Burnley back among the big time…it was short-lived though. But what have we learnt about Burnley this season and will they be back?
Out of the three promoted teams you’d say Burnley were always going to find it the more difficult. Over the summer they didn’t really spend too much in the transfer market and you could say it showed in the end. Their most notable signing George Boyd who was a good signing for them and created a really good partnership with Kieran Trippier on the right hand side. Danny Ings finished as top goal scorer for the club but in the end it was goals that became the problem from them and resulted in their relegation to the Championship.
Burnley contributed to the lowest goals scored all season (28) and when their highest scorer contributed to eleven only seventeen goals were contributed from other players, which in this league is not enough. Also when you looked at their squad depth it did lack quality, in the sense when they needed a goal and had to rely on their bench they didn’t have that game changer to put the result in their favour.
Defensively however they were strong compared with other relegation rivals. Conceding (53) but keeping nine clean sheets over season showed that they had a good defensive system. If you compare them to QPR and how stable their back four was, it did help them to get that understanding with each other. Even though I believed their defence was strong, I felt a lot of their downfall came from their system. If you look at teams in the league they tend to load the midfield and win the game from midfield. When you look at the 4-4-2 system that Sean Dyche approached playing Boyd and Kightly out wide and Arfield and Jones in the middle, it was very bold but it also weakened them in the midfield up against other teams.
You could argue that for a team to stay up they need a bit of luck on their side and you could say that Burnley didn’t quite get it. There was no question in their willingness to work hard and ground out results. Drawing away to Manchester City and Chelsea was quite remarkable and a highlight of their season. But when you think of games you need to go in your favour you’d go back to being 2-0 up at home to Crystal Palace and losing 3-2, being 2-0 against West Brom and drawing 2-2, missing a penalty against Leicester and then losing a goal 30 seconds later and then the game at St James Park against Newcastle where they drew 3-3 but should have won the game. These little things that need to go in your favour sometimes just haven’t for Burnley and you could say it’s been unlucky.
Next Season
Burnley in my opinion are well suited to regaining top flight status next year. They have a good manager in Sean Dyche who they believe in and who has the support of the chairman. The team won’t change much barring a few departures most notably Danny Ings. So they’ll be hoping to add a striker who can get 20+ goals next season, someone like Daryl Murphy from Ipswich or Jordan Rhodes from Blackburn.
Position – 19th
Ravi Makwana's | Blog 