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.