the back - but we could have brought back Taylor Harwood-Bellis and opted to sign inferior players in Dara O’Shea and Hannes Delcroix instead. Why? Our defensive unit has been downgraded by a huge amount compared to last term.

For me, Kompany has to take a significant share of the blame for the dumb football.

He has been given plenty of say when it comes to recruitment and it’s clear that the failings when it comes to tactics and team selections lay directly at his door.

That’s it for this week. As ever, let me know your thoughts by either replying to this email or dropping me a line in the comments. Cheers.