Vincent Kompany's Burnley Will Blow Your Mind
Burnley are back in the Premier League thanks to Vincent Kompany's brilliant brand of football. But the obvious comparisons to Manchester City don't even nearly do them justice...
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00:00 Burnley have returned to the Premier League at the first time of asking with praise being
00:07 heaped upon coach Vincent Kompany for the brilliant brand of football he's installed
00:11 there. But with the step up to the Premier League as tough as it has ever been, is that
00:15 style sustainable or is it all going to end in tears?
00:18 Hello there everybody, Adam Cleary 442 here and if it looks like I've just rolled out
00:22 of bed, that's because we've all been sleeping on Vincent Kompany's Burnley. And also because
00:29 I have, it's the bank holiday.
00:32 Right my friends, I'm going to keep this short and sweet because I know we've all got day
00:39 drinking to get to. Burnley have just won the second tier of English football at a canter
00:44 and the words you are going to hear all through the summer are the man city of the championship.
00:51 You're going to hear it on the telly, you're going to read it on your little internet,
00:54 it will probably be within the pages of this very magazine. But when you do hear that phrase,
01:00 I want you to stop them, I want you to interrupt and say no, they are not the man city of the
01:04 championship, you fool, they are Lancashire total football. Or at least sort of anyway.
01:11 So this is how they lined up against Middlesbrough to seal promotion. If you've not seen them
01:14 all season, there's probably a few familiar names in there for you, but by and large this
01:18 is an all new, all singing, all dancing Burnley. And the way Kompany plays, he likes to be
01:22 quite flexible in the middle depending on the opposition. So I've got them down as a
01:25 4-3-3 here, but against Middlesbrough technically it was probably closer to a 4-2-3-1 with a
01:29 double pivot. Josh Brownhill's been absolutely vital in the middle of the park for creating
01:33 chances, but Josh Cullen is the player who's the most key to the way they play. He's so
01:37 good at retaining the ball. And the way Kompany has them playing is regardless of whether
01:41 or not this extra midfielder is up here or whether he's back here, these five players
01:45 here all focus on retaining the ball, retaining possession, recycling it round as a block
01:49 of five to allow the team to move up the pitch. They'll all sort of move forward into this
01:54 kind of shape. The entire team goes up the pitch and they make it very hard for the opposition
01:58 to get the ball back in the middle of the park. And they wait for something to happen
02:02 even with the fullback, which is both good at getting up the pitch, either the number
02:05 nine dropping deep or one of the attackers getting inside. And while we're here, while
02:08 it was Ashley Barnes starting against Middlesbrough, it's actually been Jay Rodriguez who's played
02:12 the bulk of the games up front. And he has worked as just your classic false nine. He
02:16 drops really deep into the midfield to receive the ball. And the idea being that they then
02:19 get two of the outside players indirect on goal. Nathan Teller is their top scorer this
02:24 season from this position because he's so good at making that run. And they're so good
02:28 at finding him when he does. But by and large, whether it's through controlling the ball
02:31 in this area, the fullbacks pushing up to get involved, the really good movement between
02:35 the front three, this is a possession based side. They've averaged 64.3% of the ball this
02:41 season, which astonishingly is only 0.3% less than you guessed it, Manchester City. And
02:46 if you hear it all out and thinking it does kind of sound like the Man City of the championship,
02:51 I don't know, they've got that control possession. They've got that dominance of games. It's
02:54 Vincent company. How could I not see it as the Man City of the championship? Well, what's
02:59 the one thing Manchester City have got this season, which kind of defines them as a team
03:03 right now? It's a goal scorer. Of course, they've got that polite young Norwegian lad
03:07 up front for them and their entire thing this year is about trying to create circumstances
03:11 and little mini adventures that get him in fun positions so he can score a million goals.
