Back from the Game - Burnley

[brendywendy]

thought kebe had a good game myself.
not his best- but his best is unplayable.
certainly our most dangerous attacking threat apart from long

[Wycombe Royal]

Didn't see the game but I know plenty of Premiership clubs are watching the likes of Cork & Eagles on a weekly basis, Burnley may find it hard to turn down an offer in particular for Eagles over the coming months.

Why would they need to turn down a bid for Cork? Surely it is up to Chelsea..........

Hence why I mentioned Eagles afterwards. Cork has been doing very well there though.

Sorry for being a pendant, but you say, after naming two players, that they will struggle to turn down bids for one of those "in particular", meaning they may also struggle to turn down a bid for the other one you mentioned. So cut the "hence" crap.......

[Snowball]

[


Just one comment-they may look a top6 side going forward but defensively they are weak-they have won just one away game in a year and that was last week!!
Defenders in The Championship are poor and when the teams get promoted they often stick with the same defenders and buy attacking players rather than the other way round.
Look at Wolves and West Brom-they have stuck with the same defenders and never keep clean sheets and both could well get relegated as Burnley did who only brought in Bikey after they got promoted.
Mind you that is what makes this division so interesting and competitive-loads of chances for not very good strikers to miss and yesterday summed it all up well with both teams giving opportunities galore to the opposition which weren't taken.

Their away record suggest a GOOD defence.

Drew at QPR, Millwall, Ipswich, Palace, all very tight, drew at Norwich 2-2, Sheff Utd 3-3

Won at Morecambe and at Barnsley

Lost 1-0 at Swansea, 2-1 at Boro, Lost 2-1 at Premiership Aston Villa

16-17

in 12 games, all defeats by a single goal.. now they are 17-19 in 13 games. They are 8th best away defence, just 3 conceded goals off second placed Millwall

[Tilehurst End]

thought kebe had a good game myself.
not his best- but his best is unplayable.
certainly our most dangerous attacking threat apart from long

Showed flashes of what he's capable of but it'll need another 8 to 10 degrees rise in temperature before he's at his best.

[Maguire]

It was my fault that Jimbo blew hot and cold - I called the left back as "a fat squaddie" near the beginning only for him to show a decent turn of pace and play pretty well.

[RobRoyal]

Anyone else think mcanuff looked a bit disinterested today? Few good runs, but wandered around aimlessly alot and could not be bothered to defend. He cuts inside too much when I would like to see him racing down the wings more!

Yep. Not sure whether it was down to being disinterested though. Thought it was more a case of being out of sorts.

Agreed. He missed the Swansea game due to illness - think we should chalk this one up to not being quite right yet.

[handbags_harris]

[


Just one comment-they may look a top6 side going forward but defensively they are weak-they have won just one away game in a year and that was last week!!
Defenders in The Championship are poor and when the teams get promoted they often stick with the same defenders and buy attacking players rather than the other way round.
Look at Wolves and West Brom-they have stuck with the same defenders and never keep clean sheets and both could well get relegated as Burnley did who only brought in Bikey after they got promoted.
Mind you that is what makes this division so interesting and competitive-loads of chances for not very good strikers to miss and yesterday summed it all up well with both teams giving opportunities galore to the opposition which weren't taken.

Their away record suggest a GOOD defence.

Drew at QPR, Millwall, Ipswich, Palace, all very tight, drew at Norwich 2-2, Sheff Utd 3-3

Won at Morecambe and at Barnsley

Lost 1-0 at Swansea, 2-1 at Boro, Lost 2-1 at Premiership Aston Villa

16-17

in 12 games, all defeats by a single goal.. now they are 17-19 in 13 games. They are 8th best away defence, just 3 conceded goals off second placed Millwall

They can have as good a defence as they like but the facts are that Burnley have won once away in the league all season. That's all you really need to know.

[facaldaqui]

Furthermore, it also just goes to show that this is a hugely competitive league and the addition of an extra player or 2 of true quality can really swing things -

That's the conventional wisdom, but it's not necessarily true. Kris Boyd hasn't swung anything for Middlesbrough. Bellamy's effect on Cardiff hasn't been what one might've expected. Vassell seems to be having a big effect at Leicester, though. Some players also need time to settle down. I remember Savage coming to Derby and he didn't make much difference. I remember we added Kitson and Little in the window two years ago, to remarkably little effect.

