Burnley 59-60 and our Total Football.

[oldcolner]

This is such a good article it should be linked on the main site. It’s quite long

https://thesefootballtimes.co/2018/0...in-of-1959-60/

It starts
THE WORDS TOTAL FOOTBALL conjure up an image of the Dutch teams of the 1970’s playing awe-inspiring, fluent football with defenders and attackers seamlessly interchanging positions, displaying consummate confidence in their talents and dazzling supporters with their array of skills...

It is taken for granted that not many connoisseurs of the art of football would consider English teams to have influenced the development of the concept of Total Football. Few would associate a small-town club from a dreary northern English mill town to be one of the early exponents of such a playing style. Yet if you Google the term Total Football, you will be somewhat astonished to discover that Burnley Football Club are regarded as one of the early innovators of such a style, and their successful application of the system was deployed to devastating effect with their winning of the league title in the 1959/60 season.

It says later
Potts’s style of playing was heavily influenced by what he had learnt from watching the best international sides, especially Hungary who had destroyed England 6-3 at Wembley in 1953. After that victory, the president of the Hungarian dedicated that win to an English coach, Jimmy Hogan, saying that he “taught us everything we know about football”. Hogan had been born in nearby Nelson and grew up in Burnley.

Bill Nicholson summed up the feelings of many by saying, “Burnley fully deserved their championship.”

[1959_60]

Good article OC.

I am planning to change my name to 2019-20.

[blueheeler1]

This is such a good article it should be linked on the main site. It’s quite long

https://thesefootballtimes.co/2018/0...in-of-1959-60/

It starts
THE WORDS TOTAL FOOTBALL conjure up an image of the Dutch teams of the 1970’s playing awe-inspiring, fluent football with defenders and attackers seamlessly interchanging positions, displaying consummate confidence in their talents and dazzling supporters with their array of skills...

It is taken for granted that not many connoisseurs of the art of football would consider English teams to have influenced the development of the concept of Total Football. Few would associate a small-town club from a dreary northern English mill town to be one of the early exponents of such a playing style. Yet if you Google the term Total Football, you will be somewhat astonished to discover that Burnley Football Club are regarded as one of the early innovators of such a style, and their successful application of the system was deployed to devastating effect with their winning of the league title in the 1959/60 season.

It says later
Potts’s style of playing was heavily influenced by what he had learnt from watching the best international sides, especially Hungary who had destroyed England 6-3 at Wembley in 1953. After that victory, the president of the Hungarian dedicated that win to an English coach, Jimmy Hogan, saying that he “taught us everything we know about football”. Hogan had been born in nearby Nelson and grew up in Burnley.

Bill Nicholson summed up the feelings of many by saying, “Burnley fully deserved their championship.”

Its interesting.

I don't remember Burnley playing total football with player interchange in positions, etall.

I do remember them being very well drilled and having talent to burn across the park.

The Cup final against Spurs around that time clearly showed that we were behind the skill sets of the Spurs players and the 3-1 result against us was a fair result.

Maybe I'm losing the plot but I don't remember Angus or Elder scoring that many goals for us in all their appearances.

What, Miller around 30 goals in 380 appearances?

Adamson around 17 goals in 430 appearances?

"I never saw a sight that din't look better looking back.."

But they WERE a great team at the end of the 50's early 60's.

[oldcolner]

You are right bh
Alex Elder 15 goals from 271 apps
John Angus managed 4 from 439

The link to total football is stronger with Hogan but he played for us 1903-5 and was seen as a traitor at the time he coached Hungary in 1953.

[Supersub6]

There were very few goals scored by full backs and half backs in those days because the forwards were very good at converting chances into goals.

I look back on those days and feel very privileged that I was able to watch my team become champions of England, play in Europe and get to the FA Cup Final. They were a smashing team to watch in a very different era of football.
In all honesty, the only similarity with our current team, as far as I am concerned, is that every player gave it 100% in those days an that is the case with the current squad --something which can't be said about every Burnley team I have watched in tha last 66 years!

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Crikey it's hard not to look back and think the grass was always greener!

I often watch Gudmundsson and he reminds me so much of John Connelly.

I love watching David Silva because for me he is Jimmy McIlroy reincarnate!

Jimmy Adamson could play wonderfully effectively at either right half or centre half.

Brian Miller could play wonderfully effectively at either left half or centre half.

Graham Alexander was the fittest player I have ever seen in a Burnley shirt.

Robbie Blake and Glen Little both had a touch of the genius about them.

I had the luck and the pleasure to be able watch Burnley play in the late 1950's and early sixties but if I had the choice I would honestly rather watch our current team.

They do not have the sheer skill of that title winning team but they have the heart, the will, the refusal to buckle that I find totally mind blowing.

Despite many of their detractors I also believe they have the technical skill set too. One trap of Lowton's on Saturday and one turn and slip past the opposition by Gudmundsson against Southampton was really top class.

My biggest concern right now is that with City winning the Mickey Mouse Cup on Sunday, we have a better than evens chance of qualifying for the Europa League and IMHO that would be a bridge too far!

[1959_60]

I love the phrase to play "With a chuckle in your boots"

Jimmy Mac, Morgan, Coates, James etc etc did exactly that.

To a lesser extent, Blake and Little did too.

These days it doesn't seem to be allowed...which is a shame.

[oldcolner]

BT
Yes it is easy to look back, provided you have a history to look back at. Lolz
We clearly have and it seems made a significant impact on the style of football in the 60s with our innovation - our short corners was another that had an impact.
I am sure many of our players have the skills to match the oldies, what we don’t have just now is the attacking mind set of Potts who didn’t care how many we let in provided we scored more, which is much more crowd pleasing. The focus on defence has been very effective with few teams able to get more than one against us. It makes for nervy viewing especially now we don’t last the 90 minutes. Sean’s attitude to not using a sub on Saturday was that they were contained and it would probably have worked but for Ashleys pass to Madden - if only he had tried for another once we went ahead. Sometimes attacking is the best defence, but maybe we need a potent goal scorer for Sean to go that way, so it’s time to look at teams likely to do down and cherry pick the best.

[oldcolner]

I love the phrase to play "With a chuckle in your boots"

Jimmy Mac, Morgan, Coates, James etc etc did exactly that.

To a lesser extent, Blake and Little did too.

These days it doesn't seem to be allowed...which is a shame.

Yes 59 Potts used to say Go and enjoy yourselves and a lot of opponents had a similar philosophy - Spurs notably. These days it’s micro planned and analysed with GPS on the players back, action replays from every angle and statisticians checking on all your actions providing tables of how you compare.
The focus has switched from enjoyment to keeping your numbers good, so lots of sideways passes, back passes are good.
I wonder how the 59 team would have faired with such analysis?

[Supersub6]

All those fans who think that the game is better these days need to consider that in 1959/60 there were 1618 goals scored by the 22 teams participating and that averages out at 73.5 goals per team, but more to the point that is 3.52 goals per match.
Compare that with the 1064 goals scored by the 20 teams participating last season in the PL and it is 53.2 goals per team or 2.72 per match played.

The players are suppposed to be that much better these days, therefore, the question must be asked --why are there not more goals per game scored. They are playing on much better pitches with laws favouring attackers (offisde particularly) the balls are much better and yet there is almost 1 goal less per match scored throughout the season.

I did enjoy 1959/60 and those years around that time, just as I have enjoyed the last few seasons in a far different way, however, the advent of VAR and more tampering with the Laws of the Game have me quite concerned as to just where the game is going.