2011/12 Season Preview

BMGH is back in time for the new season to preview how Eddie Howe’s Clarets might line-up to face Watford this Saturday and beyond.

It’s been a quiet summer in terms of new signings with only winger Keith Treacy being brought in from League One Preston North End on a permanent basis, supplemented by Manchester City youngsters Ben Mee and Kieron Trippier on loan for the season and new reserve goalkeeper Jon Stewart.

With the parachute payments set to fall from £18m to £8m at the end of the season and a watchful eye on the new Football League break even rule, Burnley’s transfer policy appears to have been dictated by the need to reduce the wage bill and bolster the club’s balance sheet with a stoically cautious board eschewing the high stakes promotion gamble demanded by some of the clubs fans. As such, we’ve seen senior pro’s Graham Alexander, Clarke Carlisle and Chris Iwelumo leave the club alongside Kevin McDonald and the club has also cashed in on the dwindling contracts of Chris Eagles and Tyrone Mears, both sold to Owen Coyle’s Bolton Wanderers for a reported joint fee of £3m.

Those deals have left the squad a little thin and lacking in experience, although Howe has spoken of the club’s intent to replace both Eagles and Iwelumo and it also looks as though the development squad is to be given a welcome fast track into the first team. Alex McDonald in particular has been given a generous amount of playing time during pre-season and will be expected to challenge for a spot.  Furthermore, the unexpected graduation of 17 year old Steven Hewitt from scholar to first team during the summer was a clear statement of Eddie Howe’s commitment to youth. The chairman Barry Kilby also confirmed in a recent interview with the official website that this approach extended beyond the coaching staff, explaining that the club would be returning to a value added approach to transfers and squad development. Notably, the average age of the squad has fallen dramatically since Eddie Howe’s arrival with all of the manager’s signings falling in the 18-25 age bracket.

In terms of how the team might line up v Watford on Saturday, there are a few positions arguably up for grabs but regardless of personnel, I’d expect Howe to go with the same general 4-4-2/4-2-2-2 shape that he used in the friendly v Sunderland (see below).

For the majority of Howe’s time at both Bournemouth and Burnley he’s mostly favoured to play with a back four and two central midfielders but the front four has been kept reasonably flexible, switching between 4-4-2 and 4-4-1-1/4-2-3-1.  However, with Chris Eagles moving on, Burnley now lack the kind of player who looks to get on the ball and be creative in pockets of space between the lines (Ross Wallace was tried in that position v Ipswich last season and was hauled off after an ineffective 37 minutes) so I would expect Howe to opt for two central strikers until a player in this mould is brought in.

As we saw against Sunderland however, it’s unlikely that the two wide players will stay wide as wingers and look to get to the by-line as you would expect in a traditional English 4-4-2. In that game, both Wallace and Elliott looked to come inside both with and without the ball to link up with the midfield/strikers, play through balls for Jay and Pato and shoot direct at goal.

 

The screenshot above (many thanks to Darren Bentley for giving me permission to use this image taken from Clarets Player) shows this movement with Wade Elliott picking up the ball near the centre circle and passing to Wallace just ahead, also in a central position who goes on to drive forward and shoot narrowly wide.

This shape is quite reminiscent of the 4-2-2-2 Juan Carlos Garrido used last season at Villarreal, with Wallace and Elliott playing the roles of Carzola and Cani; especially, when you consider the short, possession based game the Clarets have looked to play in pre-season. If Burnley can manage to come anywhere near to that style of play this season then the Turf Moor faithful are in for a real treat.

Another interesting of feature of Burnley’s play in pre-season is how the side look to re-start from goal kicks.

As above, the fullbacks push high, the centre backs pull wide and one of the central midfielders, most often McCann, drops very deep to take the ball off the goalkeeper before looking to turn out and play the ball into midfield. 

We first saw Burnley do this in the last game of the 2010/11 season v Cardiff and it solves one of the key tactical problems Burnley experienced last season, namely, failing to play out from the back. This is straight out of the Barcelona play book and it’s something Blackpool used last season with mixed success in the Premier League as when opposition sides chose to man mark Charlie Adam and the central striker picked up Cathcart, the ball had to either go long or to Ian Evatt who occasionally got caught in possession. Although Howe has brought in Ben Mee, who looks assured and comfortable on the ball, presumably with this style of play in mind, Burnley still have the technically limited Michael Duff who has never been a ball playing defender and Andre Amougou (formerly Andre Bikey) who is prone to lapses in concentration. As a result, this may be something that other Championship sides look to exploit and is an area to watch out for as the season progresses.

As well as defensive frailties it also hints at two key weaknesses in the current Burnley squad with neither Marney or Bartley as comfortable on the ball or as expansive in their range of passing as McCann. It’s doubtful that either could play this deep-lying regista role anywhere near as effectively as the Burnley captain should McCann be lost to injury or suspension. To expand on that point, both are willing to show for the short ball from defence when necessary but tend to play back the way they are facing rather than turn and so the possession gets stuck in the Burnley half (this is common feature of England’s play at international level).

