Over the years Burnley have been a good team for us. I remember beating them at their place in early 80s, the day Grittar won the national. Andy Ritchie scored. Not today unfortunately. I saw the highlights of Burnley game midweek and they looked pretty sharp. Well today, first half they were on a different planet to us. Fast moving with width and players who all looked comfortable on the ball. At times they actually looked like a premiership outfit, or maybe it was the comparison to us. Whenever we got the ball we had no idea so ended up playing it square or back to Paddy Kenny. Completely clueless. Nobody was making any runs up front. Varney has pace but he is completely brain dead and he just lacks any sort of awareness and vision. When we did force an attack we either squandered it (Varney again with a free header from 5 yards out) or we ended up crossing to nobody. It was all very frustrating. BMD’s tactics were questionable. Burnley are a straight 4-4-2 team whereas we were playing some half arsed 4-3-3 (or was it a diamond) with Tonge, Murphy and Austin the 3 in midfield, with Varney on the right wing, Macca on the left and what appeared to me to be Diouf playing centrally. They changed around a bit and to be honest I don’t think anyone really knew where they were supposed to be playing. Macca is a dilemma. When things are not going right, he comes deeper and deeper to get the ball however he doesn’t have the legs to make things happen and quite often he is muscled off the ball. When we got a corner I think we got a glimpse of BMD’s strategy. Burnley brought everyman back. Didn’t Wilko always say it was statistically proven that the best way to defend a corner is to defend it with 11 men. We put 2/3 people in the box and actually had 3 men sat on the half way line. It was unbelievable and in BMD I’m getting the impression we’ve got a steady away manager. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but come on Brian, lets show a bit of ambition especially at home firing towards the Kop. As good as Burnley were in that first 45 minutes the goals themselves from our perspective were extremely poor. Byram just got caught the wrong side. He appeared to have done well and retrieved the situation with a great challenge however the ball spun away from him and their guy scuffed it into the net. Paddy Kenny maybe should have saved it although that might be being a bit harsh. The second was criminal. From a freekick that maybe wasn’t a freekick, Sam Vokes (remember him ?) unmarked poked a header towards goal. Kenny parried it out – not sure if this was a good save or he should have done better ? Nobody reacted except for Kenny but he couldn’t get there and Vokes just calmly stroked it into the net whilst white shirts stood static watching all around. Really disappointing and would appear that we do still have a defensive problem given the goal at Reading. How can someone like Vokes be unmarked from a free-kick ? He’s not exactly Usain Bolt but he seemed to outfox our defence pretty easily. Our best chance, was a great run from Aidy White into their area. He was clearly bundled over from behind but the ref gave nothing and the linesman near the NE where I was just didn’t see it. In fact, he saw nothing all afternoon. Once of the worse linesman performances ever. Half-time, Burnley fully deserved their lead. Second half, BMD did a Simon Grayson and waited 10 minutes to change it. Why do manager do that ? It’s not working, bloody change it, don’t just wait for more of the game to go by ? So on came Poleon and Green. Green was a forced substitution for Byram who looked like he was struggling and Poleon replaced the hapless Luke Murphy who had another very poor game. He doesn’t bring anything to the table and at least BMD knew that he had to come off - £ 1million quids worth of shite. He plays on the left hand side but doesn’t have a left foot so he cuts inside and inevitable ends up playing back to Aidy White. He doesn’t have much pace, he isn’t adventurous going forward, he rarely shoots …. What does he do ? Completely and utterly out of his depth ? I didn’t rate him the first game against Brighton where he handballed the winner, I still don’t. Immediately Poleon showed his worth by going on a great run. Inevitably it came to nothing but he didn’t end up poleaxing a Burnely player which was a positive result. Burnley for some reason then stopped playing. Two possible reasons for this: 1) Their manager asked them to drop deep and secure the 2 goal lead 2) Their legs went. I actually think it was a combination of the two. Credit to us, we completely took over the game and had all the possession. Unfortunately this only again to emphasise how clueless we are at times. Time after time we got into good positions, time and time again we squandered the chance due to clueless play. Austin hardly completed a pass in the second half. Fully committed but come on , he’s so limited its untrue. So our last throw of the dice was to shove on the big man and then it was the most direct route one football you’ve ever seen. It worked, Burnley couldn’t cope with him and we began to look dangerous. Their keeper made a great save from a point blank header from Diouf (?) and then we finally scored with Smith towering over everyone to head into the far corner. A good goal. To be honest maybe we should have gone for this tactic from the off. We haven’t the players to compete with Burnley so why not try and out hoof them ? Why not ? There was 6 minutes of injury time and we did have a cross that just needed someone to poke home but nobody had the awareness to do so. We are missing quite a few things at the moment but we are most definitely missing a striker. I would play Smith and Poleon up front. Scores on the doors: Kenny – 7. There was a guy near me arguing that the difference between the two sides in the first half was the shiteness of Kenny. I think that’s harsh. He didn’t have his best game this season but arguably he’s been our bests player. Byram – 6. I thought he did ok. A tad unlucky for the goal but I think he showed that he’s not a natural defender. In fact, whoever thought he was a right back ? I see him in central midfield. Good engine, good on the ball, good at getting forward, good composure. I see him playing there. White – 6. Good old Aidy White, the new Ryan Giggs, 3rd choice left back. He’s bulked out a bit, lost a yard of pace (still not slow) but still for me did a good job. Certainly no worse than Warnock. I’d like to see him given a run in this position. Pearce – 7. Our best defender. He was putting himself on the line, getting in hard, winning headers. Not sure who was at fault for Vokes’s goal but my bet would be that Vokes wasn’t his man. Wooton – 5. Not convinced. Steady, strolling performance. A touch of the Rio Ferdinands about him without actually being as effective. Jury still out. Austin – 5. I thought he started brightly and actually supplied one or two decent long balls but it went down hill from there. In the second half he was hopeless – his passing, his shooting , his crossing, his control .. all poor. Tonge – 8. Man of the match for me (that’s our MOTM, there were half a dozen Burnley players who were better). He looks much fitter. We relied on him for everything and he did his best to make things happen but in Austin and Murphy he didn’t get much else. I looks a different player to me. Murphy – 2. I’m actually being kind given him 2 because he didn’t contribute at all. He also kept conceding possession. What is this guy ? McCormack – 5. I’ve never been a big fan of Macca despite accepting that he does have a lot of talent. I think he’s a manager’s nightmare. Too slow to play in midfield, not a natural goal scorer , too easily pushed off the ball. Where the hell do you play him ? Luxury player ? Diouf - 6. Worked hard, some things came off, others didn’t. As always just doesn’t have the legs to really make his skill count. Varney – 2. A poor performance. I’ve desperately wanted this bloke to come good but I have to concede that it ain’t going to happen. He should have had at least 2 today but he was never close. No killer instinct and no brain. Subs: Poleon – 6. Did ok. Smith – 7. Good goal and was as effective as anybody. Green – 7. I thought he did well although Burnley had stopped being an attacking force by then. BMD – questions beginning to be asked, but I like how he took Murphy off and went long with Smith. I think he knows a player but I think at the moment he doesn’t know his best formation. Playing Diouf and Macca in the same team is always going to be a risk. Too similar and when you’re up against lively opposition you are going to get caught on the break. Crowd – not bad and gave the team applause at the end which was incredibly charitable. I was straight down the steps. I’m not clapping that shite. _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected]
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