[The Surgeon of Crowthorne]

Not much to add myself to the reports of the game, the majority of which I agree with. Didn't see the Long penalty incident, but I thought Jobi claimed for one in the first half, which I thought would have been harsh if it had been given. We were very fortunate to go in at half time level, but just about shaded the second half - although they should have equalised with Marney's last kick of the game
One further comment - full marks to Burnley for not playing for a draw at any point. They were looking for the win throughout the game, with none of the timewasting after 10 minutes that we've seen from several teams so far this season.

[Wycombe Royal]

One further comment - full marks to Burnley for not playing for a draw at any point. They were looking for the win throughout the game, with none of the timewasting after 10 minutes that we've seen from several teams so far this season.

I think that is more down to their poor defence (I know Snowball will disagree). Even their fans are majorly concerned about their defence and sitting back and trying to hold on isn't really an option for them.

[Ian Royal]

Furthermore, it also just goes to show that this is a hugely competitive league and the addition of an extra player or 2 of true quality can really swing things -

That's the conventional wisdom, but it's not necessarily true. Kris Boyd hasn't swung anything for Middlesbrough. Bellamy's effect on Cardiff hasn't been what one might've expected. Vassell seems to be having a big effect at Leicester, though. Some players also need time to settle down. I remember Savage coming to Derby and he didn't make much difference. I remember we added Kitson and Little in the window two years ago, to remarkably little effect.

I think it emphasises that whilst the odd player of extra quality can definitely swing things, they still need to be the right fit at the club and there still needs to be the right balance to the team in general.

[KC Royal]

Was pleased with yesterday's win but it was fortunate imo. We were lucky not to be behind at HT, Burnley hitting the inside of the post, which from Y19 looked like it was going in off. After seeing it again i still can't believe how it stayed out. 2nd half we created numerous chances and prob should have got another, but Burnley missed a sitter from about 6 yards and put us under a bit of pressure at the end resulting in a free-kick clipping the top of the bar in injury-time. I thought it would be a draw beforehand and that would have been a fair result imo, but as we should have had 3 more points in the half a dozen games i'd seen this season prior to this i was hoping i'd see a fortunate win at some stage to even things up a bit.

Ratings

Fed 7 - Made a couple of comfortable saves, 1 in each half, and made a decent save in the 2nd half from an effort that looked like it was sneaking into the corner. Good throw out to Griffin on one occasion in the 2nd half too.
Griffin 6 - Prob the quietest game i've seen from him this season. Overshadowed by the centre-backs.
Mills 6.5 - Was having a solid game until handballing for the free-kick that hit the bar.
Pearce 7 - Solid game
Harte 5 - Caught out on a couple of occasions in the 1st half
Kebe 7 - Was kept quiet, Burnley often doubled up on him and their left-back looked surprisingly pacey too, but got free on a couple of occasions in the 2nd half, one led to a free-kick on the edge of the box the other led to a low ball across the face of goal that could have been put away.
Karacan 7 - Took a blow to the head early on from an elbow that resulted in a yellow for the Burnley player, but didn't affect his game too much. Usual energy and made a good tackle inside his own box in the 2nd half.
Leigertwood 8 - Very competitive throughout. Good at niggling away without commiting the foul. Good passing too, some of his balls over the top intential or not proved effective.
McAnuff 6 - It was his corner that set up Long's winner but otherwise he was poor.
Long 8 - Prob should have done better with a chance that he put over the bar when one-on-one with the keeper early on, but his all-round game was good in the 2nd half, scored 2 goals and in between the goals showed a good touch to create a scoring chance for himself which went just past the far post.
Hunt 6 - Set up Long's 1st but thought he was poor otherwise. Prior to the 1st goal he continually lost possession.

HRK 6 - Made a good clearing header from a corner which he then ran onto himself and got into the box. Once there he either should have tested the keeper or squared to Leigertwood (who was the furthest player forward ) but in the end did neither. Didn't think he did too badly overall though.
Church 5 - Did nothing in the time he was on

[rhroyal]

Both teams looked good going forward and shaky at the back, hence it was a good game. Burnley looked very good on the ball and played some very good football. When Marney missed his first sitter, I turned to my Dad and said "Great team goal" as it arrived to him. Thankfully he missed, and he topped it in the second half where I couldn't believe he missed from 6 yards.