If that turned out to be the case, the Clarets would again be forced to play more directly but, given the sale of Iwelumo, Burnley now lack the kind of player capable of holding the ball up with his back to goal. Jay has shown glimpses that he may develop this ability but last season at least, he still lacked the physical presence to play this role in the Championship and may struggle to win the ball in these situations under pressure from the division’s more agricultural sides. Therefore it’s desirable that both vacancies in the squad are filled before the transfer window closes if we are to mount a serious and sustained promotion bid.

There may have been air of disappointment amongst supporters following the club’s slow moving transfer dealings and the sales of Eagles and Mears but for me there’s plenty to get excited about looking forward to the new season. It looks as though we may be one of the most attractive footballing sides in the division this season and Eddie Howe also appears to be giving the club’s young pro’s a chance to make their way in their game which is positive. We also have a strong first XI with Fox, Amougou, McCann and Rodriguez amongst the best players in their positions in the Championship, even if the squad does lack depth at this point. However, hopefully the manager can add to the squad further and we’ll be well placed to challenge at the right end of the table. Enjoy the season everybody.  

  

Burnley 3 Middlesbrough 1: Tactics Report

This was the game where everything clicked for Eddie Howe, possibly producing the best performance of the whole season and certainly of his time as manager. Burnley started with the side that had effectively won the game in the second half against Swansea, bringing in Chris Iwelumo for Nathan Delfouneso.

This meant a switch to 4-4-2, something that a lot has been made of in other post match analysis but with the fluidity Howe likes to play with I think this can be overstated. Out of possession Burnley defended in the same 4-4-1-1 shape they have done since January and going forward Eagles still looked to drift and link up with the other attacking players in central positions overlapped by the fullbacks.  Rodriguez also regularly dropped in between the lines to pick up the ball between the Middlesbrough midfield and defence; meaning that at times, on the pitch it looked the same 4-4-1-1/4-2-3-1 hybrid we’ve played for the last few months.

So if 4-4-2 wasn’t the key catalyst for the magnificent performance, what was? Well, there were four key facets of Burnley’s play on Tuesday night that stood out: their movement, passing, pressing and the team shape. They’re all things that we’ve seen glimpses of improvement in over the last few months but this was the first game where they all came together. Rather than go through the game incident by incident as for previous games, I think it’ll be more interesting to focus on these four aspects individually in more detail.

Movement

Burnley like to promote themselves as a ‘good footballing side’ but for a lot of this season that hasn’t really been the case. We’ve consistently tried to play football but often the requisite movement just hasn’t been there and instead the ball has frequently gone desperately long to Iwelumo. Burnley’s best performances this season; Bolton, Hull and Barnsley at home and patches of Norwich away were all categorised by good movement and this game was no different.

This is where the change to more of a 4-4-2 did clearly help the side; not so much because of the formation itself but because of Rodriguez’ move to a more central position. The England U21 has been excellent playing as a wide positioned second striker all season but from the centre he was able to run the game through his intelligent movement and link play. Playing just off Iwelumo, Rodriguez was free to drop off the back four to receive the ball from midfield or drift into the channels to stretch the defence and he regularly picked the right movement for his team mates. This was in stark contrast to Delfouneso’s static performance at the weekend.

Eagles’ movement was also interesting. Mostly under Eddie Howe former Manchester United man has played in a free role behind a lone striker and has drifted looking for pockets of space between the lines and he’s still looked to do this from wide positions whenever he’s played there (including this game) but against Middlesbrough he’d clearly been told to look take on McMahon, Middlesbrough’s right back, whenever the opportunity arose.  Eagles has had a difficult time of things recently but an improved performance against Swansea has clearly boosted his confidence and this became a bit of a one sided battle, particularly after Burnley took the lead and began to turn on the style. Often both Robson and Thomson tracked back to double or sometimes even triple up Eagles with McMahon but the winger regularly came out of these battles with the ball. A Chris Eagles on this kind of form will be a huge boost for the end of season run in.

Another interesting aspect of Burnley’s movement was down the right flank where Elliott, Mears and one of the midfield pair took turns to attack. Elliott did play often as a conventional winger down that side getting a number of dangerous crosses into the box from wide but it wasn’t unusual to see Elliott drop in at right back for Mears to get forward or to tuck into midfield to allow Cork or Marney to attack that area. This unpredictability allowed Burnley to cause Middlesbrough real problems down that side.

Passing

In recent games Burnley’s passing has been worryingly pedestrian and blinkered with the side tending to play slow and short in neat triangles concentrated largely in their own half or down one flank without ever really working the ball forward or using the full width of the pitch. This is mainly due to the lack of a player in midfield who’s comfortable either taking the ball short off the defence or spreading the play wide (especially out to Fox) but in this match however, Iwelumo’s physical presence combined with Rodriguez’ intelligent movement allowed the side to go more direct and work the ball forward quicker into the two strikers. In this respect Andre Bikey’s fantastic distribution from the back was a huge advantage and Michael Duff, often criticised for being anxious on the ball, looked much more comfortable playing the ball long and with two central targets to aim for.