03:15 And Burnley you see are not that. They are the tactical, philosophical, emotional and
03:21 artistic opposite of that. What Vincent company believes as a coach is that the workload for
03:26 the goals, for the assists, for the chances, for all that fun stuff at the top end of the
03:30 pitch should be shared around as much as possible. To mark one player is easy. To shut down one
03:35 good pass with the ball is easy. But when you've got six, seven, possibly eight players
03:39 who are all a threat, that's very hard to do. And so it is proved this year. You're
03:43 going to hear a lot about Nathan Teller and the fact he's the team's top goal scorer
03:46 with 17. But the thing about that is that's less than 20% of the team's goals in the
03:51 league. The rest of their 76 goals have been spread out amongst 19 other players, which
03:55 is the record for the championship this season. Compare that to last season's champions.
03:59 Fulham, they got something like 100 goals in the league and Alexander Mitrovic got almost
04:03 half of them. They were so reliant on him as the priority. They were the Man City of
04:08 the championship and it ain't just goals either. They've got 18 players who have contributed
04:13 one or more assists this season. Josh Brownhill is top with only eight and the rest are just
04:19 nicely spread out through the rest of the team. In total, Burnley have 21 players in
04:23 this squad who have contributed either a goal or an assist across the season, which is when
04:28 you think about it, a simply staggering number. Just for a bit of context, Man City have like
04:32 12 or 13 players who've done that this season. Arsenal, who are I think top of this particular
04:36 league, have 15 or 16. So trust me, that number being in the 20s is an incredible stat.
04:42 But that wasn't the question, Adam. The question is, will this work in the Premier League?
04:45 And so two things and the first is good. So we know from experience that despite how big
04:50 the step up is, when a team arrives from the championship with a clearly defined ideology,
04:55 they tend to do quite well because it takes the rest of the Premier League a while to
04:57 figure them out. Think about Southampton in that first season with their revolutionary
05:02 wide centre backs. Nobody had a clue how to play against that. They did really well. So
05:05 you would imagine if Kompany can keep a settled side, if he can keep his tactics consistent,
05:09 they'll probably do alright, at least for the first part of that season and that should
05:13 see them through to the end. But point two, and this is where it gets bad, is this is
05:17 not even really Vincent Kompany's Burnley. Several of their key players are on loan and
05:23 worse still, on loan from clubs who will almost certainly be wanting them back. Nathan Teller,
05:28 who we already mentioned is on loan from Southampton and if they do stay up, they'll almost certainly
05:33 not want to strengthen a potential relegation rival for next season. And if they go down,
05:37 they're going to want a proven goal scorer in the championship. Jordan Beyer at the back
05:41 is a ball playing centre back on loan from Borussia Mönchengladbach and absolutely vital
05:45 to their style of control possession. Burnley do have a buy option there, but such as the
05:48 increase in his reputation this season, there's every chance he'll be talked into staying
05:52 in Germany. Add to that Ian Martinson and Taylor Harwood-Bellis on loan from Chelsea
05:56 and Manchester City respectively. And Burnley face a real challenge just to keep the core
06:00 squad together before even thinking about making additions. So to really quickly sum
06:03 this up for you, Vincent Kompany has done a simply amazing job at Burnley, but they
06:07 are not the Manchester City of the championship. And even if they were, they might not be the
06:12 Manchester City of the championship by the time they get to the Premier League. They
06:15 could be a shadow of this. If you're looking for a personal opinion though, I think such
06:18 as his standing in the game and the job he's done, they'll probably keep two or three of
06:21 the really important ones. And bear in mind, this is his first season. So he's shown what
06:25 a shrewd operator he is in the transfer market anyway. I think it'll be fine. In fact, you
06:28 know what? I think it'll be better than fine next year. I think it'll be really exciting
06:32 to watch. So well done, Vincent Kompany. And well done, Burnley. Welcome back. Thanks for
06:37 giving your castle, Nick Pope. So there you go. If you've not seen any of the championship
06:41 this season, that saved you a few hours of work. No, no, no, no, no need to thank me.
06:46 Just drop us a subscribe, leave a comment, like the video, share the video. That means
06:49 more to me than flowers ever could. In the meantime though, thank you so much for watching.
06:54 I've been Adam Cleary. This has been 442 and I'm away to drop a few paracetamol. Goodbye.