Verdict: Burnley continue to confuse after fighting back to draw with Hull City
The ten-game mark – traditionally the time where judgements are made of a team’s ability, or otherwise, to meet their objectives – has come and gone. Yet Burnley fans can be forgiven if they’re still sat scratching their heads.
Now 11 games into the season, we’ve seen a bit of everything from the Clarets. Yet at the same time, we’re still left with more questions than answers.
Second in the league, only beaten once and unbeaten in eight, there’s plenty to be positive about, of course there is.
Given all the chaos of the final few weeks of the transfer window, where players didn’t know whether they were coming or going, Scott Parker will be delighted with the number of points they’ve accrued.
But, quite frankly, Burnley have been a tough watch at times. A lot of their play is uninspiring. This squad is a talented one and, in flashes, they’ve shown what they’re capable of. But too often we’ve been left wanting more.
A step back?
It felt as though Burnley had turned a corner at Hillsborough on Saturday. They had found a formula which got the best out of Josh Brownhill in a more advanced midfield role and Josh Laurent was in swashbuckling form coming in for Hannibal.
It was strange, then, that Parker opted to revert back to type against Hull by harshly dropping Laurent, restoring Hannibal and, as a result, withdrawing Brownhill back into a deeper role alongside Josh Cullen.
You know what you get with Hannibal, he’s an energetic ball of energy that gets about the pitch with intensity and crashes into challenges. But a number 10 he is not. Not in this guise, anyway.
Too often when he receives the ball he has his back to goal, leaving him with no option but to pass backwards. He very rarely, if ever, turns or looks to pull off a trick to get past a man. We’ve not seen too much evidence of cute, one and two-touch passing in-between the lines as an attacking midfielder traditionally would.
This isn’t necessarily a criticism of Hannibal either, it’s just not his game.
But Burnley definitely lacked something from Laurent not being in the team and it was no coincidence things started to improve as soon as the former Stoke City man was introduced off the bench during the second-half.
He wasn’t the only one to make an impact, the switch to a front two was also instrumental in Burnley levelling things up 13 minutes from time through Zian Flemming’s first goal for the club.
It was a cracking header from the Dutchman, finishing off a teasing cross from Jaidon Anthony that was begging to be stuck away.
Anthony did superbly to beat his man with a bit of craft, something sorely lacking for the first 60 to 70 minutes of this game, before lofting it up for Flemming to steer beyond the goalkeeper.
Mixed feelings
Anthony was actually one of Burnley’s better performers on the night, despite his inexplicable, glaring miss at the death.
Having looked off the pace for much of the game, Parker’s side were left wondering how they didn’t win it when the ball fell so kindly for Anthony at the back post during the dying seconds of stoppage-time. He must have been all but two or three yards out, with an empty net right in front of him. Yet somehow he transpired to get it all wrong.
In truth though, a draw was probably the right result. Hull were the better side in the first-half and deservedly led at the interval, albeit their goal had a slice of good fortune about it as Xavier Simons’ hopeful effort deflected past James Trafford.
Despite the deflection, Trafford still ought to have done better. He was slow to react, presumingly blindsided by men in front of him. But he will be disappointed not to make better contact.
Burnley’s first-half display is best described as “sloppy”. Yes Hull give you some unique challenges with their pressing and manipulation of space, but too often the home side were gifted opportunities by Burnley’s own deficiencies, not anything they had done especially well.
On some occasions the visitors played through the high press well, which led to breaks from one end of the pitch to the other. But this is where they were found sorely lacking, too often misplacing simple passes in the final third and missing any sort of end product; Hannibal and Luca Koleosho the main culprits.
But on other occasions, they didn’t beat the press. Again, it was down to careless passing that failed to find a teammate. On one or two occasions the Clarets were fortunate not to be punished.
What’s next?
So all in all, Burnley can’t grumble too much with the point. Yes it should have been all three with Anthony’s late miss but that really would have been a smash-and-grab job.
If Burnley are to maintain this lacklustre style for the remainder of the season, the likelihood is – because of their quality – they’ll probably still be in and around the promotion spots, albeit a play-off finish seems most likely.
But turn things up a notch, as they did during the final 20 minutes, and they soon found Hull were unable to deal with them.
It begs the question, where’s the intensity and purpose for the rest of the game? Can you imagine the damage they’d inflict if they started games like this and maintained it for sustained periods?
There’s no shortage of quality, effort or endeavour, but right now the tactical side of Burnley’s game is leading to a confused picture.