Another impressive feature of Burnley’s passing was how large they made the pitch. In previous games teams have been able to defend narrowly and crowd out attacks knowing that Burnley lack the width to stretch them. In this game however, the Clarets did just that with Danny Fox able to find Wade Elliott with a succession of long cross field balls.  This was a key factor in why Rodriguez had such a good game as he spent much of the game playing in the spaces left by this stretching of the Middlesbrough defence.

In the middle Cork and Marney kept their passing short and sensible, keeping the ball well and rotating play effectively. With Burnley playing more directly and utilising the full width of the pitch, there was much less pressure on the pair to play-make from deeper positions, something they’ve looked increasingly uncomfortable and ineffective doing. Once the pair grew in confidence with the team playing well, their passing became more adventurous looking to make long diagonal passes out to the wide players, further helping to stretch Middlesbrough and create space for Rodriguez and Eagles.

Pressing

Howe has completely changed the way Burnley play without the ball and it’s taken a long time for this to develop but without the ball, the Clarets were hugely impressive against Middlesbrough. 

Under Laws, Burnley’s defensive set up revolved around keeping a tight team shape with the side rarely operating with a full press. The thinking behind this was probably the lack of pace at the back (high pressing demands a high defensive line) and the immobility of Graham Alexander and Chris Iwelumo.  However, there was a clear contradiction here between aspiring to play fluid passing football but with a strict shape and a deep defensive line that resulted in poor movement, large gaps between the defence, midfield and attack; and a vulnerability to deal with quick counter attacks occurring in the time between the team losing the ball and regaining their shape (the 0-4 defeat to Reading at Turf Moor is a perfect example of this where the Royals exploited the fullbacks being caught high up the pitch).

Howe’s Burnley however, have looked to press as high up the pitch as possible to regain the ball quickly. This intention is something that was noticeable very early on, and was hinted at by the apparent marginalising of Alexander and Iwelumo with younger legs brought in to replace them in Bartley and Austin.  Completely changing a defensive set up mid-season though takes time and until this week the team had mainly been pressing tentatively in ones or twos but on Wednesday the whole team pressed incredibly well and aggressively as a whole unit. There are two main advantages to Burnley playing this way: firstly, it allows us to win the ball back quickly before the opposition has chance to exploit the positional fluidity that Howe likes to play with. Secondly, it allows us to win the ball back higher up the pitch in dangerous positions. This is particularly important for us as we’ve struggled to play the ball out from deep all season (without going long) and thus winning the ball high allows our attacking players to get on the ball and hurt the opposition.

However, it isn’t a perfect setup and problems still remain. We’re still playing a high line with central defenders who are very uncomfortable being turned. The 5-1 away defeat to West Ham in the FA Cup was a stark reminder of this fact where Charlton Cole continually looked to get in behind the Burnley defence and on Saturday, Borini for Swansea did exactly the same for his goal. Against better teams than Middlesbrough with more pace, this will be a worry. Howe has previously tried to solve this problem with loan signing of Shane Duffy from Everton but for whatever reason, that signing did not work out and so, for the rest of the season, this remains a huge gamble.

Shape

If that initial burst of pressing fails however, it’s still important that the team regains its defensive shape and this was another aspect of Burnley’s performance against Middlesbrough that was impressive. Laws was a particularly rigid manager in terms of shape. By, this I mean that when Burnley lost the ball he expected anyone out of their position to get into it as fast as possible. This could mean that Burnley needed both Fox and Mears to get back from the attacking winger positions into fullback, Eagles to get from the edge of the box to left midfield and Elliott to get from the right wing, to central midfield. This takes time and is another reason why Laws’ Burnley were so vulnerable on the break.

Howe’s Burnley by contrast have a clear defensive shape (4-4-1-1) and the team falls in to it wherever they may be relatively on the pitch. For example, it wasn’t unusual to see Iwelumo defending on the left wing, Rodriguez in central midfield, Wade Elliott at right back and Chris Eagles picking up a central defender. This allows Burnley to regain their shape quicker so the side is more difficult to play through. The obvious weakness is that Wade Elliott isn’t a natural fullback nor is Iwelumo a left winger but once in shape it’s easier for the players to get back into their own positions – it slows the attacking team down, makes them work much harder and makes Burnley more solid. Good teams will exploit this by hitting the ball out quickly to their left winger and isolating Wade one on one but those good sides would have exploited the space much more easily anyway.

Again this is something that we’ve seen slowly improving over recent weeks finally coming to fruition on Tuesday night. It takes the whole team to work hard together and be switched on as a unit so it’s no surprise that we did this much better with the side full of confidence.

Conclusion

This game was very encouraging indeed.  My one criticism would be that it’s taken Howe far too long to get to this point and it may have come too late for us to realistically gain promotion this season but it does suggest that the manager will get things for right next season. For now, let’s just see if we can match this performance against Derby County on Saturday and as Stan used to say: crack on from there.