The McNeil problem
Plus: A fan's first visit to Turf Moor
This week we have a blog from Luke, a fan with autism who visited Turf Moor for the first time recently. First, though, here’s me on the increasing issue of Dwight McNeil.
How do you solve a problem like McNeil?
Burnley came back to earth with a bump and all the momentum we built up has gone.
Naturally, after conceding SIX goals in two home games, all of the post-match debate has been about our only creative player, Dwight McNeil, and his obvious lack of form.
McNeil has no goals and one assist in the league this season, which isn’t good enough.
He will know that more than anyone. It is so obvious that McNeil is struggling for confidence, which means I find it particularly puzzling when people get on his back.
Our fans were absolutely appalling on Saturday, to be honest, with the abuse dished out to McNeil and a couple of other under-performing players completely bonkers.
Sean Dyche rightly highlighted McNeil’s first-half performance in the Chelsea game when he spoke to the media afterwards. McNeil had started very brightly and he was arguably the best player on the pitch in the opening 20 minutes. He had been superb.
We know what happened next: McNeil missed an open goal, then a loose touch saw him dally in the box when presented with another opportunity to shoot shortly after.
Two poor mistakes and the life visibly drained out of him. As McNeil lifted his shirt to hide his face after the latter error, only a plonker would react by booing him later.
There’s only so much you can take from WhoScored ratings (this is how they are calculated, for anyone interested) but the idea he has been bad for ages is just false.
What actually happened is McNeil responded very well to being dropped and then produced a string of good displays. It was actually his best run of games this term, not that he had been particularly poor in the few matches directly before he was left out.
To stick with WhoScored ratings for a minute, after being dropped for the Liverpool game - which we lost, remember! - McNeil recorded four straight performances over a 7/10, including a 7.84 against Spurs, which was the third highest score in the game. McNeil was then our best player against Leicester (which wasn’t hard, we were crap).
Side note: data from WhoScored has McNeil performing far better on the left than the right, which will surprise nobody. Moving him to the right was a very strange move.
Along with the falsehood that McNeil has been poor for a while, here’s another myth: he is lazy and doesn’t defend. Well, only six players have recorded more tackles in the Premier League so far this season. None of the players with more are wingers, either.
Andy Jones in the Athletic reports that McNeil’s interceptions, tackles, pressures and blocks are all higher per 90 minutes than in any of his previous seasons. To me, that makes it clear the defensive workload on his shoulders impacts his attacking input.
With a clear week to prepare for a huge trip to Brentford, what do we do with Dwight?
For some the answer is clear: drop him. Maxwel Cornet was on the bench against Chelsea and would be the obvious replacement on the left. Cornet’s best displays have all come up front and his defensive contribution from the wing is not great either.
There is merit to it. Cornet’s pace in deeper areas would make us faster in transitions and the pairing of Wout Weghorst and Jay Rodriguez is arguably our most effective. Sheer numbers suggest Cornet should be playing up front, not Rodriguez, though our top scorer also looks short of touch and confidence after returning from AFCON.
Although dropping McNeil for the Liverpool game arguably produced a reaction, I don’t think it’s the move this week. I’m still not sure it was right to leave him out for that match either, given McNeil has often dominated Trent Alexander-Arnold and he usually performs better against elite opposition, rather than against a stacked defence.
Burnley need McNeil to recapture his best form if we are to have a chance of survival. I would argue his minimal attacking contributions are not just down to him. Nathan Collins wasted a header from a McNeil set piece on Saturday and there have been plenty of other big chances created by his left foot to have gone begging this year.
A change of role might be worth trying - he wants to play centrally, so let him? - but Dyche will probably keep faith with him and back him to come through a sticky spell.
McNeil is far from the biggest problem in the team. Erik Pieters’ recent injury has been followed by a flood of goals down our left. McNeil should have done better for Reece James’ opener, but Charlie Taylor was out of position for the three other goals.
