Maxwel Cornet FC
Plus: More individual errors
One of these days I’ll be able to send you a newsletter about a win. This is not the day.
Maxwel Cornet FC
To state the obvious, Maxwel Cornet is the real deal. Any concern about how Cornet would adapt to life in the Premier League can be dismissed. He is already one of our better overseas signings, not that he has a lot of competition bar Steven Defour.
A brace of excellent finishes in Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Southampton means Cornet has three goals from his four league appearances so far. All his goals have come away from home, which is vital as traditionally Sean Dyche’s Clarets struggle to score on the road.
No other Burnley player has scored since Cornet made his debut against Arsenal.
We are Maxwel Cornet FC. And I’m loving it.
Burnley fans being Burnley fans, there are already grumblings about an over-reliance on Cornet. Chatter about how long we can keep him will no doubt follow shortly.
What on earth we do when he goes to AFCON is a problem for a day down the line.
But as podcast panelist Tom pointed out, it’s about time we had someone to rely on.
To recap: our centre-backs are outscoring our strikers in the league this season. Two of our best players, Nick Pope and Dwight McNeil, have not yet found their any form.
Cornet isn’t perfect. While it is probably overly critical or nit-picking to whinge about a player who carried us on Saturday, he failed to track his man a couple of times.
Tino Livramento had the run of the flank much of the time when Cornet was stationed on the left side of our midfield. Defensive duties should not be a problem for a player who has featured plenty at left-back in his career. Dyche is unlikely to stand for someone failing to offer the defence the help that they quite obviously need.
For that reason, I prefer Cornet as a second striker supporting Chris Wood for now.
Without either Cornet or forgotten man Matej Vydra in the attack, we have no speed.
And to state the obvious a second time, you cannot counter-attack with no pace.
More individual errors
Saturday was a fun game to watch - despite the scary defending - and 2-2 was fair.
Both teams had periods where they could have put the match away, but didn’t.
It was errors that proved key for each side though. Nathan Redmond’s incredible miss with an open goal gaping was the most notable of Southampton’s individual mistakes.
If Dyche had any hair, he’d be tearing it out at the cheap goals we keep giving away.
Josh Brownhill failed to mark Livramento for his goal and Pope’s attempt to save it - though any free header from a few yards out is likely to go in - was pretty rubbish.
James Tarkowski, one of our better players this season, then made a truly dire error.
I do feel a bit bad for him as I still don’t think he should be on the left side of the new partnership with Nathan Collins if he is taking responsibility for playing the ball out.
But it’s not like he had no options. Jack Cork was free for a short pass and Tarkowski does not normally need a second invitation to hoof it long if there is nothing else on.
To compound giving the ball away, Tarks then did nothing to stop Armando Broja.
Last week our mistakes were in attack, failing to take clear chances at Manchester City. This weekend it was our losses of concentration at the back that were costly.
It’s easier said than done, but Burnley won’t start winning until these bad errors stop.
Podcasts and quiz question
If you haven’t got around to it yet, our special chat with former chairman Barry Kilby is still available and is well worth a listen.
The answer to this week’s quiz question will be given out on the next preview show:
Only one Burnley player has made over 100 appearances from the bench, during his time at the club. But can you name them?
And I’m on this week’s EPL Round Table show talking all things Premier League:
Fantasy football
Like a few of you probably did, I captained Mo Salah this week - is he the best player in the world right now? - and he carried my team to a bumper haul of 97 points.
That only moved me up to 65th in the NNN league, though, with Dec still on top.
Tweet of the week
Birthdays and anniversaries
A couple of Clarets have birthdays coming up this week. Johann Gudmundsson will be 31 on Wednesday and goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell is 25 on Friday.
If you thought last week’s #OnThisDay was grim, our record on October 25 is worse.
We haven’t won any of our last eight games on this day, with a 5-0 loss to Nottingham Forest particularly painful. So we have to go all the way back to 1980 for a 2-0 home win over Brentford in the third division that featured this goal. Slim, slim pickings!
That’s it for this week. No letters section… because none of you sent any! Two home games coming up so let’s hope at least one of them is a much-needed Burnley victory.