Embrace the chaos
Plus: How to replace Maatsen
It’s now four games without a win, raising the first complaints about the VK era…
Embrace the chaos
Three home games, three matches we probably should have won, but three draws.
Saturday’s was the most egregious example of two dropped points yet, Burnley having dominated Blackpool in the first half, but still leaving the door ajar for a comeback.
It had all started so well. Josh Brownhill’s stunning strike gave us an early lead and before long it was 2-0 with Nathan Tella running clear to slot in on his first start.
From there, it felt like Blackpool could be on the end of a heavy defeat, the sort of thumping we have appeared to be on the brink of delivering all season. Alas! A slack moment at the back allowed Blackpool to cut the deficit and while Tella’s deflected drive made it 3-1 before the break, it still felt as if the game wasn’t done.
Burnley were awful after the break, never regaining control until the last few minutes when it was 10 v 10 after the twin late red cards. We could easily have lost the game.
Aro Muric made two big saves to help make up for his part in Blackpool’s opener. The goalkeeper was not completely at fault - Josh Cullen’s poor touch shares the blame - but the anxiety from the stands when he gets on the ball seems to be affecting him.
Fans pay their money and can have their say but I don’t see any advantage from moans and groans on the ground. There appeared to be sarcastic cheers when Muric cleared the ball long, which is nonsense behaviour from supporters. Fans were getting on Muric’s back when we were 3-1 up for crying out loud. What does that achieve?
There are moments in matches where Burnley do need to be much more pragmatic. Just before the break, our game management was particularly poor and there was no need for us to encourage Blackpool by allowing them to press us deep in our own half.
But that is our plan. You do not have to like it - I didn’t particularly enjoy some of the basic meat and potatoes football we served up at times under Sean Dyche and I have already been quite bored with some of our slow build-up play this season - but we are committed to this way of playing. There isn’t any point whining at Muric for doing exactly what Vincent Kompany wants from his goalkeeper: to get on the ball and play.
Taking risks will occasionally be costly, there is no doubt about that. But it’s vital we don’t lose sight of the benefits of this approach. Most of our attacks start with Muric being involved in the build-up. Time and time again, we go back to the goalkeeper and he helps us to reset and create a new move. Vitinho and Tella need to be making runs in behind when opposition teams do push up high to press, but more often than not we will be encouraging teams to press, so we can play through it, as we clearly can.
This is how we play now. If you don’t like it and want to moan, it’s probably best to stay away. There will be more hairy moments involving Muric. Embrace the chaos!
How to replace Maatsen
I’m not going to crucify Maatsen over his red card - it’s pointless and he will know better than anyone that he made a mistake in the heat of the moment. I’m sure Kompany has reminded him of his responsibilities and this is the kind of error of judgment young players must learn from and make sure they do not repeat.
I agree it was wrong for Maatsen to rip off the black armband our players were wearing to commemorate the late Lenny Johnrose, but he was not thinking straight. That doesn’t excuse his behaviour, but I’m sure he regrets it in the cold light of day.
What his three-game ban does mean is Burnley have a big problem. While one of the matches he will miss will be the midweek cup tie at Shrewsbury Town, we will then face two key league games without probably our star player of the season so far.
Charlie Taylor is the obvious replacement for Maatsen, given he almost exclusively played at left-back until this season, but he lacks the loanee’s rapid pace and thrust.
Vitinho might be the closest we have to a natural Maatsen replacement, but we have only seen the Brazilian in an attacking role so far. He did apparently play left-back quite a bit in Belgium, so perhaps this is the right time for us to take a look at that.
Kompany may see the cup game as a chance to blood some academy talent, potentially leading to minutes for Owen Dodgson, who signed a new deal over the summer.
Presumably we will get a look at CJ Egan-Riley and £2 million emergency striker Luke McNally should start at the back too. If Taylor is going to be needed at left-back, this could be the chance McNally needs to stake his claim for a place in defence.
Burnley have not kept a clean sheet since the opening night win at Huddersfield. We seem to be conceding soft, sloppy, avoidable goals every game at the moment. All goals are usually preventable to an extent, but this seems especially the case for us.
Defence has shifted to become the primary issue for me, with Jay Rodriguez having a radical impact on the effectiveness of our attack after replacing Ashley Barnes up top. While he didn’t score, Jay was excellent leading the line on Saturday. Our attack offered nothing after he came off - Barnes! was! totally! pathetic! - Kompany needs to manage Jay’s minutes after his injury issues but that sub backfired badly.
You simply cannot concede three goals in a home game - against a side that finished 16th last term - without concluding there are major issues in this area of the pitch.
There are question marks over all the players we have used back there. Connor Roberts appears to be an uneasy fit for VK’s hybrid right-back role, Taylor has gone backwards rapidly after initially looking solid at Huddersfield, Maatsen’s discipline has cost us and Taylor Harwood-Bellis is not commanding enough out of possession.
