What a start!
But still work to do...
Morning everyone - it’s definitely a happy Monday after that unbelievable display.
What a start!
I expected some teething problems at the start of the Vincent Kompany era, but Burnley were absolutely brilliant in collecting a 1-0 win at Huddersfield on Friday.
The Terriers were terrible, let’s get that out of the way early, but Burnley were first class especially in a dominant first half. At one point before the break we had 75 per cent possession, which is just ridiculous for a side playing their first game under a new manager, with half a dozen players making their debuts, including a teenager.
It did take a few minutes for us to find a rhythm but we settled extremely quickly. Even before the well-taken goal by new left-back Ian Maatsen, we probably should have had a penalty when Ashley Barnes dallied in the box and was brought down by Alex Lees. Surely if we had VAR that would have been given on the replay evidence.
Regardless, Burnley were excellent value for the points with Huddersfield failing to lay a glove on us. While the first half left most of us giddy, I was just as proud of the way we played in the second. Considering we had three debutants in the defensive unit, plus Charlie Taylor playing out of position, we rarely looked like conceding.
The stats showed our dominance and demonstrated the complete transformation of our style. I said last week Josh Cullen was the key signing and he had a terrific debut, completing 96.3% of his passes. Cullen won’t get that sort of time and space to run games every week, but teams are going to have to find a way to stop him playing. Jack Cork and Josh Brownhill were both around the 90% pass completion mark too.
There were two surprises on the teamsheet, with Dara Costelloe named in attack due to birthday boy Jay Rodriguez missing due to injury. Costelloe did OK, showing plenty of drive, energy and purpose, but he did waste a couple of chances to score. He certainly looks capable of contributing as a squad player, though, and it’s good to see Kompany utilising the academy (though concerns over a downgrade to category two means this is going to be something to keep a close eye on in the future).
Taylor playing at centre-back was also out of the blue. Most of you will be aware by now that I don’t really rate Taylor (!), but he played well alongside his fellow Taylor, Harwood-Bellis, who was assured on the right side of the central defensive duo.
I do think it is a little bit strange to sign so many central defenders and then use a left-back there instead, but on the other hand I’ve been talking all summer about wanting a more experienced CB to lead the back line, so Taylor offers that at least. His lack of positional sense will surely be exposed even more in the middle of defence, though, and I’m not sure the comparison with Ben Mee stands up to any scrutiny whatsoever.
Mee was always a centre-back filling in and ‘doing a job’ at left-back for us, waiting for a place in the middle of defence to be available. That’s not the case with Taylor. It’s a long old season but you wonder what it means for CJ Egan-Riley and Luke McNally, not to mention Bobby Thomas, if Taylor is going to be picked ahead of them regularly.
He will probably have to play at centre-back to keep a place, though, given the way Maatsen performed. The young Dutchman had three shots and played six key passes, both the most of any player on the pitch despite supposedly being a defender, and did well at the back too with a pair of tackles and clearances. The full-backs are clearly going to be vital for us this season and Connor Roberts was excellent on the right too.
To be a tiny bit picky, we perhaps didn’t create as many clear cut chances as we should have, considering how much of the ball we had. You’d guess when Scott Twine comes into the side that will make a difference, as he will give us more cutting edge in attack.
Barnes did fine - his accidental assist was absolutely Classic Ashley - but he was clearly a weak point. With so much energy and athleticism in the rest of the team he did stick out like a sore thumb at times, but his link-up play has always been a bit under-rated due to the fact he prefers to win free-kicks instead of playing football.
A minor quibble, though, and we couldn’t really ask for more from VK’s first game.
Still work to do…
While Friday’s performance was very pleasing, it’s clear Kompany still needs more additions to his squad, despite Vitinho (a Brazilian!) making it nine (!!) new faces.
We had a few missing due to injury, but our bench was pretty light on good options. Kompany only made two of his allowed five substitutes, a rare similarity to SD.
I really thought we could keep Dwight McNeil and, like with the fees for Nick Pope and Nathan Collins, I don’t think (a potential) £20 million for him is enough money.
While his form has undoubtedly been pretty poor over the last 12-18 months, he was much better in the run-in under Mike Jackson when he was allowed to play properly with some other actual footballers. There aren’t a lot of English players his age with as many Premier League appearances and, although McNeil’s goals and assists need to improve, he still has plenty of potential. Like Collins, McNeil could be a £40m-£50m player if he develops right, so I think we’ve had our pants pulled down a third time.
But with sales, the key thing is what gets done with the cash. I guess we could go back in for Callum O’Hare, an outstanding Championship-level attacking midfielder - though there is talk he has a hamstring injury that will keep him out a while - and if selling McNeil allows us to splash decent cash on a top striker too I may be OK with it.
Maxwel Cornet will hopefully be the last major departure - if someone like Matt Lowton moves on I don’t think it matters much - but we probably want two or three more strong first-team players through the door to boost our promotion push.
Letters
Mark got in touch after Friday night’s game with his thoughts:
Thought we played really well first half, good goal by Maatsen on his debut. Thought Taylor had a good game in the centre of defence, looked like he'd played there for years. Muric seemed a but shaky in the first 10 minutes didn't look comfortable when he had ball at his feet but must have been nerves.
But it was the same as last year, great first half bad second, when we came out for the second we let them play - just thankful they couldn’t hit the target or create a good chance. Thankfully we started to press again in the last 15 minutes at least we've got the first game out of the way and can now start preparing for the next game and build on points we've got.
I feel like Huddersfield stepped things up in the second half (they could hardly have been worse) and while we sat deeper than I’d like, we soaked up most of the pressure. It would have been great to put together a complete 90 minutes like the first half but to win on the road without conceding a shot on target is a fantastic achievement.
Thought for the day
FOOTBALL CAME HOME!!!!!
That’s it for this week, let’s hope we keep the momentum going against Luton.