Learning lessons
Plus: What to make of Aro Muric?
Our first defeat under Vincent Kompany then - and he needs to learn some lessons.
1) Jack Cork is key
It was a surprise to see Cork left out on Friday night, but not to see how much better Burnley were after he came on at the break. Sean Dyche strangely failed to see how much more effective our midfield is with Cork in it. Will Kompany catch on faster?
He identified in his post-match comments that Burnley lacked control in the first half. Control is what Cork brings to the table. He might not be the most exciting player in the world, but he knits together the side like nobody else in Burnley’s squad right now.
Without Cork, Josh Cullen had another quiet game in midfield. The Cork-Cullen axis is going to be crucial for us this season and, while some rotation may be needed as we enter the first busy stretch of the campaign, they should start the majority of games.
I’m not sure what to make of Samuel Bastien so far, but his place in the side is under threat. His energy is good and his pass completion rate is second only to Cullen so far, but he doesn’t appear to be an attacking threat, nor play many penetrative passes.
He shouldn’t be starting over Cork. I have faith VK will put that right against Hull.
2) Set pieces need work
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the loss at Watford was our use of set pieces. We have gone from every corner and free-kick being seen as a genuine chance to score via our decent delivery and dominant defenders to being reluctant to put a ball in.
Josh Brownhill’s corners are nowhere near as effective as Ashley Westwood’s, but the short corner routine we relied on at Vicarage Road was absolutely dreadful. If you take a short corner, the point is to provide a better angle to whip in a cross, or to catch the opposition off guard. Ours did neither. They were a complete waste of time.
Similarly, I was hoping the arrival of Kompany would see us consign Connor Roberts’ long throws to the bin, but that has not yet been the case. I can’t really remember a single chance we have created from Roberts hurling the ball vaguely near the box.
It doesn’t make sense to refuse to cross from a corner, but to use these ‘long’ throws. With our team struggling for goals, set pieces is an obvious area to improve. Fast.
3) Ashley Barnes… just no
On the one hand, Barnes has (accidentally!) assisted both of our goals to date. On the other, his presence as the long striker stymies multiple attacks due to his lack of pace and movement. Barnes has long since given up running the channels and he now seems more interested in fighting his centre-back than actually trying to win the ball.
Kompany has had little choice but to use Barnes with Jay Rodriguez and Scott Twine both sidelined and no new number nine yet to arrive despite 29 summer signings. But it isn’t a particularly hot take to say this team with Barnes up top will go nowhere.
Hopefully Rodriguez will be fit to start soon, but otherwise it’s got to be worth trying something else - either play a fast player like Nathan Tella as a false nine, or give Dara Costelloe a game there to see if it suits his skill set better than being stuck out wide.
Barnes could yet play a part as an impact sub, either when we need to close out a result or desperately need a goal, but he is neither use nor ornament as a starter.
4) Stop Cullen, stop Burnley?
Cullen had an outstanding debut at Huddersfield and some of us perhaps got a little bit carried away with the Republic of Ireland midfielder. Some of us. Maybe. Erm.
Anyway. Cullen has had two pretty mediocre games in a row now, suggesting perhaps he is not the second coming after all. The Luton game was particularly tough for Cullen, who was basically man-marked out of the match . Watford tried something similar at times and his impact was reduced again. Cullen had 95 touches against Huddersfield, 84 against Luton and 88 at Watford. Not a big drop, but significant.
Teams appear to think they can stop Burnley by stopping Cullen. Are they wrong?
Burnley need to work on other ways to move the ball forward when Cullen is marked. Maybe we use more long diagonal passes to switch the play and move opponents. Our clearest chance against Watford came at the end when a big booming ball led to an overload on the far side, the emergency striker Luke McNally producing a tame shot.
Perhaps centre-back Taylor Harwood-Bellis takes more responsibility and carries the ball out from the back himself if a pass to a marked Cullen is not on. He has already shown the ability to do this and his confidence will only grow with more games.
5) Up the tempo
Our main problem at Watford was the very slow pace of our play. Perhaps the baking hot on-pitch temperatures played a part, but it was notable how much lower the tempo was compared to the all-action win at Huddersfield (who were, to be fair, awful).
Even when we were chasing the game in the second half, our passing was too slow and there was not enough movement from the attacking players to provide options.
Watching us pass the ball around 30 yards from our own net is not fun, let’s be honest.
We played nearly twice as many short passes as Watford on Friday. Yes, we dominated and they needed a fine goalkeeping display and some luck to win, but they also scored from a more clinical attack than we produced from all our possession, so there’s that.
There will be times when Kompany’s Burnley appear to be having possession for the sake of having possession. Sometimes that will be resetting our attacking patterns, sometimes it will be waiting for an opposition player to be caught out of position.
Kompany has said that all he cares about is goals. Well, while signing a new striker might be an obvious move there, but playing faster and not in our own half will help.
Letters
Mark wrote in with some thoughts on Friday night’s defeat at Watford:
My heart was in my mouth with that clown of a keeper Muric nearly giving two goals away with bad passing. He reminds me of Bruce Grobbelaar, I nearly crap myself when he's got the ball or comes far up the pitch.
I don't think we deserved to lose, we had the most of the possession and they had one attack and scored. I thought Brownhill had a good game and was unlucky not to score, their keeper saved them. But it’s the same as under Dyche: we can't score.
Instead of signing wingers and midfielders, sign a decent striker. At this rate I will be calling for his head by Christmas if we don't take our chances - didn't want Kompany as our manager.
Like I said last week, I don’t think Kompany has complete control over transfers. While I’m sure we would have loved to have had a striker ready for the opening day, the window is still open for two weeks - and we have Scott Twine to come back. I remember not being enthused by us appointing Dyche and look how that went.
On Muric, it’s tricky to assess him so far as he hasn’t had a lot to do in terms of saves. That’s a good sign and suggests we are protecting him. His passing is something we just have to get used to really. Yes he gave it away a couple of times on Friday, but it didn’t cost us a goal. The whole team is adapting to this new way of playing and some teething problems are inevitable. I suggest we try to be patient and enjoy the ride.
That’s it for this week. Two home games now - an ideal chance to get back on track.