Dave on the Seagulls...

Dave Thornley reviewing the Brighton game for Clarets Mad just about sums up yesterday’s proceedings to a tee.

Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of yesterday afternoon’s drawn game against Brighton at Turf Moor wasn’t the blunder that gifted the visitors their equalising goal and thereby squandered two points, it was Craig Bellamy’s post-match comments when he claimed that Arijanet Muric’s calamitous mis-control, allowing the ball to squirm under his foot and trickle over the goal line was, “Not his fault” but “our fault”, stressing that it was “the way we play”.

Similar costly errors have been a damaging thread running through the Clarets’ entire season, with both Muric and James Trafford being guilty on several occasions. It strikes me therefore that if that is indeed “the way we play” then perhaps the way we play needs to change?

For fans such as myself, who by nature are somewhat risk-averse and have been brought up on what we had assumed to be immutable orthodoxies, clearing your lines, and not playing the ball across your own penalty area, the tactical policy as currently enacted is frustratingly flawed.

Not least for the fact that, at Premier League level at least, we, as fans, see no significant benefit to be gained from it. It is all well and good if you are Manchester City and have the players to perform it with alacrity, but we are Burnley and attempts to graft a playing style onto players less equipped to discharge it successfully is a recipe for disaster. This season’s results have born this out.

As for Muric, it is the second costly blunder in the space of a week. He doesn’t strike me as the kind of person to be haunted by such setbacks, and Bellamy’s comments, however irritating, were obviously aimed at showing support for the player, but crass mistakes keep happening, they keep costing Burnley important goals, and they keep costing the Clarets important points. It has to stop.

It is now too late to save this season of course, a season which I for one would have no objection if it were to be permanently expunged from the Club records, but if Burnley are to launch a credible promotion campaign in the Championship, then this error-strewn tactical plan must be addressed and rectified. Not insulting hard-pressed, loyal, and dejected supporters with such casual acceptance of its failings would be a good starting point.

It didn’t help that the rest of Burnley’s performance yesterday was quite good, but missed chances in the first half, from Brunn Larsen and Fofana (another recurring theme) would, if taken, have rendered Muric’s error inconsequential. As it was Josh Brownhill closing in on the Brighton keeper and having his clearance deflect off Brownhill’s knee and into the goal gave Burnley the lead with fif**** minutes remaining, a lead they could hold on to for only five of those minutes, before Muric’s blunder.

The equaliser sucked the oxygen out of Turf Moor and as the rain poured and the wind swirled the remainder of the match rather petered out into a draw. It was an outcome which could, and should, have been so much better.

In total accord with Dave’s astute comments prior to another Muric howler, if you had witnessed the game “live” you would have seen an imperious display from Muric prior to his costly mistake.

Three times he took corners out of the air with clean catches and his positioning was excellent throughout the game.

The common denominator for Muric & Trafford is that they are both supposed to be Beckenbauer in possession and distribute the ball like Bobby Moore.

It is asking a lot for our two goalkeepers in my opinion. I cannot think of one other EPL goalkeeper who is a better shot stopper than either Muric or Trafford who can also pass the ball like Ederson at City. Kompany needs to realise this is Turf Moor and not the Etihad. (TEC.)

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