Pressure plans
Plus: A book review!
Hi everyone - we’re going all cultural this week for the international break. A book review from Dave follows today’s main article from Nate. Let me know your views.
Pressure plans
Nate Gilman
Coming off a solid 3-1 win at Turf Moor against Brentford, Burnley carried momentum into the international break with a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Chelsea.
Those two matches provide an interesting view into how Sean Dyche sets the Clarets up to defend, and more specifically, when to pressure opponents and when not to.
At Stamford Bridge on Saturday, according to Football Reference data, Burnley pressured Chelsea players who were receiving, dribbling, or passing the ball 218 times. Against Brentford - a very different match due to the game script - Burnley pressured the ball just 110 times, and on just 14 occasions in their defensive third.
The Clarets’ 218 pressures is the most in a match since the famous 2-0 win at Old Trafford in January 2020, which featured 242 pressures. Digging into three seasons of data reveals some interesting things about Dyche’s preferences on pressing.
Dyche has set up the Clarets to press traditional top six teams at a much higher rate than when facing other teams.
This season, though we just have an 11-game sample, Burnley have applied pressure to the ball 50 times more per 90 minutes against top six opponents.
Burnley’s aggressive press in certain situations in its attacking third of the pitch continues against all opponents, though slightly more against better teams.
The real difference comes from more pressure closer to Nick Pope’s goal. Burnley’s midfielders and defenders are far more active in stepping to the ball against typically better opponents, as this table shows.
Against Chelsea, Burnley’s press had limited success in terms of winning the ball back. Per Football Reference, the Clarets’ pressure won back possession of the ball within five seconds just 44 times, a success rate of just over 20%. Dwight McNeil led the squad with 38 pressures though just one of them led to a change of possession.
Despite not winning the ball back, Burnley’s strategy of pressure hindered Chelsea’s build up play. That’s not especially surprising considering their Champions’ League title and fast league start this season. However, Dyche set Burnley up to make the game tougher for Chelsea’s midfielders, especially Jorginho, and to limit their ability to pick apart the Clarets’ defensive shape.
Burnley pressured Jorginho on 25 of his 71 live pass attempts. Before last Saturday’s game, Jorginho had not been pressured on more than 16 passes during a Premier League match this season. Though Jorginho still completed 68 of 71 passes, the Clarets’ pressure denied him the ability to play on the half-turn, instead frequently forcing him to play wide or negatively, especially in the build up.
Chelsea found success exploiting gaps through lines to take advantage of a pressuring Claret, but Dyche’s tactical plan mostly limited Jorginho’s ability to wreak havoc as a deep-lying playmaker.
In the first minute of the match, Dyche’s plan was evident. As Jorginho received a pass from the sideline near midfield, both Maxwel Cornet and Ashley Westwood pressed him aggressively, not allowing him time to turn upfield, forcing an immediate return pass to the near sideline.
The Clarets consistently accounted for where Jorginho was on the field. As Chelsea advanced the ball across the halfway line, Burnley looked to bracket him, with Cornet or Chris Wood denying passes to Jorginho’s feet from deep and either Josh Brownhill or Westwood sitting behind ready to press if he did receive the ball.
Jorginho dropped deeper in possession to pick up the ball, ultimately leaving him with three lines of defense to break with a pass, rather than just two.
Against a team with the variety of attacking options that Chelsea has, a team is never going to truly shut them down going forward. However, by taking a player like Jorginho out of his comfort zone and limiting his time on the ball, Burnley were able to make Chelsea a little more uncomfortable building out from the back in possession.
By trying to cut off passes from Jorginho, and to a lesser extent N’Golo Kante, to central attacking options, Burnley forced Chelsea wide. Reece James and Ben Chilwell are certainly dangerous enough to beat you but defending narrowly in the back has always been a strength of Dyche’s teams.
Chelsea were also able to exploit Burnley’s tactical plan by using Jorginho as a decoy to drag a central midfield out of position and then play a ball through the gap in the midfield line up the field, usually to Ross Barkley operating higher up the field.