After signing 81 new players - yet another wide attacker, Darko Churlinov from Stuttgart, is the latest fresh face - I’m loath to demand more arrivals as solutions.
But I still feel an experienced centre-back could make a big difference to this side.
We seem to lack leaders on the pitch and someone in the mould of Steve Cook, the veteran defender Nottingham Forest signed in January to boost their promotion push, would help us to protect Muric better. THB has more than a whiff of a young Gary Cahill about him. Cahill went on to play 61 times for England. His early development at Turf Moor owed plenty to being partnered by a rock solid old pro: John McGreal.
Cahill is a free agent after helping Bournemouth to promotion. We could do worse.
Letters
Mark wrote in with his thoughts on the derby draw:
Burnley, like last season, we folded in the second half to allow them two more goals through bad defending and goal keeping. The stunning strike by Brownhill for the first and brace by Tella should have been enough! I don't know why Maatsen lost his head to run and push over the Blackpool player as the referee was going to send their player off. I think it was a rush of blood to his head and a bit of lack of experience but he will learn from this.
It was a total loss of composure from Maatsen, which was indicative of Burnley’s whole second half. The control we had before the break went out of the window!
Stuart has also been in touch:
I was genuinely annoyed by the jeers and sarcastic applause when Muric punted it long in the second half, which ironically broke down to Blackpool possession. People are so nervous at the idea of us conceding a goal that they would rather we launch it long to a lone striker only for it to get lost and come straight back at us. Remind me again, what was the main criticism of Dycheball? Add onto that Ashley Westwood's comments during the game about how nerves in the stands can easily creep onto the field and we have a genuine possibility that supporters put fear into our FIRST CHOICE KEEPER.
I think back to the Huddersfield match, and a pass played to the left-back position in the second half, and suddenly Muric appears. I, like probably every Burnley fan, thought "What on earth is he doing there" and panicked when in reality there was no-one near him. Muric is not a panicky keeper. Watch Blackpool's first goal again: When Muric makes the pass to Cullen, there are options for Cullen to either a) launch it or b) let it run across him and pass to Taylor or Cork. Instead he runs into Corbeanu. That’s the mistake which costs us.
I think that there is a certain portion of our fanbase that doesn't like this new style of play, would rather we went back to playing a flat 442 and Muric is going to be the scapegoat. I heard a fan saying "We should never have got rid of Hennessey", which about sums it up: no confidence in Bailey Peacock-Farrell, but just don't like Muric, so wishing for a reality that doesn’t exist.
I completely agree! Cullen is probably more at fault than Muric but for some reason most fans are just pointing at the goalkeeper. They’ve been waiting for that error. I watched it on Clarets+ (due to the train strike) and Westwood was very good, btw.
Kevin also wrote in pointing out the goals we are scoring are not from slow build-up:
The goals finally arrived on Saturday, and the first two - long passes from the back to front - looked closer to vintage Dyche than signature Kompany. And it was the same for the previous two: A set piece against Luton, and a quick break exploiting space at the back against Hull.
We've come unstuck in the final third so far this season. Our slow build-up has allowed opposition defences to organise against an attack without enough of a cutting edge to break through. So were those two forward balls from Taylor Harwood-Bellis a conscious effort to mix up our play a little bit more?
They were definitely well-placed long passes, rather than hopeful punts - but I don't think we attempted anything like that a couple of weeks ago. The more varied our approach, the more difficult it's going to be for opposition teams to stifle us. Intentional or coincidental, it's encouraging to see we have that in our locker.
What was strange on Saturday is we had such joy with those longish balls from THB early on - they were passes, not punts - but then… just… stopped doing it? Odd.
That’s it for this week. With time running out to add to our squad, what do you think we need? Is it still a new number nine, or a defender to partner THB? Let me know.
Ideally we need both a number 9 *and* some experience in defence. I can't help thinking that if experience was what Kompany wanted, his first task of the summer would be to get some in. Or, indeed, we would've tried harder to tie down one of the now-former central defenders before they went. That leaves me to conclude that Kompany thinks that he can train our new recruits up himself, without need for fresh leadership on the pitch.
I think that the criticising the fans who were frustrated with the playing our from the back is a bit of blind faith.
The keeper looked ill at ease whenever he had the ball at his feet and seemed to need to concentrate to make the simplest pass.
The first goal was a howler and changed the whole game. A mistake is fair enough but to then continue the same approach (and repeat the mistake 2-3 times) is crazy.
If Kompany saw the first half and said 'carry on, it's working' then I'd be amazed (although the first minute of the second half suggests that perhaps he did).
Nothing wrong with trying to play from the back but mix it up and don't take stupid chances.
Against a better team it would have been a 1.0 defeat.
Agree that Barnes looks spent (and bringing him on was an error- he offered nothing).