We looked dangerous going forward too, Long had a great game. I can barely recognize him from a couple of years back, much more quality to go with his work rate. Leigertwood has rightfully earned lots of praise too, I hope we can sign him.

Kebe wasn't back to his best but he still looked dangerous. Got some good balls in the box, like the one where Hunt nearly got on the end. Earned the full back a booking after he had roasted him. More to come from Kebe for sure, but steps in the right direction following his injury. Hunt did well to set up Long, but apart from that I thought he didn't have his greatest game. McAnuff also had a bad game. Easy to put down to illness. Kept running inside and losing the ball. Looked better in central midfield, he hadn't worked as hard with his tracking back on the wing.

Which brings me to my final player who I'll mention specifically. Harte had a difficult game; I thought we looked exposed every time they came down our left. He could be rather slow but the reality was he gave little away against one of the best wingers in this division. The problems arose through Mears overlapping without anybody picking up on him, a role which should have been McAnuff's. Eagles put in very few deliveries, they largely came from Mears. To expect any left back to handle 2 on 1 throughout the game isn't fair. Harte was also good in possession, very rarely giving it away and offering us something going forward; he nearly scored from 20 yards or so. He's certainly not as good a left back as Shorey and Bertrand these days, but some comments have been overly harsh.

Overall very happy with a win but maybe lucky to get it with the chances Burnley missed. You can see why promoted teams struggle in the Premiership; most games we've lost we can point to hose of chances missed for us. Many games we've won, there have been chances missed by the opposition. If we do go up, that's where the improvement must be. Both teams yesterday would have been punished heavily by a Premiership team for the chances they gave away.

[Snowball]

Which brings me to my final player who I'll mention specifically. Harte had a difficult game; I thought we looked exposed every time they came down our left. He could be rather slow but the reality was he gave little away against one of the best wingers in this division. The problems arose through Mears overlapping without anybody picking up on him, a role which should have been McAnuff's. Eagles put in very few deliveries, they largely came from Mears. To expect any left back to handle 2 on 1 throughout the game isn't fair. Harte was also good in possession, very rarely giving it away and offering us something going forward; he nearly scored from 20 yards or so. He's certainly not as good a left back as Shorey and Bertrand these days, but some comments have been overly harsh.

AMEN!

[Tad Showbiz]

Anyone else think mcanuff looked a bit disinterested today? Few good runs, but wandered around aimlessly alot and could not be bothered to defend. He cuts inside too much when I would like to see him racing down the wings more!

No.

Took a very good corner in the second half!

[loyalroyal4life]

Anyone else think mcanuff looked a bit disinterested today? Few good runs, but wandered around aimlessly alot and could not be bothered to defend. He cuts inside too much when I would like to see him racing down the wings more!

No.

Took a very good corner in the second half!

And it's not often we have said that this season!

[Cookie]

. . . it could have been very different if Dean Marney had not caught the Long disease!!

the Long disease? Could he be a porn star with that?

[Winnershroyal]

. . . it could have been very different if Dean Marney had not caught the Long disease!!

the Long disease? Could he be a porn star with that?

Long IS the Irish Drogba, unplayable at his best...hope Mikele isn't pulling up trees just to get a contract and then go off the boil, he was mustard on Monday.

WBA really struggling at Fulham, they have six defenders now injured, reckon Roberto may play the reserves on saturday, I hope we go with the momentum and start with the same 11 as yesterday.

[RoyalBlue]

Which brings me to my final player who I'll mention specifically. Harte had a difficult game; I thought we looked exposed every time they came down our left. He could be rather slow but the reality was he gave little away against one of the best wingers in this division. The problems arose through Mears overlapping without anybody picking up on him, a role which should have been McAnuff's.

Not necessarily so. Watch the build up to their goal. Harte had clearly taken responsibility for picking up Mears at that point in the game and made a complete and utter pig's ear of it.

[Snowball]

Let's not forget attackers have a part to play.

I thought it was a very clever ball