Saturday wasn’t the first time Dyche employed this kind of tactic. After the better-than-usual 2-0 defeat at Manchester City, Jamie wrote about Maxwel Cornet's role in limiting Rodri’s impact in possession. In that match, Rodri was pressured on 20 of his 96 live pass attempts, according to Football Reference, which is also the most pressure he’s faced this season while passing.
Ultimately, Chelsea probably had enough chances to win the match, ending with 2.2 expected goals. But they didn’t finish a second chance, leaving the door open to Matej Vydra’s late equaliser.
Dyche’s tactical decision to disrupt Chelsea’s preferred buildup method makes tactical sense and, on Saturday, Burnley executed well as most of Chelsea’s best opportunities came in transition.
A more proactive approach might not sound like the best option against teams with the attacking and creative quality of most top six teams but after digging in further, expect to see Dyche employ a similar tactical plan to take top teams out of rhythm.
No Nay Never book review
Dave Roberts
During this season’s first international break, in early September, No Nay Never’s George Poole spoke with author Michael Hodkinson about his new book, the aptly titled ‘No Nay Never’, which charts the history of the East Lancashire derby.
To my knowledge this is the third book to approach the specific topic of ‘El Lanclasico’, or the ‘Cotton Mills’ derby, the others being ‘East Lancashire Derbies’ by Dean Hayes (2001), and also a lesser known title, ‘The Rivals’, by Mike Holgate (2005).
The latest addition to the Burnley bibliography builds on these two predecessors, and adds to them by providing an even more comprehensive history of the rivalry between Burnley and Blackburn Rovers, as well as documenting the varying fortunes of both clubs. As you might expect, there are details of the past matches, but the book also presents a broader look at how the bragging rights have shifted over time as trophies, promotions and relegations have affected these two long-standing rivals.
The 2001 Dean Hayes book was a very ‘matter of fact’ publication, and is effectively a collection of condensed one page match summaries, based on historical newspaper reports, which each include team line-ups and goalscorers.
The Mike Holgate book also predominantly uses match summaries as its basis, although it has some extra sections, including player profiles and an attempt to create an all-time top XI for both clubs.
However, the appeal of the new publication is also boosted by the inclusion of many quotes, which were gathered from interviews with supporters and several former players from both clubs, and this additional insight definitely gives an improved overall perspective.
‘No Nay Never’ is also a more substantial read, coming in at around 500 pages, and there is plenty to entertain those of us with a vested interest in the fixture, as well as perhaps having a broader appeal to neutrals or followers of other clubs, although its main target audience will clearly be the supporters of the two East Lancashire teams.
I very much enjoyed the extra detail provided by this latest book, and the context it provided. Even though I already knew quite a lot about the history of the fixture, there were several additional nuggets of information, which were new discoveries for me.
Although the author is a self-professed supporter of the team in blue and white (BOOOOO! - ed.) he is from an era when it was acceptable to have a soft spot for your rivals, and his passion for the subject matter, and his respect for both clubs is very apparent. Despite only having had sight of the preview ebook version to date, it’s certainly a title which deserves a place on my ever-expanding Clarets book-shelf.
If you are interested in discovering more, then you can listen to the podcast episode here and the book is now available from many online and bricks-and-mortar bookstores, including the Burnley FC club shop, and direct from the publishers, Legends Publishing, here.
Birthdays and anniversaries
Andy Gray - excellent during his stay at Turf Moor - celebrates his 44th birthday today.
Other notable birthdays this week include James Tarkowski (29 on Friday) and John Pender (58 on Friday). Thoughts are with John and his family after the recent news of his MND diagnosis. Just awful.
We haven’t played #OnThisDay since 2008 - for fairly obvious reasons - but we did win on that occasion, coming from behind and defeating QPR 2-1 away from home:
Podcasts and quiz question
Still plenty of time to catch up with our review show after the Chelsea game here.
There will be a preview show out ahead of the weekend too, so listen out for that.
You’ll need to tune in if you want to find out the answer to this quiz question:
Which Burnley player made his debut for the club in the 3-2 away win at Stamford Bridge in August 2017?
That’s it for this week - as ever, you can comment below with your views. Cheers!