Jack Cork being dropped to bring back Ashley Westwood has led to Josh Brownhill’s form disappearing off a cliff. The JB-JC midfield that functioned so well against Tottenham is looking a real mess again. Cork simply has to start against Brentford. There is a case for changing the right-back with the initial impact made by Connor Roberts having dipped a little. Matt Lowton was excellent against the Bees in October.
I’m getting deja vu from the last relegation season, when Danny Ings was the team’s outstanding player yet our fans decided he was largely to blame for our struggles. For some reason, fans have never quite taken to McNeil - he is our best youth product in generations and doesn’t have his own song? WTF - and many have turned against him.
Of course, there is one way for McNeil to shut Burnley’s boo boys up. Find that form.
Luke’s first visit to Turf Moor
Luke Gilbert
On Tuesday I travelled from Newport to Turf Moor on the train and got to Burnley around 4:00 and stayed in hotel for a night.
So then went to Turf Moor and what a moment it was to get a photo with Sean Dyche - and what an amazing bloke to speak to.
After I saw him I went to the store and got myself a training top which I'm looking forward to wearing in football on Thursday.
Then got into ground and it was amazing to see James Tarkowski and Jack Cork and watching the boys live in the ground.
Despite the result I really enjoyed watching them play and it was the best experience ever. I am looking forward to going to a away game next now too.
And then Wednesday morning headed back to Newport after which to me as an autistic person and fan was a unbelievable experience :)
Also what a moment it was to be in the programme to and to see Dan Black too!
You can follow Luke on Twitter here.
Quiz question and podcasts
For the answer to our latest teaser, listen to the Brentford preview show on Friday:
Which players scored for Burnley the last time the Clarets beat Chelsea at Turf Moor, and what was the year?
There will also be a new analysis show out this week, so look out for that dropping too.
Birthdays and anniversaries
Christian Kalvenes will be 45 on Tuesday, while Clarets great Andy Lochhead will be celebrating his 81st birthday on Wednesday this week. Go well, fellas. A quick word too for Clarets club commentator Phil Bird, who turned 60 over the weekend.
No wins in our last four games #OnThisDay, so let’s turn back time to 1992 and this big home win over Barnet in the fourth division. We can forget how lucky we are…
Letters
Ant got in touch after my bit last week about the Palace fan pile on:
I think you're spot on about the Twitter pile-on, but more importantly the need to acknowledge that we can't just wish away the reputation problem caused by the 'White Lives Matter' banner (I actually had to go back and check it was that awful - I'd mentally downplayed it to 'All Lives Matter' which would have been bad enough), but need to own that we have that contingent, are not a club with a fanbase that fully reflects its community, and counter those issues vociferously. And whining about a daft but not wholly implausible mistake doesn't particularly help that cause.
Exactly that. We all don’t want to be tarred with the same brush as our idiot minority, but we decide to act like hooligans on social media? Make it make sense, please!
Here’s Mark with his thoughts on the two home defeats in the last week:
I honestly thought we would beat Leicester Tuesday night, but we weren't really at the races again. They brought on two class players in Vardy and Maddison which changed the game and of course two bad defending errors. So come Saturday I in my heart want us to beat Chelsea and was agreeing with Natalie and Stat Man Dave that a win we could do, yet my head was saying no. We were rubbish again, but I don't agree with a lot of Clarets who are saying we're going down now there's still worse teams than us - take Leeds for example. If we beat Brentford Saturday then we're back on track and Leeds lose we go above them. So I'm still very much saying we're going to stay up!!
I’m far less confident than a week ago, but beat Brentford and that will change again…
I haven’t talked much about the Leicester game but the point about their subs is a good one. I felt like we were playing for 0-0 and trying to stay in the match, which backfired as the players they could bring on were game-changers. Ours were… not.
Taking games deep can be a legitimate tactic, but it backfired against Leicester.
Tweet of the week
Thought for the day
Is there anything dumber than booing your own players - seriously? Get a grip, ffs.